RKI boss: The extent of the fourth wave becomes apparent in spring
According to the President of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the full extent of the fourth corona wave in Germany should only become clear in a few months. “We will only see in spring how bad this fourth wave really turned out,” said RKI boss Lothar Wieler of the German press agency. For example, blood donation examinations or population-representative samples will show how high the proportion of people is who have already developed antibodies against corona – be it through vaccination or infection. In this way, among other things, the extent of undetected cases can be better assessed.
Much has been achieved with the large number of vaccinated people in the population. “Of course we are already far. This is now the second winter season. We know from previous influenza pandemics that there were usually two to three very strong waves of illness before the events leveled off. “
However, new variants or changes to existing variants could strongly influence the further course. The global success of measures is important “because we are just seeing again that the containment measures can only buy us some time”. Preventing the spread of new or changed variants is extremely difficult.
In view of the still existing vaccination gap in Germany, the course of next winter also depends on what is done now. “If many people still don’t have basic immunity, we could have another big wave next winter. The best thing would be if everyone got vaccinated who can be vaccinated. Then we still have this virus in our country, but the proportion of seriously ill next winter would be much lower. “(Dpa)
