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In Hamburg, people are queuing to get vaccinated against the corona virus
Photo: Daniel Reinhardt / dpa
The virologist Christian Drosten sees a change from the pandemic to an endemic in the corona crisis.
According to him, some countries could already manage to enter the endemic phase this autumn and winter.
"Great Britain is one of them, Germany is not the case today," says Drosten of the weekly newspaper "Die Zeit".
An endemic describes the condition in which a pathogen circulates continuously and local outbreaks of disease occur again and again, such as with the flu.
This creates a kind of balance between people who are still well protected by immunity and those who have lost this immunity.
Those who get infected again are protected for a while, while others are already vulnerable again.
Too large an immunity gap in Germany
In Germany, far fewer people were infected with the virus than in Great Britain, Drosten justifies his assessment.
In addition, the vaccination rate in this country is significantly lower.
This results in an immunity gap that is too big to go into winter without worries.
Drosten expects a first "post-infection" in Great Britain this winter.
This is what he calls the infection with the virus after vaccination.
In Germany this is still a long way off.
The post-infection is a necessary step towards endemic.
"I assume that Sars-CoV-2 will behave like the other endemic corona viruses in the long term," Christian Drosten continued.
These have gradually weakened and now only cause mild colds in the vast majority of cases.
But he cannot be sure that it will turn out that way, "just as little as all other scientists."
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