How well are people protected from the virus after a corona infection?
The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) and Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (58, SPD) defend the Cure status reduction from six to three months. But chief physician Dr. Thomas Voshaar (62, Bethanien Clinic in Moers) disagrees – and puts concrete figures on the table!
“In our internal analysis of 534 Covid patients who we have treated since the beginning of the pandemic, it was noticeable that not a single patient had to be treated in the intensive care unit because of a re-infection,” says Voshaar, who is also President of the Association of Pulmonary Clinics.
THAT shows that those who have recovered are much better protected against the risk of corona than claimed by the RKI and Lauterbach.
BILD also asked the intensive care medicine association DIVI how many corona patients who were not vaccinated but only recovered were last admitted to intensive care units nationwide.
A DIVI spokeswoman said that “cannot be answered”. There is often no “certain knowledge” as to whether patients “have already experienced an infection”.
Lauterbach calls shortening “reasonable”
But Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach again defended the controversial reduction in the recovered status after a corona infection from six to three months on Friday as “reasonable”.
“With Omikron, we have the problem that someone who has been infected with the Delta variant can become infected with Omikron after just three months,” explained Lauterbach. The recovered status for six months is “not certain” in view of the risk of infection and contagion that has not been averted. There was also “no dissent” between his ministry and the RKI on this decision.
Lauterbach admitted that there was a “communication problem” between the RKI and his house. Lauterbach explained that he was “not included” in the RKI’s new definition of the recovered status. In the future, they will “think together” beforehand about how such a status change can be communicated.
In terms of content, however, the decision was correct, Lauterbach confirmed. Germany is also working to ensure that the convalescent status at EU level is reduced to three months.
In other EU countries, people who have been infected with the corona virus are considered recovered for a period of six months. The rule also affects people who want to travel from one EU country to another, for example. In Germany, the recovered status was surprisingly shortened to a period of 28 to 90 days after a positive PCR test in mid-January based on new RKI specifications. Previously it was six months. The decision sparked some fierce criticism.