Virologist Christian Drosten from the Berlin Charité is one of the leading corona experts.
In his opinion, Omikron could now be the first "immune escape mutant".
Berlin - For the fourth wave in Germany there is now also the new virus mutation called Omikron. The assessment of the Berlin virologist Christian Drosten: "I'm pretty worried at the moment." That said the Charité expert on Sunday evening in the ZDF "heute journal". You don't know too much about the new variant. Reports of mild courses did not yet have a lot of substance in view of only a good 1000 cases. Here you have to wait for the clinical course.
It is also not yet possible to say how the variant behaves in this country, where many people have been vaccinated.
“Nobody can say at the moment what is in store for us.
The only thing you can really say for sure is: it's better to be vaccinated.
It's even better when you're boosted, ”said Drosten.
The available vaccines would probably protect against a serious course of the disease.
There are already suspected cases of Omikron in Germany.
“But it feels different than the first information about the alpha and delta variants.
That's why I think we should take it seriously now, "quotes
Welt
Drosten.
Corona mutation Omikron: Drosten fears the first real escape variant
You can see that Omikron often appears among young people in South Africa and also affects people who have already been infected with the corona pandemic.
He is worried that the first real “immune escape mutant” (or escape variant) is in front of him.
Drosten also spoke of a "somewhat imponderable situation" with a view to 2G or 3G rules in Germany.
You have no experience with it in a winter wave.
Hardly anyone can model the situation.
Drosten advised politicians to pay close attention to the stricter rules in the hotspots of Saxony, Bavaria and Austria.
Here you can slowly see the first effects.
Drosten with good news for Corona hotspot Bavaria?
R-value decreasing
Drosten referred, for example, to a declining R-value in Bavaria towards 1. The R-value indicates how many people an infected person infects on average - and thus how quickly a virus spreads.
But you have to get to 0.7 in order to foreseeably reduce the number of cases so that it leads to relaxation in intensive care units.
Drosten also rated the positive news that the proportion of infected people who have to be ventilated is declining.
This shows that booster vaccinations are slowly taking effect.
But the process is slow.
But people would continue to come to the intensive care unit.
“And that's terrible,” said Drosten.
(dpa / frs)