The load with Omikron: That’s how infectious the vaccinated are

Berlin The apex of the omicron wave in Germany seems to have been passed. Although the incidence is not falling everywhere, it is falling slightly overall. Three quarters of the population are currently fully vaccinated, and more than half have also received a booster shot.

Nevertheless, the RKI assesses the risk to the population from Covid-19 as “very high”, because omicron, especially its subtype BA.2, has spread rapidly despite the vaccination rate that has been achieved. This is also due to the fact that the triple vaccination can provide very good protection against severe Covid 19 illness and death, but cannot protect against omicron infection in the long term. But does the viral load at least decrease in infected vaccinated people and with it the risk of infection for others?

This question is of great importance for the discussion about vaccination obligations. Because if vaccinated infected people were similarly infectious as unvaccinated ones, the protection of particularly vulnerable and non-vaccinable people and also the effect of vaccinations on the course of infection would not be guaranteed.