Virologist names condition for fourth vaccination

Created: 01/17/2022 13:44

By: Tobias Utz

Virologist Ulf Dittmer spoke about the second booster vaccination in a videocast.

(Archive photo) © Bernd Thissen/dpa

Will the second booster vaccination come in spring or summer?

For a virologist, this is linked to one crucial condition.

Frankfurt – People in Germany are currently being asked to get boosters.

According to data from the Federal Ministry of Health, 36.8 million citizens have responded to this call, which corresponds to 44.2 percent of the population.

The health ministers of the federal states are already debating the fourth corona vaccination*.

A virologist apparently thinks little of this: Ulf Dittmer, chief virologist at the University Hospital Essen.

In his opinion, a second booster vaccination only makes sense if there are "corona vaccines* adapted to Omicron".

He said that in the videocast of "19 – the boss visit".

Fourth corona vaccination?

Virologist names crucial condition

The manufacturers Biontech/Pfizer* and Moderna* are already researching such corona vaccines.

According to the latest information from the companies, vaccines could be on the market as early as March.

However, this would probably require accelerated examination procedures.

Vaccination with the Omikron vaccines could primarily protect risk groups in the coming winter, according to Dittmer in an interview.

Ulf Dittmer, virologist at the University Hospital Essen.

© Bernd Thissen/dpa

The advantage of Omikron, however, is that the variant probably leads to less severe Covid 19 courses, the virologist emphasized. This was also recently confirmed by virologist Christian Drosten from the Charité Berlin.* According to Dittmer, this is mainly due to the fact that the omicron viruses often settle deep in the lungs. That was different with the Delta variant: "Delta was an absolutely deadly virus," emphasized Dittmer. The vaccinations last year were responsible for the fact that there were no "mountains of corpses" in Germany.

However, the omicron mutation* is considered to be significantly more infectious compared to other corona variants.

"All clear" can therefore not be given at the moment, according to the researcher.

You have to expect “that a lot of people will get infected”.

Even those who have been boosted are not 100% protected against the Omicron variant.

“The booster continues to provide excellent protection against any kind of Covid-19 disease.

But it only protects Omikron from the infection itself to a very limited extent, ”said the chief virologist at the Essen University Hospital.

According to a new study, a booster combination of the vaccines protects particularly well.* (tu)