"There are many causes behind the

fourth wave in Germany

. The percentage of unvaccinated people is still too high and if they become infected, they immediately become seriously ill, but the virus is also spreading among those vaccinated."

This is what

Alexander Kekulé

assures

, one of the best known German epidemiologists.

With 63 years, this professor of Virology at the University of Halle-Wittenberg, in Saxony-Anhalt, where he also directs the Institute for Medical Microbiology, recalls that the vaccine is effective in a percentage of people that ranges between 50% and 70 %, which means that out of ten people vaccinated, three to five could transmit the virus.

"And when demonstrations are allowed without control measures, Covid tests or distancing, the demonstrations become sources of contagion," he says.

Q. What are the other causes?

A. A second problem is that schools have reopened full time but most students are not vaccinated.

That is an invisible wave, because students tend to have relatively mild symptoms, just like vaccinated people, and they don't take it seriously.

This massive incidence is then transmitted to the unvaccinated and this has as a result that the elderly become seriously ill and are again crowded into intensive care units, affecting the country's health system.

P. However, you put the photo in the lack of prevention measures among those vaccinated

R. They have too much freedom and it must be said.

Q. Is the high percentage of unvaccinated people in the eastern states serious?

In Saxony there is just over 50% of the vaccinated population.

A. The phenomenon is not only in the east, it also occurs in some areas of Bavaria or in Baden-Württemberg. In these regions the incidence is high and intensive care is overwhelmed. It has to do with the mentality of the people, because they are agricultural regions with poorly informed populations. Although it is also true that at the beginning of the entire Robert Koch Institute said that this virus was less dangerous than the flu. It was a mistake and then they corrected it, but in those areas they remember and believe that it is not so necessary to be vaccinated. In fact, there are almost three million elderly people who have also refused to get vaccinated.

Unlike Italians, who suffered a terrible catastrophe in the first wave of the coronavirus, here the first wave went relatively well and the seriousness of what happened has not been well understood.

Everyone believes and trusts that there is a hospital around the corner that will be able to take care of you if you get sick.

Q. What to do now?

R. Convincing specific groups of people to get vaccinated without blaming them, such as the elderly, thus avoiding a split in society, preventing the pandemic from hatching in schools, and setting precise limits on events. For example, that from 50 people you not only have to be vaccinated to attend but also have to take a test that shows that you do not have the coronavirus. And the obligation to wear masks and social distance should also be imposed. I would also put a maximum of people for events: no more than 1,000.

The third booster dose should be given immediately to those over 60 years of age, not 70 as is being done now.

And last but not least, although I have always been against a general obligation, I agree with obliging the medical personnel who care for the most vulnerable groups to be vaccinated because in this case we need it.

Q. Will there be a new blockade of the country?

R. I think that a block like the one lived in 2020 would not be politically sustainable.

But there is a real danger of new restrictions like school closings, event limits, or restrictions on private contacts going into Christmas.

Q. How do you see the situation in the rest of Europe? And in Italy?

A. Unfortunately, we continue to navigate the pandemic in small boats, rather than all staying inside one large European ship.

It is a pity.

At the moment Spain and Italy seem to be relatively better, because the population has understood that it is important to focus on defending against the coronavirus.

There the measures are severe but fair.

I do not think that in Germany it would have been possible to introduce the obligation to present the green pass at the workplace.

Italy is doing well both for the spread of vaccination and for the behavior of society, but we must not fall into satisfaction.

At the beginning of the pandemic in Germany, the tendency was to point to Italy as a negative example, but they did not realize that what happened in Bergamo could have happened at the Oktoberfest in Munich.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

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