It took a long time before Health Minister Karl Lauterbach turned to reporters. Maybe because of her summer wave pandemic turned out to be milder than expected, possibly because he himself had been diagnosed with the coronavirus and had to be out of action for a while. Now Lauterbach is back with good news: “There are positive developments regarding the summer wave of the pandemic. Both the number of new cases and the death rate are falling.” The Robert Koch Epidemiological Institute comes to the same conclusion, adding, however, that neither the risk of contracting the virus nor the risk of unpleasant complications, especially for older people over 80, has yet to disappear.

Fatigue and apathy of the population

At Friday’s press conference, Karl Lauterbach was accompanied by Leif Erik Sander, Director of the Department of Infectious Diseases at the Charite University Hospital in Berlin. According to him, now the situation in public hospitals is under control, but the danger has not disappeared. “Fortunately, the system was not overloaded, but I can tell you that every now and then we are forced to recruit new beds, and there has also been an increase in traffic in intensive care units,” he notes. Zander hopes, however, that as the summer wave of the pandemic subsides, so will the situation in hospitals, which are suffering from a shortage of staff and existing staff “tired of the constant vigilance of the past two and a half years.” years”.

Of particular interest is another comment by Zander: “I have the impression that the population and public opinion are now tired, or I would say, indifference. I understand this, because there are a lot of people infected with the coronavirus now. “According to a recent survey conducted by the Infratest-dimap institute, 53% of Germans (i.e. a slight majority) consider the current health measures mandatory, 20% consider them rather excessive, but so but remarkable, about 20% – the percentage of those who consider them insufficient.

Hopes for new vaccines

Lauterbach and Sander report that they are now pinning their hopes on developing new antivirals, focusing primarily on the relatively mild but highly contagious “micron paralysis.” Earlier this week, BionTech announced that if all goes well, the first shipments of the new vaccine will be available from October when the German government’s new vaccination campaign begins. Currently, the Standing Committee on Immunization (Stiko) recommends that the fourth dose of vaccination be given only to older people over 70 years of age. For her part, Lauterbach also suggests that young people talk to their doctor to consider a new vaccination.

“Tires” or “Chains”?

The Minister of Health, who expects a new wave of the pandemic in the autumn, is preparing an amendment to the legislation on infections. The relevant bill is expected to be submitted to the Federal Parliament in September. Figuratively speaking, recalling winter car care, Lauterbach speaks of two successive levels of readiness from autumn: first “winter tires”, but if necessary, “tire chains” follow. In other words: “In the first phase, the federal states will be able to decide for themselves, from 1 October, whether to make it mandatory to wear a mask indoors for everyone, except for those who have been vaccinated within the last three months.” If the number of cases continues to increase, then a second step will follow: “Exceptions to the mandatory use of masks indoors will be lifted, maybe even a mask will become mandatory even outdoors,” says Karl Lauterbach.

The new plans raise questions and criticism. The President of the Medical Chamber, Klaus Reinhardt, considers them “practically impossible” to implement and mainly wonders “who can effectively check” in a closed space whether persons exempted from the mandatory wearing of a mask were vaccinated in the previous trimester. Some federal states speak of vague criteria. However, the federal government wants to prepare for a difficult autumn. That is why it is moving very carefully, unlike what is happening in other European countries such as the UK, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Poland, and also in Greece, where sanitary measures have been relaxed since last May.

Source: DV