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The immunologist and physicist Michael Meyer-Hermann from the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research in Braunschweig expects that the number of infections with the coronavirus will "increase explosively" in Germany as before in Ireland, England, Portugal and the Czech Republic.
Because of the spread of the B.1.1.7 variant of the virus, he considers the relaxation of protective measures announced by the federal government and federal states to be "dangerous," he told the "Tagesspiegel am Sonntag" - there is "no scientific argumentation" for this appear.
But he knows from discussions with federal and state governments: “You can't say that politicians don't know what consequences measures will have.” The “yo-yo strategy” of loosening lockdown measures as soon as the numbers fall, lead to "an eternal back and forth" that causes a lot of psychological, health and economic damage.
Meyer-Hermann recommends prioritizing people for vaccinations against the virus according to the amount of their contacts: vaccinating people with many contacts first "would have a much greater effect" than proceeding according to age.
"The elderly population is the group with the fewest contacts", their vaccination has significantly reduced the death rate, but "an epidemic effect" is not to be expected.
Meyer-Hermann sees the new rapid tests as an important aid in reducing infections that would otherwise occur undetected.
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