These experts will advise the federal government in the future

The task is enormous. The current focus is on fighting pandemics before and after Christmas. And linked to this, the question of how Germany can arm itself against the impending Omikron wave. In Great Britain, the number of infections is already doubling every two to three days because people who have been vaccinated three times also become infected.

Lauterbach said the council of experts would present an assessment of the dangers of the Omikron virus variant before Christmas. Whether politicians then have to act depends on the assessment. The experts would likely meet again on Friday to discuss Omikron.

The “Scientific Expert Committee” surprisingly includes not only the chief virologist at the Berlin Charité, Christian Drosten, but also the head of the virological institute at the Bonn University Hospital, Hendrik Streeck. In the past, the two had repeatedly made very different public statements about how to cope with the crisis. Drosten spoke out several times in favor of tough measures, including comprehensive lockdowns, while Streeck advocated less rigid interventions and the fastest possible return to normality.

“The top man among the epidemic detectives”

Christian Drosten As a specialist in newly emerging infectious diseases in the pandemic, has become one of the most prominent figures. The magazine “Der Spiegel” once called him the “top man among the epidemic detectives”. For good reason. In 2003, at the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNITM) in Hamburg, Drosten was one of the co-discoverers of the Sars coronavirus – a close relative of the current pandemic pathogen Sars-CoV-2.

Since the coronavirus reached Germany, too Hendrik Streeck asked. He set out on the trail of the virus early on when he began researching in the Heinsberg district in North Rhine-Westphalia, one of the republic’s first corona hotspots. When the then Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Armin Laschet (CDU), set up a pandemic council in spring 2020, Streeck was there.

Virologist Melanie Brinkmann from the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research is also a member of the federal government’s new expert committee. Also there are physicist Viola Priesemann from the Max Planck Institute, Thomas Mertens, Head of the Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko), Lothar Wieler, President of the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), intensive care physicians Christian Karagiannidis (Divi Intensive Care Register), Alena Buyx (Chair of the German Ethics Council) and eleven other experts.

The professor Melanie Brinkmann has always spoken out in favor of tough government intervention. Under her leadership, 35 leading medical professionals and other experts issued a three-way appeal in November calling on politicians to “comprehensively” meet their responsibility for breaking the fourth wave. “Every day of waiting costs human lives,” says the text.

Like Brinkmann also has Viola Priesemann recognized the seriousness of the corona situation early on. Both were involved in an action plan by renowned scientists in January 2021. In it, the researchers warned of the more contagious virus variants and called for a “plan for immediate pan-European action”.

Priesemann recently promoted some kind of emergency circuit breaker and other far-reaching measures. “Precautions like this are urgently needed, especially with regard to the new Omikron variant,” says a statement by various experts from the physicist and modeler.

In the new expert council, the general vaccination requirement aimed at by the new government should also be an issue – and possibly cause controversy. The councilor Thomas Mertens is strictly against such a duty. “I always prefer it when I manage to convince people to do something useful like vaccination,” said the Stiko boss. The vaccination commission was repeatedly criticized. Politicians accused the independent body, whose recommendations many medical practices are based on, of acting too slowly.

Serious problem in the intensive care units

The vaccination requirement is also driving Alena Buyx around. The head of the ethics council advises politics on fundamental issues, genetic engineering, euthanasia and corona. First, the director of the Institute for the History and Ethics of Medicine at the Technical University of Munich opposed a job-related vaccination requirement. Then she explained that the vaccination should not only be seen as a private matter because it has “effects on us all”.

This is evident in the intensive care units. According to the RKI, fewer vaccinated than unvaccinated Covid cases had to be treated there in November in all age groups examined. This can become a serious problem when the health system reaches its limits. The Expert Council is therefore Christian Karagiannidis be an important voice. The intensive care doctor manages the Divi intensive care registry and knows how many intensive care and ventilation beds are still available in Germany. The number has dropped to the lowest recorded level so far, he said. That worries him, especially with regard to the Omikron variant, which will establish itself at high speed.

That looks Lothar Wieler similar. The RKI boss heads an authority whose task it is to give early warning of epidemics and dangerous pathogens. With regard to Corona, he chooses clear words. “We are in dire straits at the moment. We will really have a very bad Christmas if we don’t take countermeasures now, ”he warned in November. The prognoses are “super gloomy”. Wieler accused the politicians of serious mistakes. For him it was opened too quickly and in too many areas. What needs to happen is obvious to him: “Anyone who can vaccinate should kindly vaccinate now. Otherwise we won’t get this crisis under control. “

Here is an overview of all 19 experts:

• Reinhard Berner (pediatrician, University of Dresden)
• Cornelia Betsch (expert for health communication, research on anti-vaccination, University of Erfurt)
• Melanie Brinkmann (virologist, TU Braunschweig)
• Alena Buyx (medical ethicist, chairwoman of the German Ethics Council)
• Jörg Dötsch (President of the German Society for Child and Adolescent Medicine)
• Christian Drosten (virologist, Charité)
• Christine Falk (Immunologist, Hannover Medical School)
• Ralph Hertwig (Director of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development)
• Lars Kaderali (Director of the Institute for Bioinformatics at the University Medical Center Greifswald)
• Christian Karagiannidis (Head of the Intensive Care Register of the German Interdisciplinary Association for Intensive Care and Emergency Medicine)
• Heyo Kroemer (Pharmacist, Chairman of the Board of Charité)
• Thomas Mertens (Chairman of the Standing Vaccination Commission)
• Michael Meyer-Hermann (Immunologist, University of Braunschweig)
• Johannes Niessen (Health Department Cologne)
• Viola Priesemann (expert in modeling complex systems, Max Planck Institute)
• Leif Erik Sander (vaccine researcher, Charité)
• Stefan Sternberg (District Administrator Ludwigslust-Parchim)
• Hendrik Streeck (virologist, University of Bonn)
• Lothar Wieler (President of the Robert Koch Institute)

More: The lockdown at Christmas is becoming more likely