Updated on 04/18/2022 at 11:30 am
- Health Minister Karl Lauterbach fears another corona wave in the fall.
- By then, there may also be new omicron subvariants that are “as deadly as delta,” he warned.
- There are contradictions, especially from some virologists.
Health Minister Karl Lauterbach’s (SPD) warning about a possible “killer variant” of the corona virus continues to be criticized. “The term ‘killer variant’ is unscientific and leads to nothing but uncertainty among the population,” said virologist Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit of Bild.
He currently sees little evidence of such a danger: “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 based only on neutralizing antibodies, but also on cellular immunity”.
Streeck: “You can’t predict the development of variants”
Bonn virologist Hendrik Streeck was also skeptical. “You can’t predict the development of variants. Instead of warning about scenarios like ‘killer variants’, it would be important to prepare for autumn and winter,” he told Bild.
Lauterbach expressed concern in “Bild am Sonntag” about several omicron subvariants that were just developing. “It is quite possible that we have a highly contagious omicron variant that is as deadly as Delta. That would be an absolutely murderous variant,” the SPD politician said. CDU health politician Erwin Rüddel tweeted: “He should have really learned from his mistakes and misjudgments.” © dpa
Updated on 04/14/2022 16:08
Just a few days ago, two subtypes of omicrons were discovered in South Africa. The WHO has now added the new BA.4 and BA.5 variants to the list of “worrying” variants. Official designation: “Worry Variants”. (Image credit: IMAGO/Bihlmayerfotografie)