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reBerlin virologist Christian Drosten and other colleagues oppose a corona strategy targeting herd immunity. “It is with concern that we notice that the voices are growing again that are focusing on the natural contamination of a large part of the population with the objective of herd immunity as a strategy to combat pandemics,” says a statement from the Virology Society ( GfV) based in Heidelberg. Drosten was also involved in. Herd immunity means that a large part of the population has become immune after infection or vaccination, and as a result, the virus can no longer spread as well.
In their text, virologists refer to the so-called Great Declaration of Barrington, written by three researchers from the United States and Great Britain. According to its website, hundreds of thousands of people have already signed the declaration. The text says, among other things: “The most empathetic approach, which weighs the risks and benefits of achieving herd immunity, is to allow those with minimal risk of death to live normal lives so that they can obtain immunity through infection. “Natural can build up against the virus while better protecting those most at risk.” The authors fear that the tough measures “will cause irreparable harm, disproportionately affecting the disadvantaged.”
An uncontrolled infection would lead to a growing increase in deaths, writes the Society for Virology in Heidelberg. Even with strict isolation from older people, there are still other risk groups that are too numerous, too heterogeneous and, in some cases, also undetected to be actively protected. “An increased risk of a severe course of Covid-19 arises, for example, with obesity, diabetes, cancer, kidney failure, chronic lung disease, liver disease, stroke, after transplants and during pregnancy.” According to the GfV, it is not yet clear how long immunity acquired by infection persists. Striving to achieve herd immunity without vaccination is unethical and presents a high medical, social and therefore financial risk.
Overload of the healthcare system was also feared in Germany
About a week ago, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned against herd immunity through mass infections when fighting the corona pandemic. “Never in the history of healthcare has herd immunity been used as a strategy against an outbreak, much less a pandemic,” said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The Society for Virology speaks of the “beginning of an exponential spread” in view of the increasing number of infections in Germany. He goes on to say: “Due to the explosive infection dynamics that we notice in all critical points in Europe, it is to be feared that beyond a certain threshold, control over the infection process will be lost even in previously non-critical regions” .
If this threshold is exceeded, individual outbreak monitoring and strict isolation measures can no longer be implemented. Then an uncontrolled spread to all parts of the population can no longer be prevented. “This is expected to lead to a rapid overload of health systems, which, for example, in Germany alone due to a lack of intensive care personnel, could already be the case with fewer than 20,000 new infections per day.” .
