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It is finally here, the vaccination against the coronavirus, but practically at the same time a mutation of the virus appears, which seems even more aggressive. Tanja Stadler from the Covid 19 working group says that this variant has probably already made its way to Switzerland. She calls for stricter measures.
Tanja stadler
ETH Professor in the Department of Biosystems
SRF News: Do we have to worry that the new variant of the coronavirus will cause more symptoms of illness or more deaths?
Tanja Stadler: So far we have no evidence that this new variant is more dangerous.
Do we have to worry that vaccines won’t work?
Scientists around the world are looking to see where this variant has changed. In fact, it is slightly different on the surface. But there is no evidence that the vaccine is no longer effective.
There is no evidence that the vaccine is no longer effective.
You said that, statistically, in every second of the nearly 100 flights from Britain in recent days, the mutated variant of the virus was brought to Switzerland. Why do you think that?
In the London metropolitan area, where this new variant mainly circulates, about one in 300 people is positive. About half have this new variant. If you extrapolate that to the number of planes, you get this statement.
Would that mean that around 50 people with the mutated virus are already in Switzerland?
This is a rough estimate, but we think it is highly likely that this variant has already been introduced.
According to Martin Ackermann of the Covid-19 working group, the Federal Council’s measures will not be enough to slow the spread of the virus. Would you agree with that?
We are not very optimistic that the R-value can be lowered enough with existing measures. The measures would have to be tightened immediately.
We are not very optimistic.
The cantons of western Switzerland want to close restaurants due to the increase in the R-value. So, actually, because of you, why did you calculate this R-value?
I would like to emphasize that we now have to push this R-value well below 1 throughout Switzerland, around 0.8. This would mean cutting the number of cases in half every two weeks.
So does this value say anything about the situation from 14 days ago?
If I get infected today, I will have symptoms after about five days, but it will still be a few days before I get tested and show up in the database. So it takes 10-14 days until we see if something has changed significantly.
So if the cantons react now, are they two weeks late?
That’s the problem: the virus is always in front of us, we only see what happened 10 or 14 days ago.
Actually, you should know exactly which measures are effective, because you can see it in the R value.
That would be great. But humans don’t work like robots. If a measure is introduced, that does not mean that everyone will implement it in exactly the same way. Measurement and implementation work together. And for a few days, this new variant of virus has been added. These factors determine whether the number of cases increases or decreases.
What do you do on christmas?
Celebrate in a very small circle with the family.
The interview was conducted by Urs Leuthard.
