Ms. Brinkmann, do you already have vacation plans for this year?

Patrick Schlereth

Editor on duty at FAZ.NET.

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    Yes, we're going to a holiday home on the North Sea.

    Given the low incidence, we travel there with a clear conscience.

    Of course, we are considerate when doing this.

    As a family with three children, we will be outside a lot.

    What I asked myself because the kids would love to do it: If the amusement parks were open, would we go there?

    If you have to queue in a confined space, then probably not.

    Everywhere is being relaxed, the EM stadiums are full, people want to travel, there is discussion about the mask requirement.

    Are we underestimating the danger of a fourth wave?

    How the numbers develop is still in our hands. If we don't take precautionary measures, they will increase in autumn at the latest, probably sooner. We currently have an opportunity to maintain the low incidence by continuing to test and wearing masks indoors. I advocate increased testing after the holidays. Take, for example, North Rhine-Westphalia and the “Lollipop tests”, in which the pupils suck on a test stick. This is more pleasant than picking your nose with a stick, and the tests are PCR-based and can detect an infected person earlier than the rapid antigen tests. Nevertheless, the quick tests are better than no tests at all and make an important contribution, especially with regard to the delta variant. It seems so,that in the delta variant the infected excrete significantly more virus particles than in the alpha variant. It is therefore likely that the rapid tests will also work better.

    What makes the Delta variant so dangerous?

    It's a race against time.

    We are now making good progress with the vaccinations, but at the moment we do not have enough vaccine doses, and at the same time the delta variant has become more effective.

    The goal is to push the R-value below one so that the spread of the virus slows down.

    With the alpha variant, we can assume an R value of 4 to 4.5 without any measures, with delta it is in the range of 6. Therefore, one should not trample too many measures again now.

    Especially not the ones that hurt the least, like masks and testing.

    According to the current state of knowledge, complete vaccination protection against the Delta variant is particularly important.

    Several health politicians are calling for the second vaccinations to be brought forward.

    If you haven't been vaccinated yet, your turn will come later.

    Do you think that is necessary too?

    No.

    We need to give as many people as possible the first vaccination.

    We still don't have enough vaccine for this, but hopefully things will have relaxed by September.

    I am absolutely in favor of vaccinating twelve to fifteen year olds as well.

    But first it should be the turn of the risk groups.

    What use is it to the child if the parents become seriously ill?

    Of course, the full vaccination protects better, but the first one also significantly reduces the individual risk.

    In view of the spread of the Delta variant, the SPD health politician Karl Lauterbach has asked the STIKO to reconsider its restricted recommendation for vaccinating children. How do you see it

    The STIKO made its decision on the basis of the study that was published at the time. It was only about 1000 children. Given this low number, it is not yet possible to conclusively assess what the rare side effects are. In addition, we do not have enough vaccine, which is currently still intended for the elderly. So there was no general rejection of vaccinations for children, the STIKO would just like to wait until further reliable data is available. From a scientific point of view, that makes sense, but such an approach leads to uncertainty among the population. Ideally, you should have communicated that right away. For a few days there has been data from the USA that have already vaccinated hundreds of thousands of children between the ages of twelve and 15,the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made them accessible. This is compared: How great is the risk in the respective age group of contracting Corona and how great is the risk of suffering side effects from the vaccination? The benefit of a vaccination clearly outweighs this.