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For some it is an encouragement, for many the most important German voice in the corona pandemic: Berlin virologist Christian Drosten reaches an audience of millions with the podcast “The Coronavirus Update”. On Tuesday, Drosten reported to Norddeutscher Rundfunk after a two-month summer vacation. These are some of his most important statements:
To the status of the investigation
With regard to the immediate control of the coronavirus pandemic, in the past two months “not a single really new finding has been added.” Some new studies have been published. But these would corroborate much of what preliminary studies had already shown before the summer. His impression is that “there were no surprises during the summer.”
The mask requirement
Drosten described the use of masks against infections as a “complex issue.” While “the wet pronunciation”, that is, the drops, is intercepted by the so-called everyday masks, it is different with the aerosols that spread through the air. Crucial to coronavirus infection, the aerosols are as fine as droplets “that they don’t get caught in the fabric of an ill-fitting mask.” “This weakness of the masks is clearly there.”
However, Drosten strongly promoted the use of masks with two examples. For example, anyone who comes across an infected person in the supermarket will not be hit directly by the spray if they are both wearing a mask. Another example could be a colleague with bad breath. “That bad breath, it’s aerosols.” If two partners meet without a mask, the other will notice bad breath, but not with a mask. “We no longer realize it, we can also translate that: I can no longer get infected so quickly.”
Quarantänezeit
According to the virologist, the quarantine period should be reduced from 14 to 5 days. With this proposal, he went “to the edge of the pain of epidemiology,” Drosten said. “That’s, let’s say, a steep thesis that says that after five days the infectivity is over.” But the consideration is, “What can you actually do so that you don’t have a de facto lockdown?” “It’s no use if you have all kinds of school classes, all kinds of workplaces quarantined for weeks.” Drosten also suggested that the five days should not be “wasted” on testing, but only after the end of the test to see if those affected were infected and still infectious.
Cases of secondary infections
“This is all just to get attention,” Drosten said of a study conducted with extensive public relations work in Hong Kong on the world’s first proven reinfection with the corona virus. These cases are “oddities”. “At the moment, it is difficult to say how many patients this will affect,” Drosten said of reinfection. However, from an epidemiological point of view, it will probably not have any consequences for the spread of the virus. “That does not describe the medical reality and the normal case.” Nor does the case mean that vaccination will not work.
Despite the cases described, Drosten even “trusts” that people who have survived the Covid-19 disease will be protected from a new disease, at least during the period of the current pandemic. In rare cases, a new contact with the virus could cause a new superficial infection, but this should not lead to severe pneumonia. Due to the lower concentration of virus in such cases, chains of infection should no longer develop.
Quick tests
“It was a very busy summer for me,” said the chief virologist at the Berlin Charité. “I only had two weeks of vacation.” His work during the broadcasting break was, among other things, on how rapid tests could be made possible more quickly. But that is not as easy as it sometimes appears. “There is a great regulatory process behind this, everything has to be legal.” A lot of practical background work was done in the summer, which will be important in the fall.
