The virologist Christian Drosten sees the rapid succession of the latest corona waves as a sign that the corona pandemic will end soon. However, whether next winter will be tough again depends on which omicron variant of the virus will prevail: “Two omicron variants are currently starting up: BF.7 and BQ.1.1. The former would be the better case, this variant is very similar to BA.5, to which a large part of the population is already immune. Then there would be a gentle winter wave.” This wave would differ from all previous ones and would no longer be caused by a significant change in the virus: “It would then no longer be a pandemic wave,” says Drosten in the current issue of the weekly newspaper “Die Zeit”. “We would have arrived in an endemic state with BF.7.” However, the virologist does not want to commit himself completely: “With BQ.1.1 that would not be so clear, because there is additional immune escape here.” The virus can already affect the immune system Escape infected or vaccinated better. And in fact, BQ.1.1 is catching up in several European countries. “If it becomes dominant, the winter could be difficult again.”
In the short term, the virologist from the Berlin Charité does not believe that a significantly more dangerous variant of Sars-CoV-2 will occur. “At many points in its evolution, the virus cannot easily go back.” However, the virologist does not want to completely rule out a possible scenario: “It would take a kind of revolution, through renewed massive spread somewhere in the world.” His current concern applies while China. “Immunity is distributed quite homogeneously worldwide, in industrialized countries through infection through vaccination, in poorer countries even through multiple infections of the population. In China, however, that is not the case. I wouldn’t rule out another leap happening there in terms of evolution.”
However, the virologist will no longer make any assessments via Twitter. “Digital life no longer interests me,” said Drosten in an interview with “Zeit”. During the pandemic, Drosten was regularly active on the platform. “I haven’t looked at Twitter for months.” He also very consciously started his podcast on NDR, the coronavirus update – and consciously ended it: “For me, it was a professional intervention from the start, a limited project, with which I stop when I am no longer needed.”