Lauterbach clearly: "Omikron affects children much more severely than the previous variants"

The new Corona variant Omikron remains the subject of the investigations. According to Lauterbach, children are said to be infected more often, and the debate about school closings is picking up speed. The news ticker.

Update from December 11th, 9.28 a.m.: In view of the threatened spread of the Omikron variant, intensive care physicians expect an increase in Covid-19 diseases in children. “The number of infected people and thus also the children will increase dramatically,” said Florian Hoffmann, pediatric intensive care specialist and general secretary of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive and Emergency Medicine (Divi), the newspapers of the Funke media group (Saturday editions). Infectiologists advocated shorter intervals between the second and third vaccination.

At the moment it cannot be said whether Omikron also leads to more severe disease processes more often, explained Hoffmann. But even with milder courses, the high number of infected people alone could mean that, in absolute numbers, more children would have to go to hospital than now. “So in any case we have to expect that Omikron will cause more children to fall ill,” said the Divi General Secretary.

Green health politician calls for early booster vaccinations

Update from December 11th, 8:59 a.m.: In view of the spreading omicron variant of the coronavirus, the Green health politician Janosch Dahmen has called for a higher vaccination rate and early booster vaccinations. “We must now come into the mode of a forward-looking pandemic policy,” said Dahmen of the “Rheinische Post” on Saturday. “We won’t feel the consequences of Omikron tomorrow, but we have to arm ourselves against it today.”

The boosting is “effective and decisive”, as current data shows. “We will also have to bring the booster vaccinations forward,” said Dahmen. Therefore, “maximum speed when vaccinating” is now necessary. Dahmen praised the fact that the new Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD), together with the new crisis team, “immediately provided a vaccination inventory for clarity” about how much vaccine was available where and when and that “that as many people as possible were protected as quickly as possible “Could

Study on the Omicron variant: people who have been vaccinated can also become infected

Update from December 10th, 7:31 pm: The virologist Sandra Ciesek shared and rated the study results of a preprint on Twitter on Twitter. An international research team from Munich’s Ludwig Maximilians University and South African universities has examined how well a second and third vaccination protects against the Omikron variant of the coronavirus. As Merkur.de * reports, the scientist draws two conclusions from this: 1) People who have been vaccinated twice and three times can become infected with the new variant and have symptoms. 2) The study suggests that those who have been vaccinated tend to experience mild symptoms.

Update from December 10th, 2:43 pm: In Great Britain, researchers discovered a “cloak” mutation of the Omicron variant, which is invisible for PCR tests. As scientists suspect, this new form of mutation could also behave differently.

Omikron variant: Teachers’ association on possible school closings

Update from December 10th, 12:31 pm: “Not an absolute taboo” should be nationwide school closings with high corona incidences among students in the future. At least from the point of view of the German Teachers’ Association. In view of the Omikron variant, it is “dangerous to promise today that schools will never be closed again,” said association president Heinz-Peter Meidinger to the newspapers of the Funke media group . In doing so, politicians would commit a similar mistake as with the general exclusion of a compulsory vaccination.

Omikron could “unfortunately lead to the fact that we have to go back to alternating classes,” said Meidinger. Precisely because many children and adolescents still have no or insufficient vaccination protection, it must be possible “to fall back on all the tools for fighting pandemics in schools”. With the new variant of the corona virus, it will “probably be a long time before we can finally return to normal school operations,” predicted Meidinger.

The education ministers of the federal states had spoken out in favor of open schools and universities – despite the continued difficult situation in the corona pandemic. “The commitment to open educational institutions really unites us in the KMK,” said Britta Ernst (SPD), chairwoman of the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs (KMK). The new Omikron variant does not change anything about that.

Lauterbach becomes clear: “Omikron affects children much more severely than the previous variants”

Update from December 10th, 10:35 a.m.: How dangerous is the new coronavirus variant for children? “According to all that we know so far, the new Omikron variant affects children much more severely than the previous variants,” Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) told Spiegel. “The children become infected more often, and they also get sick more seriously.” That is why child vaccination is also becoming more important – at least there is a lot to be said for vaccinating children, according to Lauterbach. “For children, the disease is the danger, not the vaccination,” he said. Side effects are extremely rare.

In Germany, the corona vaccinations for children under twelve are getting closer. On Thursday, the Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko) initially only recommended vaccination for previous illnesses and for children with contact with high-risk patients. Healthy five to eleven year olds should also be able to be vaccinated upon request and after medical advice, it said.

In South Africa, a noticeably higher rate of affected children admitted to hospital with an infection was recently reported. “We saw a pretty sharp increase in all age groups, especially those under five,” said Wassila Jassat of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), referring to hospitalizations. The omicron variant first appeared in South Africa.

Omikron variant in Germany:

Update from December 10th, 6.22 a.m.: After an investigation in South Africa, seven Germans were infected with the omicron variant of the corona virus despite the booster vaccination. “There are very many breakthrough infections. What we did not know is that even a booster vaccination with Biontech / Pfizer does not prevent this, ”said Wolfgang Preiser, member of the research consortium that discovered the variant, the“ Tagesspiegel ”.

Omicron variant: Several Germans infected despite booster vaccination – “You shouldn’t get it wrong”

At the same time, Preiser warned: “Of course you shouldn’t misunderstand that vaccination doesn’t help. On the contrary: It only shows that even the best possible vaccination is obviously not enough to prevent infection – which we already suspected. ”The study by Preiser and colleagues from Thursday has not yet been published in a specialist journal. None of the seven Germans between the ages of 25 and 39 had to deal with a severe course of the infection. “Of course you can now say: These are young people anyway. But one can assume that at least a severe course will be prevented, ”said Preiser from Stellenbosch University near Cape Town.

Update from December 9th, 9:52 pm: Virologist Christian Drosten finds the spread of the Omikron variant “worrying”. One has the impression that “the events are doubling every three days,” he said in the ARD “Tagesthemen”. Drosten warned and called for corona vaccinations *.

Update from December 9th, 4:11 pm : A large part of the Europeans infected with the Omikron so far apparently have a “slight” course of the disease. This has now been announced by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). However, more data would have to be collected “in order to find out whether the spectrum of the severity of the course of the disease with Omikron differs from the previously circulating variants,” it said.

No statement can yet be made about the effectiveness of the corona vaccines currently used against the new variant. The authority evaluates all available data in order to be able to make quick statements about it.

Medical professionals: Intensive care units need incidence below 200

Update from December 9th, 2:37 pm : “We have let the number of cases soar too high for far too long. We now urgently need to reduce the incidences a good bit so that we have space for Omikron ”: Divi expert Karagiannidis (see previous update) also spoke to Der Spiegel.

In his estimation, Germany needs a 7-day incidence of less than 200 to keep its intensive care units operational. It is currently more than 420. When asked about the often repeated appeals from science to politics, the intensive care doctor told the news magazine: “Sometimes I can no longer hear myself.”

Politicians have totally underestimated the delta wave and got lost in the election campaign at the most critical moment. “I would recommend that the next federal election be postponed should it fall again into a critical phase of a pandemic.”

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Intensive care physician: Omikron will hurt – free beds at a low

Update from December 9th, 1:35 p.m .: Omikron will prevail at high speed, believes Divi intensive register manager Christian Karagiannidis in an interview with dpa. According to him, the number of intensive care beds available nationwide has fallen to the lowest recorded level so far: around 2250, of which 921 specifically for Covid-19 sufferers (as of December 9) .

At such a level, Omikron would “hurt, even if it shouldn’t make you quite as seriously ill,” said the doctor. He spoke of the variant as a threatening “great unknown”, the current situation is very dynamic.

The delta wave seems to be moving sideways, especially due to the falling number of infections in Bavaria. In the intensive care units, it is now “pretty full” with almost 5,000 Covid 19 patients. In addition, in contrast to previous waves, there are other emergencies that need to be treated, for example accident victims. In phases with far-reaching contact restrictions, this was less common, according to Karagiannidis.

Because of Omikron “not vaccinated” despite double spades? Lauterbach expects “new reality”

First report from December 9th : Berlin – Omikron is still being examined more closely. However, experts are already assuming that we will have to adapt because of the new Corona variant. For example the new Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD). The doctor and epidemiologist spoke in the ZDF’s “heute-journal” (December 8th issue) of a “new reality”.

It looks like that you need three vaccinations to be “somewhat protected from Omikron” at all. The SPD politician advocated boosting: “The vaccination is only complete if you have been vaccinated three times.”

And it is still a matter of preventing the new mutation from spreading. One wants to break the chains of infection through the “2G” (access only as convalescent or fully vaccinated). That is an optimal preparation for an omicron wave, “if it does come”.

It is very likely that two vaccinations will alleviate the disease, “and three vaccinations will probably protect very well against serious illness,” emphasized Lauterbach.

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Lauerbach speaks on ZDF about Omikron and vaccination requirements

You have to make sure that Omikron reaches Germany as late as possible. If the variant were to become widespread, this could have an impact on who is considered fully vaccinated. Maybe only people who have already received three spades. “But we will cross this bridge when we have reached it,” said Lauterbach.

What about a general vaccination requirement? Lauterbach answered the question that he is now speaking “not as Federal Minister of Health, but simply as a member of parliament”. “We need a general compulsory vaccination. Because we won’t be able to cope with a variant like Omikron. “

Fauci on the new vaccination status: “A question of when”

The US immunologist Anthony Fauci made a very similar statement. He also expects the definition of who is fully vaccinated against Corona in the USA to be changed soon. “It will be a question of when and not if,” Fauci told CNN on Wednesday. Nobody will deny that a third syringe is needed for optimal protection – regardless of the definition, said Fauci.

According to the vaccine manufacturers Biontech and Pfizer, three doses of their product are necessary for adequate protection against the Omikron variant. According to initial laboratory data, two doses did not provide sufficient protection against infection. However, they assume that protection against serious illness is still in place. (frs with material from dpa and AFP) * Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA

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