The corona numbers fell further over Easter. However, the meaningfulness of the statistics is limited. Health Minister Lauterbach has now triggered new discussions.
Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach (SPD) has Warnings of a possible “killer variant” of the coronavirus drawn criticism. The term is unscientific and leads to nothing but uncertainty among the population, said the virologist Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit in BILD.
What happened?
Lauterbach had expressed concern in BILD am Sonntag about various omicron subvariants that were just developing. “It’s entirely possible that we could get a highly contagious omicron variant as deadly as Delta. That would be an absolute killer option,” said the SPD politician.
In his opinion, the obligation to wear masks indoors, which has now been largely abolished, could also be reintroduced in autumn. Due to increasing numbers and probable new mutations, the Infection Protection Act will have to be revised again by then. It could then be necessary again to make wearing a mask indoors compulsory, said Lauterbach.
According to the currently applicable Infection Protection Act, mask requirements are only possible in a few areas such as medical practices or public transport. In order to be able to order further measures, the federal states must declare regions as hotspots by state parliament resolution. According to the law, this hotspot rule and the mask requirement in surgeries, buses and trains can only be applied until September 23rd.
Criticism rains down
► Schmidt-Chanasit currently sees little evidence of a danger, as Lauterbach describes it: “According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the occurrence of a “killer variant” in autumn is a very unlikely scenario,” said the expert. The broad basic immunization in the population through vaccination and infection also speaks against this, “because immunity is not only based on neutralizing antibodies, but also on cellular immunity”.
► The Bonn virologist Hendrik Streeck also reacted sceptically. “You cannot predict the development of variants. Therefore, instead of warning of scenarios such as “killer variants”, it would be important to prepare for autumn and winter,” he told BILD.
► The deputy chairman of the Greens parliamentary group, Konstantin von Notz, tweeted, “With all due respect for Karl Lauterbach’s expertise and my full solidarity because of all the unspeakable hostility towards his person, I hold vague predictions about the “possibility” of the emergence of a “absolute killer variant” for really unhelpful.”
► His parliamentary colleague Tabea Rößner wrote: “Killer variant is a promising candidate for the nonsense of the year.” The CDU health politician Erwin Rüddel tweeted in response to Lauterbach’s statement: “He should have actually learned from his mistakes and misjudgments.”
► The board of directors of the German Foundation for Patient Protection, Eugen Brysch, told the German Press Agency that fear is a bad advisor. “Therefore, the Federal Minister of Health should refrain from apocalyptic prophecies. That doesn’t mean going into the Corona autumn unprepared.”
Germany incidence at 808.8
The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) gave the number of infections officially detected daily as 20,482 on Easter Monday. A week ago it was 30,789. The nationwide seven-day incidence fell to 808.8 (previous day: 834.3, previous week: 1080).
also read
► Lauterbach: Wearing a mask could be necessary again in the fall
► Lauterbach expects the Omicron vaccine in September
It should be noted that individual countries do not report data on every day of the week. Fewer reports are also to be expected on public holidays, which in turn can lead to late reports on the following days. Experts also assume a high number of unrecorded cases, partly because not all infected people have a PCR test done. Only these count in the statistics.
The head of the Berlin-Neukölln health department, Nicolai Savaskan, told the “Welt” about the falling numbers: “In addition to the seasonal effect, the most important reason is that the results of the quick test are not included in the official statistics of the Robert Koch Institute. Here in Neukölln, these currently account for 30 percent of all reported cases. The corona incidence of the RKI is actually a third higher.
