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The number of new corona infections reported in Germany is higher than ever. There are high hopes for the development of a vaccine to ease the situation. Now a prominent virologist has lowered expectations.
The number of new corona infections recorded in Germany has reached a new high of 16,774 cases in one day. This is based on information from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) as of early Thursday. The number of deaths related to the virus increased by 89 in 24 hours to a total of 10,272, also a significant increase.
According to the RKI, a total of 481,013 people across Germany have been infected with Sars-CoV-2 since the start of the pandemic. The RKI estimates that around 339,200 people have recovered. According to the RKI situation report on Wednesday, the number of views, or the R-value for short, was 1.03 in Germany (previous day: 1.17). This means that one infected person infects slightly more than one other person. The R value represents the infection rate approximately one and a half weeks earlier.
Only a vaccine will help in the long term
The number of corona cases has been increasing rapidly for days. Last Thursday, new infections passed the 10,000 mark for the first time since the start of the corona pandemic in Germany.
Therefore, to stop the rapid spread of the virus, the federal and state governments have decided to take far-reaching measures: in November, public life in the Federal Republic will be severely restricted. Contact restrictions and restaurant closures should make the number of infections manageable again, at least in the short term.
However, in the long term, all hope lies in the development of a vaccine. But even a proper vaccine probably won’t alleviate the situation right away, experts say. The president of the permanent commission of vaccination of the Robert Koch Institute, the virologist Thomas Mertens, extinguished the corresponding expectations.
Virologist: Comprehensive vaccination will require
Mertens assumes that the vaccination of the entire population against the coronavirus will not be completed by the end of 2021, even if a vaccine is rapidly developed. “It will be a long time before we see a noticeable change in the infection process due to vaccination, so that we can say that peace can now return,” Mertens told the Funke media group newspapers.
In early October, Federal Research Minister Anja Karliczek announced that she expected a coronavirus vaccine by the middle of next year. The investigation, which also involves several German companies, is currently “gigantic fast”.
Possible conflicts in vaccine distribution
Virologist Mertens is more skeptical. If you vaccinated 100,000 people a day, it would take 150 days to vaccinate 15 million people. In Merten’s opinion, this speed would already be a challenge. “The start of vaccinations should not happen too quickly.” Above all, the transport and storage, the establishment of regional vaccination centers and the simultaneous documentation of vaccinations at the national level, as well as the evaluation of safety aspects and the success of medical vaccination must be well prepared.
Mertens also hopes there will be conflicts over fair distribution in light of an initially scarce vaccine. “It may also be that people who don’t have the opportunity right away complain.” According to the Federal Ministry of Health, people at high health risk must first be vaccinated. Mertens announced that the ethical framework for vaccine distribution will be published early next week. The deliberations of the Permanent Commission of Vaccination, the Council of Ethics of Germany and the Leopoldina would conclude at the end of this week.
