Corona pandemic: Munich infectiologist advises booster vaccination

The number of corona infections in Germany continues to rise. The vaccination against Covid-19 offers protection, but this should be refreshed at times, especially among particularly vulnerable patient groups, says Munich-based infectious agent Christoph Spinner. “In my opinion, the booster vaccinations are now very central. Especially for chronically ill people, for the elderly, some of whom were vaccinated more than six months ago, where we can also see from data from Israel and other countries that the likelihood of an infection, Partly with hospital progression despite vaccination, increases over time. I don’t think it can yet be conclusively assessed whether booster vaccinations are really necessary in the general population. One thing is certain: the higher the antibody response from vaccination, even after boosting, the lower the risk of infection. ” A Wooster vaccination does not cause any damage, according to the doctor. And: “In the last few days we have seen a lot younger people who present themselves to the clinic with severe forms of COVID-19 because the proportion of those who have not been vaccinated, especially among the younger ones, is higher.” Again and again there is talk of so-called vaccination breakthroughs. Do illnesses, despite vaccination, question the sense of immunization? “The Delta variant is much more infectious and therefore the vaccinations no longer protect against infections as reliably as against the original Wuhan wild type. This means that if an infection occurs despite the vaccination, it does not mean that the vaccination is not working. On the contrary, those vaccinated can rely on the fact that the course of the COVID-19 disease is much milder and less pronounced. ” An increase in the number of infections and a possible increase in diseases will also affect hospitals and clinics. “To put it simply, the more people are infected, the higher the infection incidence, the more likely it is that hospital occupancy will increase significantly in the respective region, and of course it also makes sense to react regionally to this, whereby we are also in supraregional areas Support Bavaria. ” The Robert Koch Institute reported 24,668 new corona cases. That is 5096 positive tests more than on Friday a week ago. The seven-day incidence rose significantly to 139.2 from 130 the previous day. The acting Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn called on the federal states to pay more attention to testing in view of the increasing number of infections.