Covid in Austria: The Road Ahead in 2023

According to the Zero Covid Hawks of Der Standard--read and weep, for they know not what they do

Still busy, hence another translation of a telling piece that appeared in the ‘left-liberal’ paper Der Standard, long home to the more inane and pollyannaish adherents of the Branch Covidians. Written on 23 Jan. 2023 by the notoriously narrative junkie Pia Kruckenhauser, its original title, translating roughly into ‘What will be important in 2023’, is indicative of the derange pseudo-astrology that passes for reporting in legacy media these days. ‘Enjoy’. (As always, all emphases mine.)

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What will be important in 2023 with respect to Corona

The Corona pandemic is nearing its end. This does not mean an all-clear, but after three years of crisis, experts and society are better able to deal with the pathogen. Nevertheless, many questions remain unanswered.

Christian Drosten sees the pandemic turning into an endemic wave [that would be in the singular, eh?], and experts in this country also share this view. This brings a lot of relief for everyday life and the psyche, but not everyone can look forward to the coming months quite calmly. For Sars-CoV-2 will not disappear and joins influenza as a viral infection with a potentially severe outcomes. Caution is still called for, especially for those who are vulnerable, and Long Covid will also stay with us.

And there are still many unanswered questions: how do we continue to vaccinate? How will our immune protection develop? How is treatment changing? How do we as a society deal with physical and psychological long-term consequences? Which scientific aspects will become relevant in the future? An overview.

Infectiology: Develop clear vaxx regimen, treat elders with antivirals

Vaccinations have changed everything. Above all, they have reduced mortality from 4.5% at the beginning of the pandemic to about 0.5% now, emphasises infectious disease specialist Christoph Spinner from the Technical University Hospital in Munich [no citations added; this is a fraudulent claim, viz. John Ioannides’ statements in spring 2020]. In the meantime, Sars-CoV-2 is only the fourth or fifth most common pathogen of respiratory diseases. ‘However, it remains a seasonal disease that will continue to endanger the elderly and chronically ill in particular. These vulnerable people will need an annual booster vaccination.’

In general, the task now is to develop general vaccination recommendations, says Julian Schulze zur Wiesch, infectious disease specialist at the University Clinic Hamburg-Eppendorf. It needs to be clarified how many vaccinations are actually necessary for a long-term basic immunisation and whether an infection is to be regarded as a vaccination [again, the words used are clear: ‘infection’ ≠ ‘vaccination’; any such differentiation would be, well, political theatrics]. And he emphasises that ‘older people with special risk factors should receive antiviral therapy earlier’.

Infectious disease physician Clara Lehmann from the University Hospital in Cologne, Germany, also points out that ‘it is very likely that a virus will jump from the animal kingdom to humans again’ [no evidence is needed; also, anyone up for a debate about the lab leak or bioweapon origins?]. This is because climate change, rapid urbanisation and deforestation are bringing us closer together, which increases the danger. [Sure, all valid reasons; you forgot to bring up ‘coincidence’, by the way.]

Immunology: No mucosal immunity, but stable antibody titres

Immunity against severe courses of disease should be maintained without having to be constantly refreshed—if one does not belong to the vulnerable group. This is what Andreas Radbruch, rheumatologist at the German Rheumatism Research Centre in Berlin, expects. Because after infections with Sars-CoV-1, the antibody titres have been stable for 17 years now. ‘However, protection against infections will probably remain as poor as it is at present.’ Whether nasal vaccines could change that is questionable. [Here’s a thought, though, Dr. Radbruch: is there any evidence whatsoever that people after having overcome infection would require hospitalisation when being re-infected? After, like, three years of this ‘pandemic’, one would think this a worthwhile topic to ponder, you know, jus’ sayin’…]

Christine Falk, a transplant immunologist at Med-Uni Hannover, does not fear that the immune system could have suffered long-term damage as a result of Corona—even though many are particularly ill at the moment. ‘The immune system has not gone to sleep, but it was less active locally. It has to be refreshed now. That’s annoying, but no reason to worry that immune competence is generally impaired.’ [Would there be randomised studies of sickness and illnesses, widely understood, that looked at the medical history of vaxxed vs. unvaxxed people? Otherwise I’d have to presume that the locally active immune systems would be, well, referring to street addresses that correlate with ‘vaxx status’…] And she stresses that the measures learned in the pandemic, such as ventilation and hand washing, remain important.

Long Covid, for which there is no clear treatment (yet), remains a major problem. Carmen Scheibenbogen, immunologist and fatigue expert at the Charité Berlin, therefore suggests that drugs already available that could be suitable for this should be quickly tested for curative therapy approaches in clinical trials. [Oh, look at this: repurposed drugs? What an innovation—this reeks of Nobel Prize material, eh?]

Microbiology: No danger at present, possibility of new variants remains

Even though the pandemic is coming to an end in this country, it is still a very relevant problem worldwide. This is because outside Europe and North America, vaccination rates are far too low, and the exact status of immunity acquired through infection is also unclear, emphasises Christian Bogdan, clinical microbiologist at the University Hospital of Erlangen. This could also promote the emergence of new variants. At the moment, it does not look like a more dangerous variant will establish itself again. Even the XBB.1.5 variant, which is currently dominant in the USA and is also increasingly spreading here, does not seem to lead to more severe courses, it is just particularly contagious [Oh my, what would I give to find out if XBB.1.5 would spread preferentially among ‘the vaxxed’]. But one cannot say with certainty whether this will remain the case. Bogdan therefore pleads in the medium term for vaccines that are based on constant or little-changing structural components of Sars-CoV-2.

For this, further basic immunological research is necessary [read this as: free-for-all in terms of any grant proposal that contains the words ‘Covid’ and ‘vaccines’], for example to identify and define biomarkers that block virus transmission via the respiratory tract, says Christine Dahlken from the Institute for Infection Research and Vaccine Development at the University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf. ‘This project requires close cooperation between researchers from all over the world and from different fields.’ [No shit, eh.]

Neurology: Vaccine protection against Long Covid, open questions in dementia

Vaccination not only protects against acute severe courses, but also protects well against Long Covid, this finding seems to be increasingly confirmed by studies [no need to mention a single one then, I suppose]. This is all the more important because it is now clear that even the somewhat milder Omikron variant leads to a similar number of long-term consequences as earlier variants. ‘It is currently still unclear whether acute drug treatment can also protect against long-term consequences’, says Peter Berlit, neurologist and co-author of the German treatment guideline for Long Covid. He also emphasises that it is now a matter of defining biomarkers that allow a clean classification of the individual Long Covid complaints [Don’t ask me how that would work: shall we no define biomarkers on an individual basis? Where’s the difference to, say, an individual-based diagnosis?]. The development and scientific review of therapy options will remain the main task of the coming months and years [Here’s a potentially helpful thought: why not read the published peer-reviewed literature by, say, Drs. Tyson and Fareed, McCullough, and others? It would save countless years of research, grant money, and, I’d argue, also lives.]

Only the coming years can show what the pandemic means for the development and course of neurodegenerative diseases. So far, we know that a corona infection causes the brain to age particularly severely in older patients with diseases such as dementia. Severe viral infections have long been suspected of exacerbating this. ‘The Corona pandemic has given this research question a further boost’, says Paul Lingor, a neurologist at the Technical University Hospital in Munich.

Psyche: Psychological stabilisation of boys after the pandemic

Children and adolescents suffered particularly during the pandemic due to the contact restrictions. Life satisfaction dropped drastically, psychological problems increased massively. ‘Our surveys show that the boys are psychologically more stable again since they can live their everyday lives with school and hobbies normally again’, knows Ulrike Ravens-Sieberer, a psychologist at the University Clinic Hamburg-Eppendorf [what an expert opinion; guess what, I also knew that—three years ago. Too bad, if not what a shame, that I’m not ‘an expert’]. However, the life satisfaction of the younger generation is not yet back to the level it was before Corona, every fourth [!!!] child suffers from psychological problems. This manifests itself, among other things, in recurring headaches or stomachaches. The fact that the recovery is not happening as quickly as would be desirable is also due to new crises such as the war in Ukraine, high inflation and, of course, the climate crisis. [Oh my, you forgot ‘coincidence’ again. Sigh.]

Possible solutions are resilience training in the classroom, pedagogical and psychological continuing training for teachers, and school psychological counselling to provide quick support for small problems—before they become big. The family also plays an important role [no shit]: ‘A good inner-family bond is an important resource’, knows Clara Jacobi from the Applied Medical Psychology Research Group at Dresden University Hospital. She also emphasises the relevance of digital communication channels, especially for young people from marginalised groups such as the LGBTQI+ community. [Finally, I thought we’d never push that line in something as unrelated—because it affects everyone equally—as an infectious disease. At this point, I’m almost wondering if Sars-CoV-2 and Covid-19 ‘feel’ that the person ‘they’ (pun intended) are infecting is ‘marginalised’. You couldn’t make this shit up.]

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Bottom Lines

I feel like I addressed the most important smaller items in the squared parentheses already, hence here’s just one of things I noted in recent weeks:

Did you notice that virtually all the ‘old hands’ and ‘trusted experts’ seem to have all but vanished from the airwaves? If you compare this piece by Covid Hawk Pia Kruckenhauser with the other ones I referred to over the years, the cited ‘experts’ were all quite new to me.

Would that have to do with their utter failure of their, well, expert opinion on the subject matter of Covid. Where, oh where, have all the people gone, like Helmut Kollaritsch, Dorothee van Laer, and their ilk?

Now we get a bunch of ‘new’ experts whose statements are, well, comparable in their idiocy. If the old ‘experts’ were bad, let’s see how long these new ‘experts’ last.

UPDATE: speaking of the new crop of ‘experts’, here’s what friend of these pages cm27874 wrote in a comment below, which I deem very important to note:

The reference to Christoph Spinner (and I can't resist to remark that ‘Spinner’ also means something like ‘nutcase’ in German) dates from October 2022. If you do the synoptical exegesis, you will find that in most cases he is being quoted as Covid mortality now being ‘way below 0.5%’ or even ‘below 0.1%’. Leaving the laughable 4.5% aside, Mrs. Kruckenhauser even saw the need to massage the current numbers.

I won’t be holding my breath, though, and I humbly suggest neither should you.