Should we end the restrictions related to Covid-19 once and for all? In Germany, the debate has been raging since this little sentence that the virologist Christian Drosten dropped on Tuesday, December 27th, at the end of a long interview with the Tagesspiegel: “We are experiencing the first endemic wave of SARS-CoV -2 this winter; I think the pandemic is over. »
Due to the reputation of its author, such a claim could not go unnoticed. Christian Drosten, Director of the Institute of Virology at the Charité in Berlin, known worldwide for having developed the first Covid 19 screening test in January 2020, is not speaking lightly. In Germany, where he has established himself as the government’s most heard expert and the media’s most sought-after expert since the beginning of the pandemic, he always gave the same speech, repeatedly warned of the harmfulness of the virus and consistently advocated ultra-strict measures.
That this man is so cautious about declaring the pandemic “over” could only please those who have been calling for the end of the last restrictions in force in the country for months. Starting with the Liberals (FDP), members of the coalition of the Social Democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD). No sooner had the interview with the famous virologist been published than Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann rushed forward and declared on Twitter: “During the pandemic, Christian Drosten was one of the most cautious scientists. Now he thinks it’s over. We are in an endemic situation. Politically, we must take the consequences by ending the recent anti-Covid measures. »
“After this winter we will have such strong immunity in the population that the virus will find it difficult to spread like this” – Christian Drosten, virologist
In his interview with the Tagesspiegel, Christian Drosten does not comment on the question of the restrictions. Furthermore, when he claims that the pandemic is “over”, he does not explain that Germany is definitely done with the Covid-19, which he believes will continue to circulate, but at a much more moderate rate. “After this winter we will have such high levels of immunity in the population that the virus will have a hard time spreading so widely. Unless there’s a nasty surprise associated with a new mutation. But even that I don’t think so at the moment. »
When asked about the situation in China, Christian Drosten refuses to compare the policy he is defending for Germany with that of Beijing. “A zero Covid strategy like China’s can only be implemented with extreme state force, including confinement of citizens in their homes. (…) The big mistake in China was not to educate the population, especially the elderly, about vaccinations. Because of the total confinement, we didn’t see what this disease really was. This is why the vaccination rate among the elders there is so low. »
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