Hospitalizations of people with the coronavirus have increased by 50% in Germany recently, it seems that epidemiologists partly blame two movies.
According to them, "Barbie" and the movie about the physicist "Oppenheimer" are to blame for the increase in cases.
German epidemiologists, reports "The Guardian", are warning that we are seeing a summer wave of Covid infections, partially blaming mass gatherings as the "Barbenheimer" shows are now called.
Germany was one of the countries where moviegoers were encouraged to watch films in double screenings in an effort to support cinemas, which have not recovered from the pandemic.
So far in Germany, the film Barbie has been seen by about 4 million people and "Oppenheimer" by over 2.5 million.
Being without a mask in a closed room with hundreds of other people for hours is an ideal environment for the virus to spread.
The government's disease control agency, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), says that while infections remain low compared to the peak of the pandemic, they have increased in the past month. The latest statistics show that visits to the doctor due to the Covid 19 infection have multiplied in the last month. A similar picture is also shown by the measurements in the waste water of the cities, with an increase in the viral load.
Officially the incidence is low – just 3 in every 100,000 people – but the number hardly reflects the true rate, as there are now few tests.