fact finder
Many people are currently infected with respiratory pathogens. It is often claimed that this is due to a weakening of the immune system as a result of the protective measures during the pandemic. But that’s not true.
Cough, runny nose, sore throat: A noticeable number of people in Germany have become ill with respiratory pathogens in the past few weeks. After Information from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) Around 9.5 percent of Germans were infected in the 49th calendar week, which corresponds to around 7.9 million people. Looking at the recent past, there were only more in 2022.
The fact that the number of infections is so high in the two years after the Corona protective measures were lifted is causing a lot of speculation online. A widespread claim is that the protective measures are the reason for people’s vulnerability. You can also read in the media about an “immune system weakened by the protective measures”.
It is wrong that the immune system is weakened due to a lack of “training” due to hygiene measures, says immunologist Carsten Watzl, professor at the University of Dortmund. “A missed infection is not a bad thing for the immune system. We don’t have to activate our immune system through infections for it to function well.” There is also no evidence that the immune systems have been weakened by the hygiene measures.
Catch-up effects are the reason for many infections
“The high number of infections at the moment mainly has to do with the catch-up effects,” says Watzl. “During the pandemic, significantly fewer people came into contact with respiratory pathogens because of the hygiene measures.” However, through an infection, people also build up immunity that protects against re-infection by the same pathogen – at least for a certain time. “This protection wears off again after a few years and then I can become infected again,” says Watzl.
By discontinuing hygiene measures, these infections would now catch up, as many people have become more susceptible to respiratory pathogens due to the longer period without infection. “But that doesn’t mean that my immune system has been weakened,” says Watzl. However, the infections that would otherwise have been spread out over the past few years without hygiene measures are now more concentrated. “That’s why we had this particularly high wave last year. But since not everyone was infected, there are even more infections this year.”
In addition, there is now another respiratory pathogen with the coronavirus. According to the RKI, around a quarter of respiratory diseases are currently caused by the coronavirus. Only rhinoviruses have a similarly high proportion, while influenza viruses do not yet play a significant role. “That means that if we were to exclude the corona infections, then the number of respiratory infections would be back to the level we had before the pandemic.”
Conspiracy ideologists blame vaccination
In various conspiracy-ideological channels, for example on Telegram, the corona vaccination is cited, among other things, as the reason for the many infections. “The vaccination is still the number one enemy in the scene, which is why attempts are made to explain every illness and every death through the vaccination,” says Josef Holnburger, managing director of the Center for Monitoring, Analysis and Strategy (CeMAS).
The spike protein is cited in conspiracy ideology channels as one of the main reasons for the supposed danger posed by the corona vaccines. For example, it is claimed that because of the spike protein that is formed in the body after an mRNA vaccination, the white blood cells deactivate and thereby weaken the immune system. Among other things, the Fact check editorial team of the AFP news agency has already refuted that.
What is the spike protein?
The spike protein is the outwardly projecting protein structure of a virus envelope that occurs in various virus families, including SARS-CoV-2. Through this structure, the virus docks onto host cells in humans.
The mRNA vaccines take advantage of this: They ensure that spike proteins are produced in some cells of the body. The immune system recognizes these and responds by forming antibodies against the spike proteins. When infected with the coronavirus, the immune system remembers the spike proteins and can therefore produce antibodies more quickly.
“The spike protein alone does not make you sick. It is an absurd assumption that you could get symptoms in any way from a spike protein,” said virologist Monika Redlberger-Fritz from the Center for Virology at the Medical University of Vienna dem BR fact fox.
Things are different with corona infections, says Watzl. “Most people survived the infection well. But with Long Covid we see that some people experience long-term complications. And that can certainly cause permanent changes in the immune system.”
Make money with scaremongering?
Nevertheless, disinformation on the subject of spike proteins persists, especially in conspiracy-ideological channels. It is also often presented as a danger for unvaccinated people, through so-called shedding. “Shedding describes the alleged phenomenon that a vaccination not only has negative effects on the vaccinated person themselves, but that unvaccinated people could be harmed through contact with vaccinated people,” says Holnburger. There is no evidence for this either. Nevertheless, people try to sell their own products by scaremongering around the topic.
“There has been a professionalization among some actors in the ‘lateral thinking’ scene,” says Holnburger. The conspiracy ideologist and former ear, nose and throat doctor Bodo Schiffmann, for example, now sells his own product, which is said to help, among other things, against vaccination damage, long-Covid and also against “shedding”.
Schiffmann writes on his Telegram channel about “forbidden healing knowledge” and advertises his product with the words: “With this product I hope to be able to prevent everyone who took part in the vaccination experiment from having to pay a high price for it.” Schiffmann would also recommend taking his product “to partners of people who have been treated with an mRNA product.”
“Schiffmann and other conspiracy ideologues continue to spread the shedding narrative quite successfully, fueling insecurities and, in the case of Schiffmann, making promises with his product that have no scientific or medical basis,” said Holnburger.
Many other conspiracy ideologists are also advertising a wide variety of products that are intended to help, for example, against the alleged after-effects of the corona vaccination. According to Holnburger, this is particularly macabre, as a supposed solution is offered directly to an invented problem from which financial benefit is to be gained.
The product range extends from nutritional supplements to homeopathic remedies to crystal mattresses and mats and is aggressively advertised, says Holnburger. This is mainly because some people from the “lateral thinker” scene have broken with their old lives, fallen out with friends and sometimes even quit their jobs and now have to make a living by devoting themselves to conspiracy ideologies.
However, since the topic of Corona no longer mobilizes so many people, every effort is being made to extract as much money as possible from the remaining group of people.
For example, affiliate links are widely used, i.e. recommendation links to products in which the person who distributes these links and promotes the products receives a share in the sales. Almost all major Telegram channels in the lateral thinking and conspiracy scene use this method to generate income.
Supplements only make sense if there is a deficiency
The benefits of dietary supplements to strengthen the immune system depend heavily on a person’s nutrient supply, says Watzl. “As a very large organ in our body, the immune system naturally needs certain trace elements, vitamins and energy. But in most cases I get these through a balanced diet.”
Most people would be born with a normally functioning immune system and would not have to do anything special or take specific nutritional supplements to activate it at all.
However, the immune system can be weakened by malnutrition, too little exercise or stress, says Watzl. “If there is a deficiency of vitamin D, for example, supplementation can be useful. Otherwise, however, it has no proven effect on the immune system.” According to studies, a healthy lifestyle consisting of enough sleep, a balanced diet and enough exercise is the best prerequisite for a strong immune system.
Watzl explains why so many people swear by certain remedies with the placebo effect. “If I believe that these vitamin D tablets are doing an incredible amount for me, then the placebo effect can actually have a positive effect. Even if that has nothing to do with the actual supplement.”