Augsburg clinic boss hopeful: "Omikron could end the pandemic"
Created: 12/31/2021, 06:23 AM
From: Verena Möckl
The head of the Augsburg University Hospital, Michael Beyer, hopes that the pandemic will enter an endemic phase in view of the Omikron wave.
© Klaus Rainer Krieger via www.imago-images.de
Could the pandemic be over anytime soon?
The Augsburg clinic boss, Michael Beyer, thinks this is possible because of Omikron.
For the intensive care units, a fifth wave would still have serious consequences.
Augsburg - The Coronavirus variant Omikron is also on the advance in Germany.
More and more people are infected with the Corona mutant.
Politicians and experts fear a fifth corona wave, which could even lead to a "mass quarantine".
But new study results give reason for hope.
They found that the risk of hospitalization with Omikron is lower compared to the Delta variant.
The new Omikron findings trigger optimism at virologist Christian Drosten.
Augsburg university chief physician on Omikron: "That could end the pandemic"
There is also reason for hope for the chief physician of the Augsburg University Clinic, Michael Beyer.
“I hope that an overall milder course will come true,” Beyer said in an interview with the BR.
So far, there have been two Omikron cases in his clinic.
However, both were discovered by chance during routine tests and
in principle have been symptom-free.
The doctor sees the new virus variant as a positive sign of a possible next step in the pandemic: the endemic phase.
"That could end the pandemic," said Beyer.
Endemic phase
When a disease is in an endemic stage, it is still there.
However, only certain groups of people become infected in certain regions at certain times of the year, such as the flu.
In the endemic phase, the majority of the population has already built up protection against the viruses - either through infection or vaccination.
So there are usually milder courses, which means that the health system is less stressed.
Critical situation in hospitals in view of Omikron: Great stress in intensive care units
The Augsburg chief physician nevertheless warns of a fifth corona wave.
In the intensive care units, the nurses and doctors reach their limits.
A rapid and large number of infections can lead to a critical situation in hospitals.
Therefore, the decline in intensive care patients over the Christmas holidays at the Augsburg University Hospital was not used to catch up on postponed operations.
Rather, the intensive care nurses should be given time to recover in view of the impending Omikron wave, Beyer explained to the BR.
"When you talk to people, tears really flow."
Nurses in protective clothing in the Covid-19 intensive care unit of a clinic.
(Symbol picture) © Robert Michael / dpa-Zentralbild / dpa
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Michael Beyer is not the only one who thinks Omikron can end the pandemic.
The Berlin epidemiologist Timo Ulrichs from the Akkon University has dealt with this mind game.
"It could be so far next year that the coronavirus in the form of the omicron variant will lose its pandemic potential," explains the epidemiologist in an interview with the news
platform Watson
.
Video: Experts hope for an endemic phase in the corona pandemic through Omikron
The virologist Isabella Eckerle from the University of Geneva recently tweeted that Omikron could even become "our exit wave & the" ticket "into the endemic situation".
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