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Drosten mentions concerns about the Indian Corona mutant - especially for those who have been vaccinated for the first time

2021-05-27T22:29:24.437Z


In the NDR podcast, virologist Christian Drosten speaks about the current corona situation in Germany. In addition to the vaccination progress, the Indian virus mutation is in focus.


In the NDR podcast, virologist Christian Drosten speaks about the current corona situation in Germany.

In addition to the vaccination progress, the Indian virus mutation is in focus.

Berlin / Munich - vaccinations, corona mutations, number of cases under the influence of several holidays: the corona virus is still ubiquitous.

How is the current corona situation in Germany to be assessed?

In the NDR podcast, the virologist Christian Drosten once again answered questions, was optimistic and named a strategy against the Indian virus variant B.1.617.

Coronavirus in Germany: number of cases "weak in informative value"

Christian Drosten considers the infection rate in this country and the influence of the loosening to be difficult to assess.

The numbers are "weak in their informative value".

The background is the still uncertain data situation after the Whitsun holidays, which the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) also pointed out.

"I think you just have to wait a bit," says the virologist.

So far, however, he has not had the impression that all the dams are breaking with the opening steps.

“I'm not worried about that at the moment.” For example, outdoor catering is “not such a big problem” - especially since negative test results are a prerequisite for this in many places.

Corona vaccination progress in Germany: "It's already going very quickly with us"

In addition, one should not forget the vaccination quota in Germany, he emphasized.

"You might just have to say that now - after all the initial difficulties - Germany is really right at the front in a European comparison," said Drosten.

According to the RKI dashboard, 40.4 percent of the total population (around 33.6 million people) have been vaccinated at least once.

14.3 percent (around 11.9 million people) received full vaccination protection

(data as of May 25)

.

"It's already going very quickly for us," the virologist continues.

The vaccine development will lead to a decreasing severity of the disease, so that sometime over the summer one will have to “take a different view of the threat situation”.

Germany is still "in a transition process".

Drosten's advice regarding the Indian Corona mutant: "Vaccinate as soon as possible"

However, the corona variant B.1.617 discovered in India is also causing concern in Germany.

The mutant is spreading quickly, especially in Great Britain.

Regarding the spread, Drosten said that there are still many imponderables.

It is feared that the transferability will be twice as high.

In the

NDR podcast

, however, the virologist referred to a number of potentially distorting factors. The current situation in Great Britain is different from the end of 2020, when the British mutant B.1.1.7 emerged. At that time the winter wave built up. In contrast, the third virus wave has now been slowed down sharply and many people are vaccinated. B.1.617 was also massively registered from India - and unfortunately it is known that the progress of vaccination is socially uneven.

At the same time, the protective effect of the first vaccination dose from the manufacturers Astrazeneca and Biontech against B.1.617 should be reduced.

That would be shown by data from Great Britain.

It is only around 33 percent, while the first vaccination for the British mutation B.1.17 has a protective effect of 50 percent.

This is "a bit stupid", especially in the transition phase from the first to the second vaccination.

Accordingly, the vaccination has to be "completed quickly" with regard to the Indian variant.

“You just have to get vaccinated as quickly as possible.

That is the best thing you can do ”, so Drosten's conclusion.

Then the protective effect of the vaccinations against B.1.617 is as high as against the British variant.

In Great Britain the aim was to have as many first vaccinations as possible.

On Tuesday, the virologist Drosten published a corona study in the specialist magazine "Science".

He thus substantiated a thesis on the infectiousness of children that had already caused a stir in 2020.

(mbr / dpa)

List of rubric lists: © Michael Kappeler / dpa

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2021-05-27

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