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An undertaker in protective suits discards empty coffins in Santiago, Chile
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Esteban Felix / dpa
Two months ago, the Chilean health expert Soledad Martínez was optimistic about the future: the world admired Chile, the country vaccinated faster than any other.
Even then, Martínez warned against excessive recklessness.
Your worst fears should come true: vaccination progress did not protect Chile.
Although around 60 percent of the population are now simply and more than 40 percent fully vaccinated, the number of infections continues to rise.
This is the third conversation with Martínez, who now wants to warn other countries not to make the same mistakes.
SPIEGEL:
Ms. Martínez, Chile celebrated itself as the world vaccination champion in March.
How is the corona situation in the country right now?
Martínez:
The situation is catastrophic.
The virus circulation out there is extremely high.
The intensive care units in the hospitals are completely overloaded.
The health system has collapsed, one can say.
People are now also admitted to outpatient facilities or treated at home.
However, if you do need to be intubated, it cannot be done there.
However, there are no beds available in the intensive care units.
We have high death rates and younger people are dying.
It is particularly terrible that, unfortunately, pregnant women and their unborn babies also die or have to be intubated - with an uncertain outcome.
These fates are extremely depressing.
SPIEGEL:
Is the more infectious and possibly more deadly P1 variant from Brazil responsible for this?
Martínez:
We don't know how widespread P1 is in our country.
We don't have any data on this.
However, the fact that younger people and pregnant women are affected suggests that they may have become infected with P1.
SPIEGEL:
In the meantime, 20-year-olds are being vaccinated in Chile. How do these reports fit in with the impressive rate of vaccination?
Martínez:
We have known for a long time that the vaccine from the Chinese manufacturer Sinovac used in this country provides good protection against severe Covid disease, but less effective protection against infection with the virus. That means the virus can also be passed on. Experts speak of a "leaky vaccine". If measures of social distancing are then thrown overboard, as happened here, then the virus can spread widely - and particularly affects the unvaccinated. We health scientists warned against this, but unfortunately we were not listened to. To me it feels like a slow-motion train wreck that I have to watch. That could have been prevented.
SPIEGEL:
Since last weekend, there has been another lockdown in the capital, Santiago de Chile.
Why did you wait so long?
Martínez:
Politicians celebrated the successful vaccination campaign, a catastrophic crisis communication.
The risks were concealed.
Only recently, all people who had been vaccinated twice received so-called mobility passes.
You don't have to stick to lockdown now either.
But it is impossible to check everyone who moves outside.
The people are tired.
The lockdown is therefore not very effective.
SPIEGEL:
What does the problem with the "leaky vaccination" mean for the Latin American continent and the world?
Martínez:
Many countries here mainly use the Chinese vaccine, for example Brazil.
The vaccination protects the individual, we are grateful for that.
But we did the math: Achieving herd immunity for a population with Sinovac is probably impossible.
It is not enough even if everyone is vaccinated.
Theoretically, one would have to find out who did not produce enough antibodies and then give them another vaccine.
All of this is impractical.
That means: We will have to struggle with this virus on this continent for years to come.
I hope that in three years we will be where Australia or New Zealand are today, so that individual cases can be identified early and chains of infection can be tracked.
SPIEGEL:
What does that mean for fighting global pandemics?
Martínez:
First of all, the world has to admit that not all vaccinations are the same.
There are classes there too.
The vector vaccines and mRNA technology are better at preventing infection, which makes a big difference.
The latter are also particularly easy to adapt to new variants.
The whole world therefore needs mRNA technology.
It should be made available to everyone.
For me, this also includes the suspension of patents.
All production hurdles would have to be removed.
The world benefits from this, because fighting pandemics works globally.
We have too little vaccine worldwide - and the situation is far more difficult than the numbers suggest, when you consider the problem with the "leaking vaccine".
SPIEGEL:
What can other countries learn from Chile?
Martínez:
We are really a negative example.
You shouldn't do it like Chile.
So I can only warn: No country in the world should now pretend that it is all over and suspend measures such as wearing a mask.
That's a really bad idea.
Due to the constantly emerging new variants, against which the vaccinations are sometimes less effective, herd immunity is currently only understood to be temporary and locally limited.
It is unclear whether the US or Europe can even reach them.
The example of Great Britain, where the Indian Delta variant is spreading, does not make me particularly confident either.
SPIEGEL:
People want to return to normal.
Many expect that with the vaccination they will get their old life back.
Martínez:
That is very understandable.
Nevertheless, we have to communicate clearly: vaccinations alone are not the solution.
There is this model of Swiss cheese with the many holes.
Vaccinations are a layer of cheese, they cover some holes.
But in order to plug as many loopholes as possible for virus transmission, other measures of social distancing, quarantine, tracking of infection chains and global monitoring of new mutants are required.
Above all, in the future we must be able to react very quickly if a source of infection arises somewhere or a new variant emerges.
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