Expert Elling sees gecko as ‘behind-the-scenes discussion club’

Elling explained that the waves at Omicron were steeper and faster. However, there is a possibility to control the situation. According to the expert, the government is not acting fast enough: “The response time is again very slow.” During a delta wave, “I wish you knew that looking into the ICU is like driving by looking in the rearview mirror,” Elling recalls. He referred to the situation in hospitals in London or Denmark: “That is out of the question with Omicron. We can’t take the Christmas holidays either.”

“Despite the gecko commission, transparent leadership across the pandemic looks different to me,” the expert noted. “We are faced with the decision: Should we stop the Omikron wave now or not slow it down? I am afraid we will postpone the decision – perhaps under pressure from the economy – until Omikron makes the decision for us.” What happens next, Elling said, is “contamination.” “If we let Omikron pass because we are tired of the epidemic, we will show no regard for the weak.” This would be a paradigm shift that policy should clearly define, says Elling.

If you turn on the Omikron variant, you’ll have to set up camp beds in the exhibition center to take care of every sick person at the same time, as Elling expects. The strategy “before we cross the fifty thousand mark in January” must now be determined. Regarding the end of the holiday, the expert noted: “When the children gather at school, Omicron ignites.”

Epidemiologist Gerald Gartliner in “The Press” also predicted that Omicron would place a heavy burden on hospitals: he believes it is entirely possible that the health system will face significant challenges during the wave of infections in January and February. “By that I mean the extreme risk of overloading the intensive care units.” Because even if Omikron causes severe illness more often, the expected high number of infections can result in a large number of hospital stays.

In order to preserve the infrastructure, Gartlehner calls for shortening the quarantine of those who test positive and their close contacts and giving them permission to work if someone is infected but shows only mild symptoms. Persons who have been vaccinated three times should automatically be downgraded to Class II contacts and subsequently released from quarantine, even though they meet the criteria for a Class K1 person. Gartlehner sees the chances of a new hard shutdown being “higher than against it”.

Once again, Gartlehner encouraged people to get vaccinated. Medicines are not the answer. “Virtually everyone who is currently completely immune will get Omicron.”