2023-07-20 17:09:07
According to a study by the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), measures such as the obligation to wear masks and contact restrictions have made a significant contribution to combating the corona pandemic. Above all, the combination of the various precautions was the decisive factor in the fact that a person infected with the Sars-Cov-2 pathogen infected significantly fewer people than otherwise, according to the report published on Thursday. “If you look at them individually, they have a much weaker effect,” said an RKI expert on Thursday when the results were presented.
The RKI reports to the Federal Ministry of Health and regularly issued risk assessments and recommendations for infection control during the pandemic, which sparked discussions. For the “StoptCOVID study”, the scientists considered more than 20 non-pharmaceutical measures that were prescribed between March 2020 and August 2021. These include the obligation to wear masks, school closures and distance regulations.
The evaluation is based on data from the districts, which were documented by the Bonn Institute for Applied Social Sciences (infas) on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. The effects of the measures on the infection process were calculated based on the development of the so-called R value. This value indicates how many people an infected person infects on average.
Contact restrictions particularly effective
The authors found a particularly sharp drop in the infection rate for contact and assembly restrictions for private individuals in public spaces: They estimate that the R value has fallen by around 20 to 30 percent as a result.
The report notes another aspect: the number of infections fell during the observation period even before the implementation of a new regulation. “That means the measures took effect before they even came into force,” said an RKI expert. This is probably because people – knowing that a new measure would come – would have already followed it, for example reduced their contacts.
Leonie Feuerbach Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 13 Published/Updated: Recommendations: 10 Rebecca Boucsein Published/Updated: Recommendations: 17
According to their own statements, the researchers cannot use the data and their analyzes to assess exactly how individual measures worked separately or whether certain regulations were useless. It was too difficult to separate the effects on the infection process. The problem behind this is a methodical one: It is hardly possible to use model analyzes to prove the effectiveness of measures in a precise and completely unequivocal manner – apart from the measures themselves, there were simply too many other influences on the infection process. This problem had already been discussed in recent years in connection with numerous other studies on the effectiveness of pandemic measures worldwide.
However, the RKI appears to be certain, at least in relation to general statements: “Many restrictions are required to bring about a strong reduction,” said the RKI expert. According to the report, the measures would have prevented the health system from being severely overloaded until effective vaccines were developed.
High vaccination rate protected weaker ones
In addition to the non-pharmaceutical measures, a high vaccination rate made a significant contribution to fewer people becoming infected. “This led to a significantly weaker third wave of Covid-19, especially in the older population,” says the report.
According to the study, however, one aspect should be given more consideration in future pandemics: the mental health of people and their coexistence could suffer from protective measures. Possible negative consequences of precautions and their mitigation should therefore be given more consideration when planning a pandemic.
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