Berlin: Is the "Pandemic" Over? Maybe, Maybe Not

Source: (https://bit.ly/3FeL23V)
One had already hoped that this worthy gentleman would finally
have disappeared into the obscurity he deserved (or even better:
been taken to court), and now he still speaks up and informs his
audience of his superfluous wisdom:
The virologist Christian Drosten sees the rapid succession of the
latest Corona waves as a sign that the pandemic will end soon.
Whether next winter will be hard again depends on which Omicron
variant of the virus prevails, he told the weekly newspaper Die
Zeit. Two variants are about to start: BF.7 and BQ.1.1. "BF.7
would be the better case; this variant is very similar to BA.5,
which a large part of the population is already immune to. Then
there would be a gentle winter wave." This wave would differ from
all previous ones and would no longer be caused by a significant
change in the virus: "It would then no longer be a pandemic wave,"
said Drosten. "We would have arrived in the endemic state with
BF.7."
But the virologist is still hesitating, with good reason, to commit
to his prognosis: "It would not be so clear with BQ.1.1, because
there is additional immune escape here." The virus can escape the
immune system of those who are already infected or better,
vaccinated. And, in fact, BQ.1.1 is catching up in several European
countries.
"If it becomes dominant, winter could become difficult again." In
the short term, the virologist from the Berlin Charite does not
believe that a significantly more dangerous variant of Sars-CoV-2
will occur. "At many points in its evolution, the virus cannot easily
go back."
However, the virologist does not want to completely rule out
a possible scenario: "It would take a kind of revolution, through
renewed massive spread somewhere in the world." His current concern
is China. "Immunity is distributed quite homogeneously worldwide,
in industrialized countries through infection through vaccination, in
poorer countries even through multiple infections of the population.
In China, however, that is not the case. I wouldn’t rule out another
leap happening there in terms of evolution."
China as the source of all evil, even though they pull off the most
brutal zero-Covid act. Who would have thought it?