Everything has been said, and now finally by everyone: Even in Christian Drosten’s opinion, the pandemic is now over and Sars-Cov-2 is endemic. However, this also means that the virus has settled in Europe. Infections will therefore continue to exist, more in winter and fewer in summer – similar to other respiratory diseases. After this winter, the immunity of the population will be so broad and resilient that the virus will hardly get through in the summer, Drosten told the “Tagesspiegel”.
That’s not new. Infectiologists, intensive care physicians and internists have been saying since September that they see the danger posed by the corona virus averted. The vaccinations and the summer wave would have made well over 90 percent of the population immune in one way or another. Almost at the same time as Drosten, the President of the German Society for Internal Intensive Care Medicine and Emergency Medicine, Christian Karagiannidis, confirmed to the editorial network Germany that he expected the pandemic to gradually fade away.
And if you take it very seriously, the often scolded epidemiologist Klaus Stöhr correctly anticipated as early as October 2020 that the pandemic would end when the population’s resistance is high enough, and that experience has shown that this will be the case after two to three years be. So Christian Drosten agrees with a view that others have long held.
Only: what do these assessments mean for the individual this winter? The answer is: very little. Because Sars-Cov-2 is still there. In addition, there are the RSV and flu viruses, which are currently pushing the clinics to the limit and beyond. So if you are particularly old, have a weakened immune system and/or have a pre-existing condition, you will still need a certain amount of protection; will continue to go to the supermarket or the theater with the mask on. Except that he will have to be responsible for protection himself in the future.
The mask requirement in hospitals and retirement homes must not be dropped for the time being. Because that is where the virus hits the very people who have so often been described as vulnerable; who are unable to build up sufficient resistance despite being vaccinated.
Drosten’s late admission has something of the banality ex cathedra. And Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, the incessant reminder, is increasingly alone.
