New corona mutation
Omikron: Virologist Drosten is “quite concerned” and fears “immune escape mutant”
Virologist Christian Drosten is concerned about the new Corona variant Omikron
© Fabrizio Bensch / DPA
Many experts are alarmed by the new coronavirus variant. Christian Drosten also fears that Omikron could exacerbate the growing problems in Germany.
Rising incidences, filling intensive care units in hospitals across the country: The corona situation in Germany is getting worse every day. And in the middle of the escalating fourth wave, news bursts from a new virus variant that worries experts around the world. Germany’s most famous virologist Christian Drosten is also alarmed by the first information about Omikron. “I’m pretty worried at the moment,” said Drosten on Sunday evening in the ZDF “heute journal”. You don’t know too much about the new variant. Reports of mild courses did not yet have a lot of substance in view of only a good 1000 cases. Here you have to wait for the clinical course.
You can see, however, that it occurs frequently among young people in South Africa and also affects people who have already had an illness. He is worried that the first real “immune escape mutant” is in front of him. It is also not yet possible to say how the variant behaves in this country, where many people have been vaccinated. “Nobody can say at the moment what’s in store for us. The only thing you can really say with certainty is: It’s better when you’re vaccinated. It’s even better when you’re boosted,” said Drosten. The available vaccines would probably protect against a serious course of the disease.
Christian Drosten: The situation can hardly be modeled
Drosten also spoke of a “somewhat imponderable situation” with a view to 2G or 3G rules in Germany. You have no experience with it in a winter wave. Hardly anyone can model the situation. Drosten advised politicians to pay close attention to the stricter rules, for example in the hotspots of Saxony, Bavaria and Austria. Here you can slowly see the first effects. Drosten referred, for example, to a declining R-value in Bavaria towards 1. The R-value indicates how many people an infected person infects on average – and thus how quickly a virus spreads. But you have to get to 0.7 in order to foreseeably reduce the number of cases so that it leads to relaxation in intensive care units.
Drosten also rated the positive news that the proportion of infected people who have to be ventilated is declining. This shows that booster vaccinations are slowly taking effect. But the process is slow. But people would continue to come to the intensive care unit. “And that’s terrible,” said Drosten.