Covid in Germany, Gattinoni: “Few vaccinated and shortage of health personnel: the virus leads the dance”

The pandemic is hitting Germany hard where only 68% of the fully vaccinated population: yesterday the highest number of deaths related to Covid-19 was recorded since last February with 446 dead (almost 102,000 victims have been killed since the beginning of the pandemic). THE daily infections exceeded 67 thousand cases with an incidence of 485 cases per 100 thousand inhabitants (In Italy 146 per 100 thousand inhabitants). The pressure on hospitals and intensive care is worrying. Luciano Gattinoni, born in 1945, anesthetist, professor emeritus at the State University and for years head physician of the Milan Polyclinic, today guest professor at the University of Gottingen in Lower Saxony tells what is happening in Germany. He was responsible for the intuition of pronating, of turning intubated patients with severe respiratory insufficiencies on their stomachs to improve oxygenation of the lungs.

What is the real situation of the hospitals?

very varied, it depends on the Land. The worst situation in Bavaria and Saxony. In Germany we are at complete saturation when approximately 50% of the beds available in intensive care are occupied by covid patients. In the hospital where I work, which is the largest in the region, we have 18 covid patients in resuscitation, 8 of them are in extracorporeal oxygenation. We are almost at saturation.

Compared to the previous waves, what has changed?

In the hospital we have a greater commitment than last year. We have never had so many ICU patients in the hospital where I work. In some regions there is a lack of health personnel, compared to the standard we are used to, due to the resignation of many nurses for overwork at the beginning of the pandemic and this affects the work of those who remain because it is inevitable that care and attention will decrease.

Who are the ICU patients?

Over 50%, but sometimes it gets to 90%, they are unvaccinated patients, but there are also vaccinated people. It is not true that it is only the elderly: the resuscitation hospitalization of patients between 45 and 60 years not at all uncommon.

Why is the situation in Germany so dramatic despite vaccines?

The situation is serious, but we are not desperate and we are not collapsing. There is no single cause, but several factors have determined this epidemiological picture and not all are known. Vaccines mitigate the risk of contagion, but they do not cancel it and there was an overestimation of the effect of vaccination. Furthermore, with the passing of the months the protection decreases. Today there are still millions of Germans, even with diseases, who are not vaccinated by choice. To these are added the first vaccinated, many of them elderly, who are beginning to lose protection. The climate, which is more rigid than in Italy, and consequently the fact of spending more time indoors where the virus is transmitted more easily, may have influenced the growth of infections. Finally, the few restrictions or careless reopenings may have accelerated the new wave. The truth is that the dance is led by the virus and we follow it.

Now it will be Italy to host the German patients, contrary to what happened in the first wave …

These are things politicians and newspapers like. But moving a handful of patients from one country to another is less than a drop in the bucket.

the obligation to vaccinate?

I don’t know what you expect, I don’t see it as an attack on freedom.

What about the third dose?

I did it, the call is normal to refresh the immune memory. expected in almost all vaccines. The recall will give a further stop to the virus, but the risk of contagion will not be eliminated in any case.