Curevac boss sees approved corona vaccines "at the end of their possibilities" - combi vaccine as a solution?

Created: 02/13/2022, 06:40

By: Christina Denk, Martina Lippl

Curevac is currently developing a new Covid vaccine - the second generation.

The boss sees the approved vaccines at the end of their potential.

(Archive image) © Martin Storz/Imago

The incidences in Germany are increasing.

Curevac boss Haas does not see a three-month booster vaccination as a solution.

Coming a combination vaccine?

The news ticker for the corona pandemic in Germany.

• Corona incidence in Germany continues to rise on Saturday - to a new high.

• Curevac boss sees the approved vaccines at the end of their possibilities

  (update from February 12, 5:53 p.m.).

• Expert Council member Christian Karagiannidis warns that the omicron subtype could extend the fourth wave

  (update from February 12, 10:50 p.m.).

• This news ticker for the Corona* pandemic in Germany is updated regularly.

Update from February 12, 10:50 p.m.:

When does the omicron wave break?

Karl Lauterbach and also Corona modeler Dirk Brockmann expect the peak in mid or late February.

Corona expert council member Christian Karagiannidis, on the other hand, cannot yet give the all-clear.

There are three uncertainties.

If many unvaccinated and older people become infected, this could increase the burden in the hospitals again.

The subtypes of omicron* also form an uncertainty.

"Possibly BA.2 will cause the wave to be extended again," said the Corona Expert Council member.

The lack of staff is also exacerbating the situation.

“Some clinics are already struggling with a lot of staff shortages because the staff is in quarantine as a contact person or is ill themselves,” he told the

In general, however, Karagiannidis is optimistic that Germany will “get through the omicron wave well”.

Corona in Germany: Criticism of Karl Lauterbach - "We shouldn't scare people anymore"

Update from February 12, 8:08 p.m .:

Karl Lauterbach had recently attracted attention with a 500 death comparison *.

He had warned against openings like in Israel.

Then you could get 400 to 500 deaths a day in Germany.

The basis for this is an RKI model with which incidences can be assumed.

Virologist Kekulé had already expressed concerns.

Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann is also skeptical about the warning.

You have to be careful with such model calculations," Buschmann told the

.

The hospital burden, for example, has developed far less dramatically than model calculations had led to fear.

"We shouldn't scare people any more than is appropriate.

Many have been in a very stressful situation for two years.

You don't have to increase the stress even more," explained Buschmann.

Curevac boss sees approved corona vaccines "at the end of their possibilities" - combi vaccine as a solution?

Update from February 12, 5:53 p.m .:

 A second vaccine from Curevac*?

The first-generation vaccine from the Tübingen company had been withdrawn from the approval process due to its comparatively low effectiveness.

Research is now being carried out on the second generation.

The first preclinical studies, animal experiments, already show a "higher antibody level" than in the first experiment.

The test phase on humans is currently beginning.

The company has big plans for the vaccine, which is being developed together with the British pharmaceutical company GSK.

"Our goal is to be able to integrate variants like Omikron very quickly," said Franz-Werner Haas, head of the biotech company Curevac, in an interview with the

.

“The next step would then be to combine the corona vaccine with a flu vaccine.

It is important that the immune protection against Covid disease lasts longer so that one vaccination per year is sufficient, as soon as possible before the flu season.”

Curevac boss sees problems with approved corona vaccines: At the "end of their possibilities"

"We see that the approved vaccines are reaching the end of their potential," Haas said of the vaccines that have already been approved.

“It cannot be that a booster vaccination should be necessary every three months.

So we need longer-lasting protection,” he pointed out.

In order to protect the vulnerable groups, this would also be necessary if the pandemic developed into an endemic.

A phased plan for easing the corona measures is to come

Update from February 12, 4:48 p.m .:

More and more countries are relaxing the measures in the pandemic or suspending the corona rules entirely.

What is the situation in Germany in this regard?

Will there be a so-called “Freedom Day”?

As several members of the government confirmed to

, the Chancellery is working on a phased plan to lift most of the Corona rules from March 19.

At this point in time, the current rules according to the Infection Protection Act would expire anyway.

According to the reports, the easing should be based on the hospitalization rate and the occupancy of the intensive care units.

Only distance rules and the obligation to wear a mask should apply for a longer period of time.

The SPD prime ministers are said to have agreed in a confidential session on Thursday evening to abolish most of the corona measures.

The CDU prime ministers, on the other hand, are more likely to be in favor of an end to the 2G rule in retail.

Update from February 12, 3:53 p.m

.: The number of Covid 19 patients in the intensive care units is increasing slightly.

Who actually ends up in the hospital because of a symptomatic corona infection?

The RKI has published data from Covid patients on age, vaccination status and disease severity.

Red alert on the Corona-Warn-App is no longer sufficient for a PCR test

Update from February 12, 3:07 p.m

.: New rules for corona tests will apply from this Saturday.

Free PCR tests are only available after a positive antigen rapid test.

A red warning message on the Corona-Warn-App is no longer sufficient for a PCR test.

Patients at risk, people in vulnerable areas (care, integration assistance, home care) and in medical areas (practices, hospitals, care, emergency services) will in future be given preference when diagnosing and evaluating the PCR tests.

The rapid antigen test is sufficient for free testing, i.e. the premature termination of isolation or quarantine.

The background to the new regulation is to avoid overloading the laboratories.

The number of corona cases is falling in the north

Update from February 12, 2:57 p.m

.: The number of cases is falling in Berlin, Bremen, Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein.

According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the number of cases is increasing again in Thuringia and Saxony.

According to the Berlin Institute, Omicron has now established itself in all federal states - including Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

RKI reports 198 dead - modelers give a fairly precise time when the omicron wave breaks

First report from February 12, 2022

Berlin – What else do the numbers say about the infection process in Germany?

Is the omicron wave peaking?

The official number of corona cases from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) has apparently reached a plateau.

It is difficult to judge whether these official figures reflect the real infection process.

The health authorities can no longer keep up with reporting the corona cases.

The PCR test capacities are tight.

However, only the cases tested via PCR are included in the statistics.

That could be a reason.

Or are actually fewer people infected.

In the past 24 hours, 209,789 positive corona tests have been reported to the RKI (previous day: 240,172).

Another 198 people in Germany died with or from Corona.

This emerges from the data of the Covid 19 dashboard of the RKI on Saturday.

According to the RKI, the incidence is 1474.3 and thus higher than ever.

Corona incidence in Germany rises to a new high

Corona case numbers in Germany: RKI reports 209,789 on Saturday (as of February 12, 2022)

Corona expert Brockmann: Omicron wave will soon reach its peak

Corona modeler Dirk Brockmann nevertheless expects that the peak of the omicron wave will soon be reached.

"The course of this omicron wave is now peaking and we expect that the maximum will then be reached in the next few days," said the physicist from Berlin's Humboldt University on Friday on Deutschlandfunk (Dlf).

According to his forecasts, the maximum was reached in mid-February.

The number of corona patients in intensive care fell sharply until the beginning of February.

Since then, the number has been increasing - albeit at a low level.

There are currently 2,375 Covid patients in the intensive care units in Germany.

1,163 of them have to be artificially ventilated.

This emerges from the data of the DIVI intensive care register on Saturday (February 12).

The day before there were still 2,360 seriously ill corona patients who had to be treated in an intensive care unit.

The number of corona-infected patients who came to clinics per 100,000 inhabitants within seven days was 6.46 according to the RKI on Friday (Thursday: 6.23).

These may also include people with a positive corona test who have another main illness.

Uncertainty factor omicron subvariant BA.2

The omicron subvariant BA.2.

is an element of uncertainty.

This variant of the coronavirus is even more contagious than the currently dominant omicron variant BA.1.

The proportion of the omicron subvariant BA.2 is still small in this country.

It was 8.1 percent at the end of January, as can be read in the current RKI weekly report (February 10).

"In terms of clinical characteristics, there is currently no evidence that BA.2 infections differ from BA.1 infections," the report states.

In the middle of the debate about possible corona loosening, experts have recently repeatedly pointed out the new BA.2 subtype, which has already spread widely in countries such as Denmark.

This is therefore also possible in Germany and, according to many, could ensure that the omicron wave lasts longer.