Politicians are worried about the spreading delta variant of Corona.
The first scientists give the all-clear: Delta is more contagious, but not more dangerous.
Others are more careful.
Munich - Professor Clemens Wendtner belongs more to the caution team. One shouldn't repeat the mistake made last summer and underestimate the "enemy", says the chief physician of the Munich Clinic Schwabing. “You can see how quickly large vaccination campaigns like those in Great Britain and Israel can sometimes come to nothing.” A person infected with the Delta variant could infect an average of six other people, while with the original Wuhan variant it was only three people. "Fast and complete vaccination is the order of the day, because the coronavirus * does not have a summer break," warns Wendtner. "If this does not succeed, a situation like in autumn 2020 may arise again due to the large number of infected people due to the higher infection rate." Figures from Great Britain are not yet valid enough.
Infectiologist Kremser: Careful all-clear for Delta variant
How to deal with the delta variant?
The experts are still discussing.
But the number of those who cautiously give the all-clear is growing.
The renowned infectiologist and tropical medicine professor Peter G. Kremsner from the University of Tübingen, for example.
It currently does not look as if the Delta variant is more disease-causing or deadly.
To what extent the vaccinations protect still has to be investigated.
"However, indirect analyzes already show that mRNA vaccines such as Biontech * or Moderna * protect well." Even if hard epidemiological data are still pending, it looks as if "the delta variant is not a problem for these vaccines".
In addition, Kremsner is optimistic that further vaccines that are also effective against Delta will soon be available.
“A total of 19 Covid-19 vaccines have already been approved worldwide, four of them in the EU so far.
The three vaccines from Biontech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson * are very good, and soon there will be more that are similarly effective. ”Only the vaccine from Astrazeneca * would Kremsner no longer recommend:“ Astrazeneca is ultimately too poorly effective, and the tolerability is also not the best, ”says the infectiologist who heads the approval study of the vaccine candidate from the company Curevac *.
This had disappointed with the news of only 48 percent effectiveness.
According to the EMA, a full vaccination also helps against the Delta variant (video)
Vaccine manufacturers can probably quickly make adjustments against the delta variant
Kremsner is cautious about the future of the Curevac vaccine.
“The vaccine can be improved.
The Curevac vaccine still has a lot of potential.
But don't fool yourself: At the moment, the effectiveness is clearly worse than that of the other mRNA vaccines.
And the competition never sleeps either: They presented and delivered very good data with the first generation of their vaccines.
These companies can also make adjustments to variants.
We don't need all 300 vaccines that are currently in development. "
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Dr.
Christoph Spinner is an infectiologist and pandemic officer at the Klinikum rechts der Isar in Munich.
© Astrid Schmidhuber
With a view to Delta, the Munich corona expert private lecturer Dr. Christoph Spinner Mut: It is four to six times more contagious and therefore particularly dangerous for those who have not been vaccinated. However, it is not yet clear whether the variant also leads to more severe disease courses, says the pandemic officer at the university hospital on the right of the Isar. “The good news is that the vaccines approved in Europe from Biontech, Astrazeneca and Johnson & Johnson as well as probably Moderna offer good protection against the Delta variant.”
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