"There are many causes behind the fourth wave in Germany. The percentage of unvaccinated people is still too high and if they become infected, immediately get seriously ill, but the virus is also spreading among vaccinations." This ensures Alexander Kekulé, one of the most well-known German epidemiologists. With 63 years, this virology teacher at the University of Halle-Wittenberg, in Saxony-Anhalt, where he also directs the Institute of Medical Microbiology, recalls that the vaccine is effective in a percentage of people ranging between 50% and 70 %, which means that from every ten people vaccinated, three to five could transmit the virus. "And when manifestations are allowed without control measures, Covid's evidence or distancing, the demonstrations become foci of contagion," he sentence.
Q. What are the other causes?
A. A second problem is that they have reopened full-time schools but most students are not vaccinated. That is an invisible wave, because students tend to have relatively mild symptoms, as well as vaccinated people, and do not take it seriously. This massive incidence is then transmitted to those not vaccinated and this results in the elderly to become seriously ill and re-crowd into the intensive care units, affecting the country's health system.
Q. However, you put the photo in the lack of prevention measures between vaccinations
R. They have too much freedom and we have to say it.
Q. Is the high percentage of people not vaccinated in the East States serious? In Saxony there is little more than 50% of the vaccinated population.
A. The phenomenon is not only in the east, it also occurs in some areas of Bavaria or Baden-Württemberg. In those regions, the incidence is high and the intensive care is overflowing. It has to do with the mentality of people, because they are agricultural regions with badly informed populations. Although it is also true that at the beginning of the entire Institute Robert Koch said that this virus was less dangerous than the flu. It was a mistake and then corrected it, but in those areas they remember and believe that it is not so necessary to get vaccinated. In fact, there are almost three million elders who have also rejected vaccinating.
Unlike the Italians, who suffered a terrible catastrophe at the first wave of the Coronavirus, here the first wave was relatively well and the severity of what happened has not been well understood. Everyone believes and trusts that there is a hospital just around the corner that can serve you if you get sick.
Q. What do you have to do now?
A. Convince specific groups of people to vacve without blaming them, as the elderly, thus avoiding a split from society, preventing the pandemic from hatching in schools and putting precise limits at events. For example, from 50 people not only have to be vaccinated to be able to assist but also have to take a test that demonstrates that the coronavirus does not have. And you must also impose the obligation to bring masks and the social distance. I would also put a maximum of people for events: no more than 1,000.
The third reinforcement dose should immediately be administered to those over 60, not of the 70s as it is being done now. And, last but not least, although I have always been against a widespread obligation, I agree to force the medical staff to be vaccinated by the most vulnerable groups because in this case we need it.
Q. Will a new blockade of the country be produced?
A. I think a block like the lived in 2020 would not be politically sustainable. But there is a real danger of new restrictions such as the closure of the schools, the limits to the events or that restrictions are introduced in private contacts in front of Christmas.
Q. How do you see the situation in the rest of Europe? And in Italy?
R. Unfortunately, we continue to navigate the pandemic in small boats, instead of staying all within a large European ship. It is a pity. At the moment Spain and Italy seem to be relatively better, because the population has understood that it is important to focus on the defense against the Coronavirus. There the measures are severe but fair.
I do not think that in Germany it would have been possible to introduce the obligation to present the green pass at the job. Italy is fine for the dissemination of vaccination and the behavior of society, but we should not fall into satisfaction. At the beginning of the pandemic in Germany he tended to point to Italy as a negative example, but they did not realize that what happened in Bergamo could have occurred in the Oktoberfest of Munich.
Date Of Update: 09 November 2021, 06:32
