The Frankfurt doctor Sandra Ciesek finds the regulation “very unfavorable” for some people. Even for the transition to endemic Germany is not far enough.
Wiesbaden – Karl Lauterbach received a lot of scolding for reducing the status of those who had recovered. The SPD Minister of Health announced that he would now also work at EU level for a period of three months instead of six. The debate continued over the weekend.
Doctor President Klaus Reinhardt defended Lauterbach. “The scientific evidence to date indicates that unvaccinated people can become infected with the omicron variant much earlier than after six months after undergoing a delta infection,” he said Rheinische Post from Saturday. He also supported a Europe-wide uniform regulation with regard to travel.
The EU member states have agreed that the Corona certificate for those who have recovered should be valid for 180 days, i.e. six months. In Germany, however, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) has shortened this period to three months.
Virologist Ciesek “not happy” with the shortening of the recovered status
The Frankfurt virologist Sandra Ciesek, on the other hand, sees the matter critically. On Friday, the director of the Institute for Medical Virology at the Frankfurt University Hospital advocated deciding the time of the booster after recovery on an “individual-medical” basis. “I’m not really happy and satisfied with the regulations,” said Ciesek. Defining a uniform point in time for everyone is “very difficult”.
It must be taken into account which virus variant you were infected with, how old you are and how long ago the vaccinations were. “The regulation with the three months is very unfavorable for some patients,” she said in Wiesbaden.
Waiting for the Omicron vaccine at the booster? According to Ciesek, it makes sense for young people
Young people who were vaccinated in the summer and became infected in the fall are now “in a real dilemma”. They would now have to be boosted after three months, “but some have antibodies that go beyond our measurement window”. Here it makes sense to wait for the new vaccine adapted to Omikron. With 60-year-olds it is very different.
“This virus has surprised us again and again,” said Ciesek in her balance sheet two years after the beginning of the pandemic. Virologists had expected the virus to change, but not “that it would happen so quickly and that we would see so many variants”. The hope that the pandemic would come to an end with the vaccine “unfortunately didn’t really come true”. Vaccinations are still important to prevent serious illnesses.
Omicron more contagious than delta? According to Ciesek “rather unlikely”
The fact that Omikron is really so much more infectious than Delta is “not at all clear from a virological point of view,” said Ciesek, “rather unlikely”. The fact that more people are getting infected is more due to “the fact that the virus finds many more victims”: At Delta, the virus was “blocked” better by those who were vaccinated, those who were vaccinated and boosted were also infected with Omicron, which is why the virus can now do better again circulate. Another reason is the shorter incubation period.
Ciesek does not believe that a fourth vaccination will soon be necessary for everyone. For Omikron, that doesn’t make “a big difference”. The antibodies rose less than after the second or third vaccination “and I also know some who got infected despite four vaccinations”. In the long term, however, more than three vaccinations are conceivable: “I do believe that some people will have to be vaccinated regularly.”
It is not yet possible to say when the virus will become endemic. “It’s important to understand that you only reach an endemic stage when everyone has had contact somehow – either through vaccination or infection and then the courses just become milder. And we’re not that far.” (frs/dpa)
#Healed #status #Lauterbach #support #Ciesek #finds #booster #time #difficult