Corona situation in Germany: Lauterbach dares a bitter four-year forecast – "you have to be realistic"

Health Minister Karl Lauterbach has a clear opinion on vaccination – and there is still no end to the pandemic in sight. The news ticker.

Update from December 11th, 1:08 p.m.: How dangerous is the new Omikron variant for children *? Karl Lauterbach considers the mutation to be more dangerous for children than previous variants. “According to everything we know so far, the new Omikron variant affects children much more severely * than the previous variants,” said the health minister of the Spiegel. However, the virologists Klaus Stöhr and Hendrik Streeck warn against hasty conclusions and speculations about the new Corona variant Omikron.

“There are new dates every hour and we would all do well not to speculate and even paint the devil on the wall. We know for sure that Omikron has more mutations, especially in the spike, than Delta – but not yet what exactly this means. There are initial reports from the laboratories showing that the immune responses that are made after the vaccinations work less well. But there are also reports that the Omikron infections are milder, ”explains Streeck in an exclusive Merkur interview *.

Faster booster vaccination against the Omicron variant

Update from December 11th, 9.45 a.m.: The long faltering corona vaccination campaign is gradually picking up pace, but it is already becoming apparent that the current booster vaccinations will not be the last either. “We expect that a fourth vaccination will be necessary in summer, at the latest in autumn,” said General Practitioner Association boss Ulrich Weigeldt of the “Bild” newspaper (Saturday). He hoped that the fourth corona vaccination could then be administered “in conjunction with the flu vaccination”, “to make protection against corona a routine”. This could also be necessary because of the new virus variant Omikron, which is possibly even more contagious than the currently dominant, highly infectious Delta variant.

A faster booster vaccination could influence the spread of both the Delta and the Omikron variant, “the experience from Israel shows that very impressively,” said the chairman of the German Society for Infectious Diseases Bernd Salzberger to the newspapers of the Funke media group. The Green health politician Janosch Dahmen, who is himself a doctor, told the Düsseldorf “Rheinische Post”: “We now have to get into the mode of a forward-looking pandemic policy. We won’t feel the consequences of Omikron tomorrow, but we have to arm ourselves against it today. Boosting is effective and crucial, as current data shows. We will also have to bring the booster vaccinations forward. “

According to the figures published by the Robert Koch Institute * (RKI) on Friday, more than 950,000 booster vaccinations were given the day before, the second highest value so far. In addition, there were a good 77,000 first and just as many second vaccinations. Overall, with 1.1 million vaccinations, it was the second most since the early summer. This means that a good 17 million people currently have full and refreshed vaccination protection. With 83 million inhabitants, that’s around 20 percent.

Karl Lauterbach on the Corona situation in Germany: “Vaccination is not a private matter”

First report: Berlin – The new Health Minister Karl Lauterbach has commented on why a vaccination is relevant for society as a whole. “Vaccination is not a private matter,” the SPD politician clarified in an interview with Bild. He cited the reason that unvaccinated, seriously ill people would put a strain on the public health system.

Especially in view of the new type of omicron variant, Lauterbach emphasized the protection provided by vaccinations and boosters. “We know that Omikron is significantly more contagious. We know that Omikron also affects those who have already been infected – including those who have already been infected twice. We still know very little about the severity of the disease, ”he said about the still vague data situation, from which Sandra Ciesek has meanwhile drawn good and bad news.

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The health minister does not expect the virus to go away during his term as minister. “We will not be able to completely defeat Corona over the foreseeable period – four years. You have to be realistic, ”said Lauterbach in an interview.

Corona situation in Germany: Lauterbach dares long-term forecast

“The variants often arise in people who have immunodeficiency, who have autoimmune diseases, who have cancer. These variants continue for the time being, you have to realistically see it that way ”, according to Lauterbach’s forecast.

In the current Corona situation in Germany, there does not seem to be any all-clear. Christian Drosten spoke of a serious problem in January and warned against the Omikron variant.

The current corona situation in numbers:

Stephan Weil (CDU), Prime Minister in Lower Saxony, has announced a Christmas break for his state in view of the developments. (lb) * Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA

List of rubric lists: © Michael Kappeler / dpa