"The terror of the pandemic is over": Virologist with hopeful words about Corona
Created: 01/10/2022, 19:12
By: Nadja Zinsmeister
The virologist Ulrike Protzer.
© Sven Hoppe/dpa
Experts are counting on rising corona numbers in autumn.
But are we still in a pandemic?
A virologist provides information.
Munich – The corona numbers in Germany are currently increasing.
This is shown, among other things, by the Oktoberfest in Munich, which, as expected by experts, triggered a wave.
But not only in Munich, but in all of Bavaria and other federal states, the autumn wave seems to be on the way.
The question is currently in the room: Are we still living in a pandemic or is Corona slowly developing into a seasonal virus wave like the winter flu?
Deutschlandfunk
wanted to answer this question
in an interview with the virologist Ulrike Protzer.
The conversation initially also dealt with other corona topics such as the fourth vaccination.
The new vaccines were recently approved in Germany, and Stiko recommends a fourth vaccination for people over the age of 60 or with an increased risk of a severe course of the corona virus.
Video: "The beginning of an autumn and winter wave" - Lauterbach presents a 4-point plan
Virologist evaluates Stiko recommendation for the fourth vaccination
Protzer rates this recommendation as very positive.
According to the virologist, the new vaccines are therefore well suited as a booster, i.e. as a third vaccination or fourth in risk patients: "It makes a lot of sense if you can use it to simply broaden the immune response you have a little bit." An exception is made it represents when someone has only recently been infected with Corona.
Then a booster vaccination is not necessary.
"These are those famous six months that you should wait to give the immune system time to mature," she continues.
For under 60-year-olds, there is currently a lack of sufficient data that can sufficiently underline a fourth vaccination recommendation.
There is a "large population-based study in America that shows a positive effect from the age of 50".
However, these data are not entirely comparable, as a larger proportion of the population in the USA is overweight.
In this case, one would have to wait in Germany for more specific data.
Vaccination is an important means of fighting the pandemic - is the horror over now?
All in all, the virologist takes the wind out of the sails of critics who claim that vaccination is useless: “If you look at the death rate, at the beginning of the pandemic we had a rate of four percent.
It has now fallen to 0.1 percent due to the high proportion of people who have been vaccinated three times.” The only disadvantage: the vaccine was developed as a Covid-19 vaccine and is not a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine.
This means that although it is suitable for preventing the disease, it is "only conditionally" suitable for protection against pure infection.
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But will Corona soon join the ranks of winter colds and flu?
"When it comes to respiratory diseases, you always have to make a little distinction between the so-called cold viruses, which only affect the nasal mucous membranes, and those that can also get into the internal organs," Protzer emphasizes.
The second is the SARS corona virus.
"But because we have built up a good immune response across the population, it has lost its great fear."
A statement like that made by US President Joe Biden that the pandemic is now over must be classified differently.
Because from a purely factual point of view that is not true, we are still living in a pandemic.
“What is meant by that is that the horror of the pandemic is over, wherever everyone worried about themselves and loved ones, is over.
And I think we're all very happy about that." (
nz
)
A doctor from Saxony issued false health certificates during the corona pandemic. The investigations led the police to six other federal states.