Is the Corona “killer variant” threatening?

According to the Lauterbach forecast, virologists are up in arms

Created: 04/19/2022, 14:23

By: Lukas Einkammerer

The nationwide corona incidence continues to fall.

Karl Lauterbach has received harsh criticism for his "killer variants" prognosis.

All news in the ticker. 

• Intensive care physicians about the Lauterbach prognosis:

  nobody knows how the corona will develop

  .

• Corona in Germany: The

  Robert Koch Institute (RKI)

  reports 22,483 new infections.

  The

  seven-day incidence is 669.9.

• The USA, Germany and other countries invite you to the second international Corona Summit on May 12th.

• Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach

  has received sharp criticism for his prognosis of a possible “killer variant” of the corona virus.

• This

  news ticker

  on the

  corona pandemic in Germany

  is updated regularly.

Update from April 19, 2:22 p.m .: Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) met with criticism from experts with his warning of a “killer variant” of the corona virus threatening in the fall.

The virologist Hendrik Streeck called such a threat very unlikely in Tuesday’s “Bild” newspaper.

The German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine (DIVI) said that nobody could “currently say for sure which variant we will get in the fall”.

Lauterbach had told the "Bild am Sonntag" that it "is quite possible that we will get a highly contagious omicron variant that is as deadly as Delta".

This would be "an absolute killer variant," he warned.

The virologist Streeck from the University of Bonn said that a variant as contagious as omicron and as dangerous as delta is "not impossible", but this is "by no means a 'killer variant'".

The high immunity rate in Germany contradicts Lauterbach's forecast.

There is a high vaccination rate in this country as well as a number of people who have recovered and “therefore a good basic protection”.

Update from April 19, 11:39 a.m

.: Vaccinated and recovered – so-called hypridgenese apparently develop particularly good protection against renewed infection with the corona virus.

Recently there has been talk of “hybrid immunity” or “super immunity”.

infectiologist

Christoph Spinner explains why people who have been vaccinated and recovered* cannot be 100 percent sure of reinfection.

Intensive care physician: Nobody knows how Corona will develop

Update from April 19, 9:31 a.m

.: Lauterbach’s warning of a possible “killer variant” in the fall continues to cause criticism among experts.

"No expert can currently say for sure which variant we will get in autumn," said Stefan Kluge, head of the intensive care clinic at the University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf, of the Funke media group.

"However, we should be prepared for the fact that another variant may appear that leads to a higher severity of the disease than is currently the case with the omicron variant."

Describing a corona variant as a “killer variant” considers intensive care physicians to be “inappropriate”

Kluge considers it “inappropriate” to describe a corona variant as a “killer variant”.

There are other infections where mortality is significantly higher than has been the case with Covid-19 so far.

This includes severe bacterial sepsis (blood poisoning).

"The omicron variant currently leads to very few severe cases of Covid-19," explained Kluge.

"We currently have a mortality rate of less than 0.1 percent at Omikron, comparable to the flu."

None: RKI missing corona numbers from seven federal states

Update from April 19, 8.36 a.m

.: There are apparently no corona numbers at the RKI from seven federal states at 8.39 a.m.: Baden-Württemberg, Brandenburg, Bremen, Lower Saxony, Saarland, Saxony and Thuringia are not reporting any new corona cases or fatalities.

Many health authorities in Germany did not provide any information over the Easter holidays.

Corona in Germany: nationwide incidence now at 670

Update from April 19,

6:18 a.m .: The number of new corona infections was 22,483 on Tuesday morning.

The nationwide seven-day incidence is 669.9.

Seven other deaths were also reported.

This emerges from the data from the Covid dashboard of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI).

However, the RKI expressly points out on its website that the values ​​are incomplete:

"When interpreting the current number of cases, it should be noted that due to the public holidays and vacations and the associated lower testing, reporting and transmission activity, there may be an increased under-recording of cases in the reporting system in the short term."

Last year, the Corona numbers had fallen rapidly after Easter.

At that time, there was talk of the so-called deceptive "Easter dent".

Only after the start of school were more tests and reports made.

1,739 Covid patients are currently being cared for in the intensive care units in Germany.

Of these, 692 must be artificially ventilated.

This emerges from the data of the DIVI intensive care register (as of April 19, 6:05 a.m.).

Update from April 18, 3:59 p.m .:

The USA, Germany and other countries invite you to a second international online summit on the corona pandemic in May.

Calling on leaders, members of civil society, nongovernmental organizations and the private sector to make new commitments to vaccinate the world, the White House said in a statement Monday.

The hosts of the summit include the USA and Germany, which holds the G7 presidency this year, as well as Belize, Indonesia and Senegal.

The summit is scheduled to take place on May 12th.

Seven-day incidence falls below 1,000 nationwide

First report:

Munich – The seven-day incidence* nationwide is also below 1,000 on Easter Monday.

As the Robert Koch Institute (RKI*) announced in the morning, 20,482 new infections with the corona virus* and eleven deaths were reported at the start of the week – which corresponds to an incidence value of 808.0.

Almost half of all new infections come from Bavaria, where the RKI was able to detect 10,008 corona diseases* and an incidence of 939.6.

The highest incidence in Bavaria and Germany is in the district of Neumarkt in der Oberpfalz with a value of 2724.3.

In addition to the current figures, there is also a warning about a possible number of unreported cases.

Because according to a note on the online dashboard of the RKI, there is generally less testing and reporting on public holidays.

The actual value should therefore be much higher.

Corona pandemic: Lauterbach is criticized for the “killer variant” forecast

After Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) spoke of a possible “killer variant” of the corona virus * on the Easter weekend, which could occur in autumn 2022, he is now receiving sharp criticism.

The virologists Hendrik Streeck and Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit from the Universities of Bonn and Hamburg commented

on the threatening prognosis in an interview with

"The term 'killer variant' is unscientific and leads to nothing but uncertainty in the population," says Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit according to 

, "According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the occurrence of a 'killer variant' in autumn is a very unlikely scenario."

Hendrik Streeck also emphasized to the newspaper that the term was chosen inappropriately: “You cannot predict the development of variants.

Therefore, rather than warning of scenarios such as 'killer variants', it would be important to prepare for autumn and winter.”

The fact that experts seem to reject Lauterbach's drastic prognosis should certainly be reassuring for many concerned.