Europe will be out of control with the coronavirus pandemic by this autumn, the founder of the German BioNTech said on Sunday.
Ugur Sahin, whose company developed one of the first vaccines in the fight against COVID-19, told the World On Sunday newspaper that he believed the latest closures would be the last.
“In many European countries and the US, we probably won’t need them by the end of the summer,” he said.
‘There will be outbreaks, but it will be background noise. There will be mutations, but they will not scare us. ‘
EU vaccination drives to other major countries
Sahin, who founded his firm with his wife Özlem Türeci, commented on a time when EU leaders were under fire for the bloc’s relatively slow vaccination campaign, compared to countries such as the US, the UK and Israel.
But he added that the problems would be temporary, insisting that 70% of Germans be vaccinated by the end of September.
The male and female team was honored for their work on coronavirus
The man-and-woman team was awarded the German Knight Commandant Cross for their contribution to the fight against the virus.
Almost 9% of the German population received at least one vaccination as of Saturday.
Meanwhile, Britain is succeeding halfway, with 50% of adults receiving at least one dose.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is trying to find ways to speed up the country’s vaccination, refusing to buy up Russia’s Sputnik V push outside the EU’s joint purchasing scheme.
Merkel is focused on the closing strategy
Merkel will hold talks with regional leaders on Monday to decide whether to remove plans to gradually reopen the economy as infection rates continue to rise.
German authorities say the prevalence level is more than 100 cases per 100,000 inhabitants during a week.
This is the threshold within which they say they need to impose stricter distance rules to prevent healthcare overload.
Bavaria’s Conservative prime minister, Markus Soeder, a likely candidate to succeed Merkel as chancellor after the national election, Frankfurter Allgemeine newspaper that closure measures may have to stay for now.
“A false step now runs the risk of turning this third wave (of the virus) into a permanent wave,” he said.
“We have a tool: the emergency brake. It has to be applied strictly.”
jf / sri (dpa, EPD, Reuters)