Christian Drosten, head of virology at the Charité hospital in Germany’s capital, Berlin, has indicated that the coronavirus pandemic may have come to an end, as the infections detected this winter point more to an endemic disease.
«This winter we are experiencing the first endemic wave with Sars-Cov-2, in my opinion the pandemic is over,» said the virologist expert in an interview for the German newspaper ‘Tagesspiegel’.
For Drosten the situation now seems to be under control and, unless there is a new mutation of the virus, something he does not see as probable, the coronavirus could come to an end next summer thanks to the immunity of the population.
In this regard, the head of virology at the Berlin Charité has highlighted the value of the successful vaccination campaigns not only in Germany, but in Europe as a whole. For him, this factor has been a differentiating factor compared to other places, such as China.
«The big mistake in China was that there was no awareness of vaccination among the population, especially among the elderly,» said Drosten, who also praised the measures taken by the German government at the beginning of the pandemic.
«There was never any attempt to stop the pandemic, it was clear from the beginning that this was not possible. But if nothing had been done, in Germany, in the waves up to (the delta variant), there would have been a million deaths, or more,» he pointed out.
On the other hand, physician Christian Karagiannidis, member of the COVID-19 Expert Council from Germany, agreed with Drosten that the coronavirus pandemic is likely to come to an end after the winter.
Although he believes that there will still be one or two small waves of infections, Karagiannidis explained in an interview to the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland press group that the immunity of the population is strong and that there is a noticeable decrease of COVID-19 patients in intensive care.
JUSTICE MINISTER CALLS FOR END OF RESTRICTIONS Later in the day, Germany’s Justice Minister Marco Buschmann took Drosten’s argumentation and prediction at his word and called on state governments to decree an end to health restrictions.
«Christian Drosten was among the most cautious scientists in the pandemic,» said Buschmann, who now believes that if the virologist considers that the coronavirus pandemic is on its last legs, he should act accordingly.
«Now his (Drosten’s) conclusion is: the pandemic is over. We are in an endemic state. As a political consequence, we should end the last coronavirus protection measures,» Buschmann said on his official Twitter profile.
The competence in Germany on the imposition of health restrictions to curb the spread of COVID-19 lies in the hands of the governments of the individual Länder.
German health authorities have counted a total of 37.2 million positive cases since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, a disease that has claimed the lives of more than 161,000 Germans.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
