Drosten fears the scenario after the corona easing: "Big cause for concern" - new forecast for Easter

The “Corona Update” has been in the charts at Spotify for a long time.

Virologist Christian Drosten is currently talking about the effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines and relaxations.

• Christian Drosten assesses the corona vaccines as "totally effective".

• Nevertheless, the top virologist in Germany warns of rapid easing from February 14th.

• His colleague Hendrick Streeck brings the number of unreported cases into the conversation again.

Berlin - “The situation is much better than I thought a few days ago”: The virologist Christian Drosten was “very positively surprised” at the prospect of an increase in vaccine doses over the course of the year.

According to estimates by the Ministry of Health under Jens Spahn (CDU), the delivery quantities should increase significantly by the summer.

In the current episode of the “Coronavirus Update” podcast (NDR), however, Drosten also refers to the imponderables and challenges of vaccination on a broad basis.

Regarding the effectiveness of the various preparations, the Charité scientist explained that they are all “totally effective” against severe courses.

Germany: Streeck confirms Drosten in the Corona scenario: "Dark figures that scratch such values"

However, Drosten limited: Even if the vaccinations reduce mortality, reducing the number of cases remains essential for him.

Where and how quickly you loosen up, you have to check carefully.

There is "a big cause for concern".

Drosten spoke of a scenario in which the more than 23 million people in the 40- to 60-year-olds group of more than 23 million people could develop serious illnesses - if it was relaxed too early and these people were not yet sufficiently protected by vaccinations.

Among other things, this could lead to an overload of the health system and high levels of sick leave in companies.

Drosten's colleague Hendrik Streeck was meanwhile asked by the dpa what he thought of a number that Drosten had once brought into play: In the event of premature relaxation, in the worst case 100,000 new corona infections per day.

"I think it is not so unlikely that we already had unreported numbers that scratched such values," replies the director of the Institute for Virology at the University Hospital Bonn.

What does the corona vaccination mean for the Easter period?

Drosten with a forecast for Germany

"If one assumes that around two percent of those infected need intensive medical treatment, then with 5000 occupied intensive care beds, there will be a corresponding number of new infections that must have existed before," explained the 43-year-old, who was responsible for the spread of Sars -CoV-2 in the hotspot in the Heinsberg district.

On February 10, Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and the country leaders want to discuss the duration of the lockdown.

Drosten is skeptical: "We cannot expect much civil protection through the vaccination for the time until Easter," said Tuesday in the podcast.

(frs / dpa)

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