German virologist says real covid-19 pandemic just started now

German virologist Christian Drosten, a leading scientist and adviser to the German government on covid-19 issues, warned this Wednesday that the “real pandemic” of the new coronavirus is only just beginning.

“The real pandemic is coming now. Here too [na Alemanha]. At the most, we will be able to talk about the lessons of the first wave in Europe “, in which the differences were huge, underlined Drosten in an interview for the World Health Summit (CMS), which will take place in Berlin from 25 to 27 of this month in a semi-face due to covid-19.

The German expert recommended that, given the way the first wave was fought, the approach to fight the pandemic should be changed so that the situation can be tackled in the coming months.

“It is very important to inform the population well and widely,” said Drosten, who warned of the dangers of politicians using the pandemic in their political messages.

“The costs can be severe if politicians use the pandemic in their political messages. This is very complicated and the virus immediately passes the bill. We can see what is happening in the United States,” the country with the highest number of covid cases. -19 (almost 6.9 million) and deaths (200 818), he noted.

In the coming months, he recommended, and in order to control the situation, it is necessary to “change things” and it is also important to make “pragmatic decisions”.

The German expert relativized the speeches about the “German success” in combating the pandemic, maintaining that this is only due to the fact that Germany reacted four weeks earlier than other countries.

“We reacted with exactly the same means. There is nothing in particular that we have done well. We have simply done it before. That is why we have been successful,” he said, denying that the German health authorities have worked better than the French or that hospitals Germans are better equipped than Italians.

“If we apply this to what’s coming in the fall, then we will have to make it clear that we are still doing nothing better than the others,” he warned.

Drosten gave as an example the case of Argentina, where the pandemic emerged in the winter and, therefore, it is being “very difficult” to control the spread of covid-19 despite the restrictive measures.

“In Germany, we should look much more differently and accurately at what is happening abroad. We have to stop discussing issues like football stadiums, something completely fallacious,” he said.

On the other hand, Drosten recalled that science currently has “great credibility”, but warned that this could change “at any time”.

“Only in the end will it be known how science did it, because this pandemic, in the first place, is not a scientific phenomenon, but a natural catastrophe”, he observed.

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