Omicron?

Expert makes relentless analysis of vaccine development - "It will be over"

Created: 12/16/2021, 05:49 PM

By: Patrick Mayer

In focus: the omicron variant of the coronavirus.

© IMAGO / Christian Ohde

An Austrian virologist warns of vaccine research on the omicron variant of the coronavirus.

But the scientist also has good news.

Munich / New York - How quickly will the vaccines against the Omikron variant of the coronavirus be modified?

And how effective are the existing vaccines against the mutation?

An Austrian virologist who lives and works in the USA has now commented on this.

He had bad news and good news at the same time.

We are talking about Florian Krammer von

the 

in New York.

Since 2010 he has been researching flu vaccines and vaccines against Ebola viruses.

Corona pandemic in Austria: virologist warns of impending omicron wave

The native of Styria is also in demand in the coronavirus pandemic.

“I think the pause for breath is over relatively quickly,” said Krammer in the program “ZiB2” on ORF2 about the effects of the lockdown in his home country Austria: “The Omikron wave will roll towards us, also in Austria.

Maybe a little delayed because we now had a lockdown.

But basically I'm pretty sure that it will come very quickly. "

In the video: Corona vaccinations - new daily record in Germany

Krammer was addressed in the program that 16,000 new infections per day would be feared in the Alpine republic from the beginning of January. “Yes, I think that's unfortunately realistic. It depends on the measures you take. But in some countries you see doubling numbers of 1.8 to 2.2 days, "said the scientist:" The virus is spreading a lot faster than Delta and will probably displace Delta in a few days in some countries. Or at least be more widespread than Delta. "

To put it into perspective: The Alpine republic has around 8.9 million inhabitants, while Germany has around 83.1 million.

In order to have a comparison, one would have to multiply the Austrian infection numbers - to put it simply - by ten or at least by nine.

That would be around 140,000 to 160,000 infections within 24 hours in the German ratio, converted to the number of inhabitants.

This is an indication of the expected Austrian infection rate between Vienna, Salzburg, Innsbruck and Graz at the turn of the year.

Corona pandemic in Austria: high numbers of infections due to the Omikron variant expected

“We don't know where the maximum is.

We only see that there is a very strong increase, ”explained Krammer in a video interview with the Austrian broadcaster:“ From a global perspective, Omikron does not look particularly good.

If you take action, you might be able to slow down the wave a little.

But that still comes up to us. "

Virologist and corona expert: Florian Krammer from New York.

© Screenshot ORF2

The next question to the virologist was: How much do booster vaccinations help against severe courses caused by the Omikron variant?

“We have the first data from Great Britain.

They are still very low, but say: If you have received AstraZeneca twice and then get a booster vaccination, there is then a protection of 70 to 75 percent against symptomatic diseases.

That's a pretty good protection, ”replied the scientist.

Omicron-Specific Vaccines: Virologist - Coming Too Late for Fourth Corona Wave

The question is: “How long will it last after the booster? Will this go down again? This is the protection against symptomatic infections. It is not yet known how good the protection against serious infections will be. We don't have the data for that yet, ”he said. The assumption is, however, "that there will be good protection against severe courses in all people who have basic immunity".

What, in his opinion, is now important?

"One should advise the population that whoever has not yet been vaccinated a third time should get vaccinated," said Krammer at ORF2: "And you should also get those who have not yet been vaccinated to vaccinate The Austrian, however, did not believe that Omikron-specific corona vaccines would come in time to break the fourth wave in the pandemic.

Krammer: “If you look at the Omikron growth data, I believe that the main part of the Omikron wave will be over before we get an Omikron-specific vaccination.

Unfortunately. "