The statement of the leading Austrian infectious disease specialist Christoph Venis on the Austrian public television ORF, that he no longer believes that there is any hope that at some point there could be immunity of the herd against the coronavirus, caused concern. This, he explained, is a misconception.
"The herd's immunity has always been challenged virologically, but now it is practically dead," he said.
He attributed this assumption, as it was analyzed at a conference, to the unprecedented and particularly rapid change in virus variants. "The coronavirus," he said, "is changing very rapidly, with the result that a significant proportion of the population is infected with one of the variants."
The removal of protection rules in moderation
The infectious disease specialist was particularly critical of the new regulations in force in Austria, such as the relaxation of isolation rules for infected people. This means that people who are still contagious can also work in hospitals, at least in some L .nder, but Vienna does not apply these rules.
The infectious disease specialist called for a "specific rate of deceleration" of the measures against her Covid 19 with the logic that if a measure is more valid, you get used to it even easier if you do not like it, while on the contrary, rapid changes cause confusion.
Oxford scientists confirm the Austrian infectious disease specialist
The opinion of the Austrian infectious disease specialist Christoph Venis comes to confirm what a few days ago researchers of the University of Oxford claimed in the scientific journal Nature Reviews Microbiology, that the rapid antigenic evolution of SARS-CoV-2 is likely to produce new, potentially more lower severity of the Omicron variant is just a coincidence.
They even warned that it is premature to reduce the alert for COVID-19 due to the Omicron variant as viruses generally evolve to maximize their transmissibility and this can sometimes be accompanied by an increase in their pathogenicity. The idea that viruses will evolve to be less contagious to escape their hosts is one of the most persistent myths surrounding the evolution of pathogens, according to scientists.
Source: in.gr