The top virologist Hendrik Streeck has been one of the leading experts since the beginning of the corona pandemic.
The head virologist at the Bonn University Hospital speaks a bitter truth.
Professor Dr.
Hendrik Streeck
(43) is one of Germany's best-known virologists.
His word carries weight with leading politicians and he is a regular guest on TV talk shows.
In a big interview with
Münchner Merkur
*, Streeck speaks, among other things, about the lessons we should learn from the Corona crisis.
Munich -
Top virologist
Hendrik Streeck
basically considers the
coming
hard lockdown
in Germany
to be the
"right way"
- but warns in an interview with
Münchner Merkur:
"Threats and bans that are detached from a long-term strategy are not enough." "
Permanently explain, explain and justify
why it is so important to follow the recommendations".
It is possible that not every citizen has recognized the seriousness of the situation in the current pandemic.
Corona: Virologist Streeck in an exclusive interview - "The previous protection is not enough"
That the
partial lockdown of November
does not work as desired, could partly due to a high According to Streeck
unreported cases
are, and secondly to the fact that
"in the dark groping"
at which locations are actually infect the most people.
In any case, the closure of restaurants and bars merely slowed down the infection dynamics, and in the critics' argument that the
gastro shutdown in
particular
could have driven people into private meetings, there is
“a grain of truth”
, believes Streeck.
“It is probably just as safe to meet with masks outside - for example at a
Christmas market
with a hygiene concept - than inside in
private apartments
without masks and without a
hygiene concept,
” Streeck explained to
Münchner Merkur
.
However, there is currently insufficient data on the likelihood of infection in places with a functioning hygiene concept: "We simply failed to examine."
Streeck's most important recommendation to reduce the number of victims: “Protect risk groups better at last.” Figures from the
Robert Koch Institute (RKI) * show
that the measures slowed down the infection rate among the younger ones, but not among the elderly.
More than half of all Covid 19 deaths
in Germany are currently recorded in old people's and nursing homes - and
"the previous protection is not enough"
.
Streeck on corona lockdown in Germany: "We must not isolate you"
“We mustn't isolate them,”
warns Streeck with regard to the elderly.
On the other hand, nurses and visitors would have to
do
corona tests *
more frequently
and consistently
wear
FFP2 protective masks
.
"You could also build locks in front of the old people's homes and use rapid tests to ensure that practically nobody with the virus can enter the building," says Streeck.
In his opinion, a hard lockdown in the summer when the number of cases was low would have been
“very efficient”
in order to keep the numbers “to a minimum” and to be able to trace every contact person again.
It is definitely not easy to
communicate
something like this to people
- but that is the point: “It's about conveying better why certain measures are useful.”
You can find the
complete
Münchner-Merkur
interview with Streeck here.
(frs)
* Merkur.de is part of the Ippen-Digital editorial network.