COVID-19: the number of new corona infections is falling
New infections with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus are still at a relatively high level, but the number of people who become seriously ill with COVID-19 is apparently decreasing. Are we now at the turning point of the omicron wave?
According to the assessment of Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach, Germany has passed the peak of the omicron wave website the federal government. According to the politician, the measures taken had worked. Nevertheless: “We’re not really in safe waters yet,” says Lauterbach. One of the most respected virologists in the country agrees.
Increasing coronavirus variant Omicron BA.2
“Unfortunately, we can’t catch our breath in our virology department,” explains Prof. Dr. medical Sandra Ciesek, Director of the Institute for Medical Virology at the University Hospital Frankfurt am Main in a current podcast by the German Heart Foundation.
According to Message The virologist refers in particular to the increasing frequency of the Omicron BA.2 coronavirus variant, “where we don’t yet know exactly how seriously people get sick.”
The cardiologist and intensive care physician Prof. Dr. medical Thomas Voigtländer, CEO of the German Heart Foundation, is currently speaking of a “tense breather”.
“Not just a sniffle”
Despite the still high number of infections, voices are circulating that an infection with the current Omicron variant is not that bad. However, the virologist Ciesek does not agree at all.
Data from Great Britain, for example, have shown that infections with the BA.1 variant are actually “comparatively easier”. However, it should not be forgotten that here in Germany in particular, many people have already been vaccinated. “I therefore always warn that the infection is not just a cold.”
Furthermore, a look at the African countries shows that the number of deaths among the unvaccinated is increasing there. “And here too, of course, older people or people who are not vaccinated or have previous illnesses can become very seriously ill with omicron.”
Fear of myocarditis
Various recent studies and media reports on the occurrence of rare cases of vaccine-related heart muscle inflammation (myocarditis) are causing uncertainty.
Many people find it difficult to weigh up the risk of an infection with the omicron variant BA.1, which is usually mild, and the risk of such a side effect after an mRNA vaccination.
After more than ten billion COVID-19 vaccinations, “we assume that there is an associated myocarditis in 3 to 5 per 100,000 vaccinations”, ie in the temporal context of an mRNA vaccination, explains Voigtländer.
Young men between the ages of 15 and 30 have a significantly higher risk of developing myocarditis, which is usually mild, but young women do not. However, because of the fear of this event, which is still rare overall, and under the assumption that an illness with BA.1 is mild, Ciesek believes that being able to do without a vaccination is a fallacy.
The doctor makes it unmistakably clear: “We also know that if someone has not been vaccinated and is now mildly ill with omicron, then they will not develop sufficient immunity to other virus variants, for example.”
She sees “not the last variant” in Omicron and assumes that maybe even Delta will come back. Therefore, the advantage is still clearly on the side of the COVID-19 vaccination. “I see it the same way,” says Voigtländer. This position is also underlined by current data with a focus on cardiovascular complications as a consequence of COVID-19.
Increased risk of new cardiovascular diseases
Prof. Voigtländer recalls a two to three times higher mortality rate in people who had previous heart disease and were infected with SARS-CoV-2 in the first wave.
Cardiologists not only saw that these pre-existing patients were at high risk of infection, but also that new heart diseases developed in those infected with the virus:
“Myocarditis was the main phenomenon there. It is estimated that about 11 out of 100,000 unvaccinated people occurred,” explains the medical director of the Agaplesion Bethanien Hospital in Frankfurt am Main.
In addition to myocarditis as a result of COVID-19 disease, there are other diseases that are associated with the cardiovascular system, emphasizes Ciesek. “Good data” on this is provided in the specialist journal “Nature Medicine“ published study with 150,000 older US veterans, who were on average 65 years old and had a corona infection.
Compared to the control group that did not have COVID-19 and to a second control group from before the pandemic, it was clear to see that there was an “increased risk” of cardiac arrhythmia, heart failure and coronary artery disease (CHD ) – “even if the Covid disease itself wasn’t that severe,” says Prof. Ciesek.
“This shows once again that it is not just a lung disease that we are talking about.”
Better antiviral drugs needed
For Voigtländer, it is conceivable that the current pandemic will eventually take the same course as the influenza caused by flu viruses, given the “many parallels with the pandemic that we are currently experiencing” and provided that vaccines are adapted every year.
Virologist Ciesek, on the other hand, is “a bit pessimistic”, because SARS-CoV-2 has also proven to be unexpectedly versatile for corona specialists and “changed so much in one year with so many different variants”.
The doctor is therefore turning her attention to the properties of future virus variants: are the pathogens possibly more aggressive, is there an increased immune response, so that our vaccines are less effective?
On the other hand, in her opinion, better antiviral drugs are urgently needed because the available vaccines alone do not lead to sterile immunity – “that is, that the infection can be fought off on the mucous membrane”.
Therefore, those who are already ill or immunosuppressed are dependent on such drugs. They also have the advantage of remaining relatively stable, even if the virus changes. (ad)
Author and source information
This text corresponds to the specifications of medical specialist literature, medical guidelines and current studies and has been checked by medical professionals.
Swell:
- German Heart Foundation: Virologist Ciesek warns: Vaccination is also important against new virus variants, (accessed: March 2nd, 2022), German Heart Foundation
- Xie, Y., Xu, E., Bowe, B. et al.: Long-term cardiovascular outcomes of COVID-19; in: Nature Medicine, (veröffentlicht: 07.02.2022), Nature Medicine
Important NOTE:
This article contains general advice only and should not be used for self-diagnosis or treatment. He can not substitute a visit at the doctor.