The data from England prove what went through the media: The virus is spreading at breakneck speed – “Unfortunately, it doesn’t look good,” Germany’s best-known virologist Christian Drosten writes about it. But there is also good news: Contact reduction also helps in this case, says Drosten. In other words, the mutation does not currently change anything, as Hans-Peter Hutter, an environmental physician at MedUni Vienna, explains. Also, according to the English data, there were only six deaths out of 900 infected people, which confirms that the course is not made more difficult by the mutation. People under the age of 60 are largely affected.
BioNTech and Pfizer’s Corona vaccine should also work, as reported. “We have already tested the vaccine against circa 20 other viral variants with other mutations. The immune response elicited by our vaccine has always inactivated all forms of the virus,” says BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin. That a single mutation could disable an entire vaccine is hard to imagine at the moment anyway, Hutter explains. But the virus variant “makes us realize that the pandemic is not over,” he says. It’s a wake-up call to comply with measures, he adds.
Switzerland currently seeks 10,000 Britons
Meanwhile, the WHO Regional Office for Europe has convened an emergency meeting of its member states. It said the regional office is following up on info about the mutation and wants to discuss strategies for testing, containment of transmission and “communication risks.” Given the unclear situation, it would be “prudent” to restrict travel. That’s what most countries are doing, but 10,000 Britons arrived in Switzerland last week before the landing ban, and they are now being feverishly sought – a retroactive 10-day quarantine has been imposed on them.
- hp, Source: krone.at. pictures: Pfizer and pixabay.com
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