Top Virologist Declares COVID-19 Pandemic Is Over

A health care professional prepares to enter a COVID-19 patient's room in a file photo. Megan Jelinger/AFP via Getty Images

A top German virologist declared this week that the COVID-19 pandemic is over, saying the virus has moved into the endemic phase.

“We are experiencing the first endemic wave with Sars-CoV-2 this winter; in my estimation the pandemic is over,” Dr. Christian Drosten, the head of virology at Berlin’s Charite University Hospital, was quoted by DW.com as saying. He was referring to the virus that causes COVID-19.

Drosten said that after the 2022–2023 winter, the population will have broad immunity and said the virus will have little chance to spread during the coming summer.

Another German intensive care physician who is a member of the country’s COVID-19 council said the pandemic will likely be over after this coming winter.

“I expect that the pandemic will now increasingly run its course,” Dr. Christian Karagiannidis said in a recent interview, according to the German news website.

Due to Drosten’s comments on Monday, German Justice Minister Marco Buschmann wrote that all restrictions should be lifted.

“We are in the endemic situation. As a political consequence, we should terminate the last coronavirus protective measures,” he wrote on Monday.

The majority of COVID-19 measures have already been lifted in Germany, although—like in the United States—people still need to wear masks inside hospitals and similar settings. However, unlike the United States, Germany does not require travelers to be vaccinated to enter the country.

The United States, meanwhile, is still under a federal COVID-19 emergency until at least February of next year. In early 2020, former President Donald Trump declared a public health emergency in response to an outbreak of the virus following reports of its spread in China.

Some doctors, including top cardiologist Peter McCullough, and some Republicans have called on the White House to formally rescind the emergency, coming months after President Joe Biden said in a September interview that the pandemic “is over.” After Biden’s comment, several top federal officials scrambled to say that the United States is still within a pandemic phase.

Earlier in December, about two dozen Republican governors signed a letter asking the Biden administration to direct the Department of Health and Human Services to end the emergency declaration. They have said, in part, that the emergency should be ended to block the continual expansion of Medicaid that they say harms state budgets.

Inside China, where the virus is said to have originated, reports have indicated there has been a large spike in COVID-19 cases and deaths in recent weeks—including reports of deaths of prominent celebrities and Chinese Communist Party officials.

On Tuesday, Chinese officials signaled they would stop requiring inbound travelers to go into quarantine starting from Jan. 8. It comes after three years of “zero COVID” policies came to a boiling point last month, triggering widespread protests against the communist regime.