Because of the low vaccination rate, Germany is in a bad position in the Corona crisis, says Christian Drosten. The virologist demands contact restrictions.
Berlin – The well-known virologist Christian Drosten has spoken out in favor of stricter regulations in order to get the current Corona situation under control. “From a scientific point of view, contact restrictions are urgently required in order to suppress the really alarming high incidence,” said the head of virology at the Berlin Charité to the news magazine Spiegel.
The individual responsibility of the people is particularly important. Responsible action “has already bailed us out in the previous waves,” said Christian Drosten. “Everyone should check whether you can consciously restrict your own contacts again for a few weeks.”
Christian Drosten warns of corona overload in hospitals
In addition, the vaccination gaps urgently need to be closed and the immune protection renewed through booster vaccinations, recommended Drosten. He referred to countries with a higher vaccination rate, where the corona pandemic could be left behind for good in the spring.
In Germany, the end of the pandemic is “still miles away” due to the vaccination gap and the sluggish booster campaign. As soon as the delta variant of the coronavirus strikes, the hospitals are quickly overloaded, so Drosten’s fear.
According to Christian Drosten, things look different in countries with a high corona vaccination rate. There “the pandemic should be left behind for good in the spring”. In Spain, more than 80 percent of the population is fully vaccinated, in Portugal around 88 percent. For comparison: According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the vaccination rate in Germany is just over 67 percent (as of November 12, 2021). It must be noted here that there are still uncertainties about the German vaccination quota.
Germany in the top group of countries with the most new corona infections
A look at the figures shows that the low vaccination rate has drastic consequences: For a few days, Germany has been among the top group of countries with the most new corona infections.
On Thursday (November 11th, 2021), the Federal Republic of Germany was in second place behind the USA, where according to the renowned Johns Hopkins University 63,245 new infections with the corona virus were reported. The UK had the third highest number of new infections reported with 43,511 cases. There were 39,584 new infections in Russia.
Germany must “maneuver slowly and carefully into the endemic phase, without our health system collapsing due to excessive demands and deaths like in Great Britain,” explained Drosten. There is only one way to do this: You now have to “react as quickly as possible”.
Christian Drosten expects Corona winter with “shutdown measures”
Drosten had already said in his Corona podcast last Tuesday (November 9th, 2021) that he expected a very stressful winter “with new, let’s just say: shutdown measures”. 3G or even 2G were probably not enough to reduce the number of infections enough in view of the delta variant. However, he also restricted the fact that it could be legally difficult to enforce broad general contact measures.
If there is no progress in vaccination, the Federal Republic of Germany must prepare for at least 100,000 more corona deaths “before the fairway calms down,” said Drosten at the time. That is a conservative estimate. Drosten derives the number from comparative considerations with Great Britain. (tvd / dpa)
