[ad_1]
For people over 50, it will soon be “complicated,” says Drosten.
Christian Drosten is the director of the Institute of Virology at the Charité Berlin
Source: dpa / Michael Kappeler
The virologist Christian Drosten sees the suspension of vaccines with AstraZeneca as a difficult situation in Germany. For people over 50, things will soon be “complicated.”
TOIn view of the third corona wave that is starting in Germany, virologist Christian Drosten regrets developments around AstraZeneca with discontinued vaccines and low delivery quantities. For now, the main thing to remember is that “we need this vaccine,” emphasized the Charité scientist on Tuesday in the podcast “Coronavirus Update” (in NDR-Info). Currently, the epidemiological situation is not good in Germany. The more contagious B.1.1.7 virus variant is becoming more and more prevalent, its share now being three-quarters.
“Shortly after Easter we will have a situation like Christmas,” said the virologist, also facing the gloomy forecasts of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) a few days ago about a feared sharp increase in the number of new infections. .
Drosten hopes that the situation will become “drastically more difficult” because of the mutant. It will be particularly “tricky” for age groups 50 and older who have not yet been vaccinated. Drosten had already issued this warning before.
Suspension of AstraZeneca in Germany
In Germany, the Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI), responsible for vaccine safety, recommended stopping vaccines with AstraZeneca. According to information from the Health Ministry, a total of eight cases of thrombosis (blood clots) in the cerebral veins in connection with vaccination were reported in Germany as of Tuesday evening. Therefore, the number of cases is statistically significantly higher than in the population without vaccination.
A few days ago Astrazeneca announced a drastic cut in its deliveries to the European Union. The plan is to deliver 100 million cans to EU countries in the first half of the year, he said. More recently, the group had taken over 220 million cans by mid-year.
On the accumulation of rare thromboses in a short period of time, Drosten said that one should “of course take it seriously and look at it.” This includes, among other things, looking for other possible causes. Drosten said he did not want to evaluate the decision and had no background information.
