The RKI is considered the top corona authority in Germany. But the federal authority is doing less and less justice to this task, says Gunnar Schupelius.
The Corona rules are becoming increasingly confusing. Most of the confusion is about the status of those who have recovered.
According to the Berlin regulation, immune protection lasts for six months after an illness and applies in gastronomy and cultural institutions. The EU countries also agreed on this deadline in Brussels.
However, the federal government backed out and reduced the immunity period to 90 days. In concrete terms, this means that anyone who has recovered from corona disease in Berlin can still go out to eat or attend a concert for six months according to the 2G rule, but can only travel by bus and train for three more months.
Why is that? Well, Federal Minister of Health Lauterbach (SPD) claimed on Sunday that people who had recovered from corona would lose their immune protection again after three months given the omicron variant that now prevails. Therefore, the period for the recovered status must be shortened. He referred to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI).
So I asked the RKI and got this information from a spokeswoman on Wednesday: “There is currently no data on the extent and duration of protection after infection with the omicron variant, neither in relation to preventing reinfection with the Omicron variant still with a reinfection with a delta variant.”
On what grounds did the RKI then lower the recovered status? I asked whether this decision had been ordered by Minister Lauterbach, who reports to the RKI as a federal office.
I got two answers: first: “no”. Secondly: “Incidentally, no public statement is made on any exchange within the authorities as part of any decision-making (…).” So what now? Yes or no?
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Finally, I wanted to know how the RKI evaluates the findings of the Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI). The PEI had reported that antibodies can still be detected more than 430 days after infection with Covid-19.
I was refused the answer: “The RKI generally does not comment on statements by other authorities.”
But why not? It is obviously about new scientific findings, to which the RKI must of course react. What else? If antibodies are detected more than 430 days after infection, why does the immunity period have to expire after 90 days?
Have they lost track at the RKI? Probably yes. This is also indicated by our current BZ research, according to which the hospitalization incidence is incorrectly calculated: The RKI does not differentiate between patients who are being treated in the clinic for Covid disease and those who are there for other reasons and are also infected .
The Robert Koch Institute with its President Prof. Dr. dr hc mult. Lothar H. Wieler is considered the highest corona authority in this country. However, it looks as if the institute is less and less able to do justice to precisely this task.
Is Gunnar Schupelius right? Call: 030/2591 73153 or email: [email protected]