Is it all over?

New warnings: Corona is getting closer again

Shortly before the start of the vacation season, Germany's favorite island is experiencing a new corona wave. At the same time, star virologist Christian Drosten issues a warning.

Are you over it? This is the title of the first book by the man who was a member of the German government's expert council during the pandemic and whose award-winning podcast "The Coronavirus Update" was a key public relations campaign: Christian Drosten, head of the Institute of Virology at Berlin's Charité hospital. Subtitle: An overdue conversation about a pandemic that will not be the last (published this week by Ullstein).

It looks like not everything is over and perhaps the next pandemic is already lurking around the corner.

The peak of the wave is yet to come
On the vacation island of Mallorca, a drastic increase in corona cases is being recorded before the start of the vacation season. "The disease is currently widespread on the islands - and the trend is still rising," reports the Spanish Ministry of Health.

Two new variants are said to be influencing the rising number of cases: The new Covid variant "KP.2" and the so-called "FliRT" variant, which is already responsible for 15 percent of cases. The peak of infections is still to come.

We are not better prepared for the next time, but worse.

Virologe Christian Drosten und seine globale Bilanz über Corona

And with it the question of what we have learned from the health catastrophe that has kept the world on tenterhooks for two years. In an interview with the German news magazine "Spiegel", Drosten draws a bitter conclusion, at least on a global scale: "We are not better prepared for the next time, but worse."

His colleague, virologist Hendrick Streeck, will also publish a review of the pandemic in September with similar assessments.

Prof. Florian Krammer (far right) with Nobel Prize winner Eric Kandel and his wife. On the left: MedUni Vienna Rector Prof. Markus Müller(Bild: Robert Harson)

Prof. Krammer will be researching viruses in Vienna and developing vaccines and therapies against them.(Bild: Martin Jöchl)

In Austria, Styrian Prof. Florian Krammer has been Head of Infection Medicine since March. The internationally renowned expert in the development of vaccines commutes between the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (New York) and MedUni Vienna. This week he was visited by Nobel Prize winner Eric Kandel and his wife, who also live in New York.

You can read a major interview with the corona expert in the Sunday "Krone".