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- The Federal Covid-19 Working Group is against the coronavirus that infects the Swiss population.
- Experts warn of the health consequences of an infection in a report.
- It is said that there is a risk of a drastic increase in deaths, in case the epidemic cannot be controlled.
- Experts recommend continuing the current approach until a coronavirus vaccine is available.
If there is an infection, an attempt is made to achieve herd immunity. However, according to the Task Force report, this approach is based on “uncertain foundations and would cause massive costs to the economy, society and the health sector.”
The Federal Covid-19 Task Force on Infection Strategy
In the “Policy Brief”, the experts warn about the consequences for health. For herd immunity, two thirds of the population would have to be infected. This would make it extremely difficult to protect groups at risk. This is how the virus would spread before infected people experienced symptoms.
And: “The number of deaths would increase dramatically if the epidemic could not be controlled.” The health system would collapse.
To avoid this, according to the working group, no more than a thousand patients can be treated in the intensive care unit at the same time. It would take at least a year to infect only half the population.
Continue as before, until vaccine is available
With the current focus on keeping the number of infections as low as possible, the economy would be less affected. This approach should be followed “until a vaccine is available.”
The head of the working group Martin Ackermann, the epidemiologist Marcel Tanner and the ETH professor Sebastian Bonhoeffer have analyzed the infection strategy.
Health Minister Alain Berset recently said that he did not believe in a differentiated infection, as individual virologists suggested. Anyone who thinks they only have to protect the vulnerable and otherwise let the virus run free is embarking on a dangerous path.
