“Bad Christmas” threatens
RKI boss Wieler with desperate incendiary speech to politicians: “I can no longer take it”
Steering “towards a really bad Christmas”: RKI boss Lothar Wieler gave a fiery speech during an online discussion with Sachen’s Prime Minister Kretschmer.
© Wolfgang Kumm / DPA
Before the discussions on new measures against the corona crisis, RKI boss Lothar Wieler gave a desperate incendiary speech. Without countermeasures, “we will have a bad Christmas”. It is an absolute emergency.
The President of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), Lothar Wieler, has drawn a dramatic picture of the corona situation in Germany. “We are currently in a serious emergency. We will really have a very bad Christmas if we do not take countermeasures,” said Wieler on Wednesday evening in an online discussion with the Saxon Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer (CDU).
The number of new infections is rising steeply, and in fact it is likely to be far higher than known: “The under-reporting of the true numbers is increasing.” The more than 50,000 infections that are currently registered every day “are at least twice or three times as many,” said the RKI boss.
Lothar Wieler: “400 die. We won’t change anything about that”
Most recently, 0.8 percent of the sick died. This means that of the more than 50,000 people infected each day, 400 would die in the next few weeks. “There is nothing more to be done about that.” At the federal press conference, he recently spoke more cautiously of 200 deaths per day, but the number is actually higher. Nobody can help these people, not even with the best medical care.
The situation in the hospitals is also getting worse and worse, according to Wieler. “We have never been as worried as we are now,” said the RKI boss. The number of seriously ill Covid patients is increasing, and people with a stroke and other seriously ill people have to search for a free intensive care bed for up to two hours in some places. “The supply is already no longer in accordance with the rule in all federal states.” And that will increase.
Corona: “The prognoses are super gloomy”
“You see, the prognosis is super bleak. You are really bleak,” said Wieler. “There is an emergency in our country. If you don’t see it, you’re making a very big mistake.” The RKI made very clear recommendations for action at an early stage and warned that the fourth wave could clearly outperform all previous waves if no “population-related measures” were taken and the vaccination rate did not increase significantly. In fact, the modeled scenarios have now arrived.
Wieler accused politics of serious errors and omissions. “We opened too quickly in too many areas,” he criticized. “Clubs and bars are hotspots, from my point of view they have to be closed.” Major events would have to be canceled. There are far too many contacts among the population, and they already know from the first corona wave that contact restrictions are effective.
“Vaccination – with man and mouse”!
At the same time, Wieler pleaded for the consistent implementation of 2G rules, i.e. access to many areas only for vaccinated and convalescent people. “We really shouldn’t give those who don’t get vaccinated the chance to bypass the vaccination, for example by getting tested,” he said. In order to increase the vaccination rate, vaccination should also be carried out in pharmacies.
“I’m going to say that now very clearly: It must now be the end of the story that someone does not allow any other professional groups to vaccinate due to any circumstances. We are in an emergency,” emphasized Wieler. “Every man and mouse who can vaccinate should kindly vaccinate now. Otherwise we will not be able to get this crisis under control.”
Wieler called on politics to finally act. “We don’t have to keep inventing something new. All of these concepts and recipes are in place,” he said. “That is clear language, but after 21 months I simply can no longer bear the fact that it is not perhaps recognized what I say, among other things, and also many other colleagues.”