Gartlehner emphasized two points in particular that speak for a repeal: The current Covid variant BA.5 is so infectious that people who have not developed any symptoms at the very beginning of their infection are already infecting other people. Isolation would therefore only have a minor impact on the pandemic. In addition, one must take note of the reality that large parts of the population no longer support the measures.
The epidemiologist also pointed out other regions, such as the Scandinavian countries or Spain, which have not prescribed any measures for a long time – and yet have a similar pandemic course as Austria with a time lag. The metropolis of Madrid, with eight million residents, also got through the latest wave without isolation or the requirement to wear a mask. Gartlehner was much more in favor of protecting vulnerable people more and promptly getting them to get a fourth vaccination. In addition, these people should test several times a week during the respective corona waves in order to detect an infection at an early stage. Then you can often avoid a severe course with antiviral drugs.
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“Anyone else listening?”
Other experts saw it differently: “To avoid any ambiguity: I am AGAINST lifting the quarantine. Let’s permanently solve the shortage of staff in health care, schools, and elsewhere. Let’s accept that this endemic condition is unsustainable. Is anyone still listening? It’s also not about diving through one last Covid winter or one last wave. It’s about adapting to the new reality for the time being,” wrote molecular biologist Ulrich Elling in the short message service Twitter. There, the microbiologist Michael Wagner also pointed out that “data from Denmark and Portugal show that the rate of hospital admissions after BA.5 is significantly higher than BA.2”. This should be taken into account when making political decisions.
The virologist Norbert Nowotny also spoke out against an end to the quarantine. “We can take this step at some point, but not at the moment,” he was quoted as saying in an info mail from “Falter”. Because the number of infected people and patients being treated in hospitals is still high and could increase again as a result of the end of the quarantine.
“In Spain it didn’t tear the hospitals apart either”
The complexity researcher Peter Klimek, on the other hand, advocated an end to the obligation to isolate, since several factors would have to be taken into account here. “Anyone who, from an epidemiological point of view, denies the sense of isolation in the case of a disease like Covid-19 can just as easily deny that the sky is blue. But there are also economic and socio-political considerations that need to be taken into account,” he told the “press “.
Other countries such as Spain and Great Britain have been following this path for months – “there the hospitals have not been torn apart either. I think that this step is currently possible in Austria without directly endangering the health system”. In order to find out whether there is still no danger, better surveillance is needed.
Source: Nachrichten
