The corona virus has not yet been defeated, but “things are getting better.” Prof. Dr. Christian Drosten gave a lecture at the Aurich Science Days. Vaccine skeptics protested against the statements during a demonstration.
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Aurich – The Aurich Science Days have never experienced anything like this before: threats against the organizers and a demonstration against the speaker. Virologist Prof. Dr. Christian Drosten from the Berlin Charité was invited to look back at the corona pandemic. Due to the great interest, the event was moved from the freight shed to the Energy and Experience Center in Sandhorst (EEZ) last Friday evening. Christian Drosten was known to be one of those scientists who tried to explain the effects and measures surrounding corona to politicians and the general public. The virologist himself later admitted in his lecture that this did not always work smoothly.
Demonstration by the AfD
Before he started inside, a group of around 30 vaccine sceptics had gathered in front of the EEZ. The demonstration had been registered by the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, with some of the participants who were on the sidelines emphasizing that although they were against vaccination, they actually did not want to have anything to do with the AfD. In essence, the criticism was aimed at the fact that there had never actually been a pandemic and that it had merely been “staged” by politicians.
This is what Drosten says
Some public discussions caused confusion, for example when talk shows gave the impression that “two virologists, three opinions”. This distracted from the fact that “out of 200 scientists, 198 have the same opinion”. The reason why this was sometimes not communicated correctly was due to the decision-making processes.
The implementation of measures was ultimately a matter for politicians. The politicians listened to how five or six scientists assessed the current situation. They then withdrew without any scientists to consult. A major shortcoming was that both these committees and the interdisciplinary commissions set up in parallel were often mostly made up of people without medical expertise.
The results of the measures are debatable in individual cases. According to the studies Drosten referred to, some lockdowns, for example in the catering or retail sectors, were obviously far less effective than those in workplaces or schools.
The most effective means of combating the coronavirus were by far vaccinations. All of the national and international statistics presented by the virologist came to the unanimous conclusion: without vaccinations there would have been even more deaths.
Drosten was negligent in that the reins were somewhat loosened during the second and third vaccination phases, although overall Germany “got through the pandemic relatively unscathed,” the virologist concluded.
This is also confirmed by the recently published protocols of the Robert Koch Institute. There were also complaints about the exclusion of people, for example in old people’s homes or through dismissals after employees had not been vaccinated, and that negative side effects of the vaccines were concealed or at least played down.
Warned about the pandemic quite early
In his lecture, Christian Drosten, on the other hand, referred to a large number of scientists around the world who had warned quite early on that Corona would indeed be a pandemic. In Germany, they reacted particularly quickly, which is why the death rate was initially comparatively lower than in other European countries such as Great Britain.
Anja Arndt and Arno Arndt from the AfD called for a demonstration in front of the EEZ. Image: Werner Jürgens
In the subsequent waves, when new corona variants constantly appeared, the regulations were then, according to Christian Drosten, permanently “softened”, partly because we felt too safe and thought that everything was over.
Discussions caused confusion
Outlook for the next few weeks
At the end, Drosten ventured a cautious outlook for the coming weeks and months. “We have had a summer wave at the moment and it seems to be turning into an autumn wave,” explained Drosten. “It could go like it did two years ago, that is, that the virus does not completely calm down and runs into the autumn, but then infects and immunizes so many people that it practically comes to a standstill again by the end of the year and no really big winter wave follows. We now have stable population immunity. But this virus is still able to adapt and evade immunity. And it will certainly stay that way for a few years to come. But it will get better.” – The Aurich Science Days are offering further lectures by well-known speakers from the scientific community until October 28th.
