Five days of quarantine instead of 14 days? Virologist Drosten makes the statement clear - and puts it on Twitter

Christian Drosten spoke in his podcast about shortening the quarantine from 14 to five days.

The statement made waves, so the virologist followed up on Twitter.

• Christian Drosten

  is back from the summer break and is starting again with his NDR podcast.

• In the current issue, the virologist caused confusion when he spoke of reducing the quarantine from 14 to five days.

• Basic 

  facts about

   the corona

  virus

  *

  and the corona news from Germany can be found here.

  We also offer you the current number of cases in

  Germany

  on a map 

  .

Hamburg -

had a lot to say in his

.

The episode “a recommendation for autumn” was the first issue after a two-month summer break and lasted more than 100 minutes.

At the beginning of the program, the

talked

about his “busy summer” doing research * at the

, only to quickly come to a “weakness of the masks”.

Coronavirus in Germany: Drosten on the importance of masks

Drosten

explained the infection situation with

as follows: “The wet pronunciation, i.e. the droplet infection, is obviously intercepted by a mask.

It is very clear.

The question is, how about the

?

With

you can say: These droplets in this exhaled

are so fine that they don't get caught in the fabric of a badly fitting mask.

So you exhale it, past the mask.

And you breathe it in, past the mask.

You have to be clear about that. ”At the same time, the 48-year-old also emphasized the importance of masks, because there is always added value, which has also been shown in some studies.

Drosten

justifies this with an everyday example: “Imagine you are talking to someone.

You don't have a mask on and you realize that he has bad breath.

This bad breath, to put it simply, is

.

Imagine the same situation but they both have masks on.

Can you imagine that you still notice that the person you are speaking to has bad breath?

You won't notice that anymore.

And this ´not noticing anymore´, we can also translate it as ´there I will probably not be infected as quickly anymore´.

And this is something that those who have doubts about the effectiveness of everyday masks should perhaps take them home with them. "

+

More popular than ever: In times of the pandemic, the general interest in virologists and especially in Christian Drosten has increased.

His podcast is getting more and more hits.

© Christophe Gateau / dpa

Corona in Germany: Danger from clusters - "maybe full of secretly infected people"

In the further course of the broadcast,

spoke

with NDR editor Korinna Hennig about his idea with the contact diary and the alleged immunity after surviving corona infections, which he considers "robust".

It got really interesting in the second half of the show when it came to the spread of

through so-called

.

understands this to mean

situations in which a group of several people had come together and at least one of them was

infected

with

.

Many more cases could then

from these

.

The place where the person got infected (for example, a wedding, birthday party, or a visit to a restaurant) is

called the

.

“This

may be full of secretly infected people,” explains

.

But how should you deal with these potential corona patients?

As usual, you could "start testing everyone, calling them, sending them to the doctor, testing center or anywhere else and then waiting for the laboratory to send the results back."

In the meantime, however, many people may have carried the virus on.

Therefore, “you simply have to say that when such a

recognized, then it has to be isolated at home immediately without further inspection, each and every one of them has to stay at home.” This lets the cluster subside.

But how long should such a

last?

14 days are difficult to convey for a symptom-free, presumably healthy person.

Corona in Germany: Five days of quarantine instead of 14 days - Drosten compromise is making waves

That is why Drosten presents a compromise with which he goes "to the pain limit of epidemiology": five days of quarantine instead of 14!

The

recently thought about “what can you do in reality so that you don't have a de facto lockdown?” Because “it is of no use if you have all kinds of school classes and all kinds of workplaces under

for weeks

.

It has to be short. "

Research now assumes that infected people are contagious two days before and five days after the first symptoms *.

Because the infectiousness then flattens out, shortening the quarantine can be considered.

This statement made waves.

Several media and news agencies reported on the words of the virologist - who then spoke up again on Twitter on Friday and felt he was misunderstood.

No, I didn't suggest that.

Please listen to the podcast first or read the script, then report.

https://t.co/oroltp8eoU

- Christian Drosten (@c_drosten) September 4, 2020

Corona in Germany: According to the "steep thesis" - Drosten reports on Twitter

For example, the German Press Agency reported: “Drosten for shortening the quarantine time to five days.” If you also listen to the entire 104 minutes of the podcast and then read the 20-page script of the program, this impression can certainly arise.

Nonetheless, the 48-year-old reacted a bit harshly on Friday afternoons.

The headline chosen in one case "simply goes too far here."

And I also recommend testing at the end of the 5-day cooldown.

A shortening in the sense of "Drosten recommends reducing the quarantine to 5 days" simply goes too far here.

- Christian Drosten (@c_drosten) September 4, 2020

In an email to the

,

specified

the procedure in the case of those who were proven to be infected: “From the time of diagnosis, the patient is isolated for another five days.

This is followed by testing and, if the virus load is low, the isolation is canceled.

Optionally, you can also cancel the isolation without free testing, because the virus excretion is usually over. ”This only applies to mild cases with a low risk of deterioration.

So far, according to the

, infected people are not allowed out of isolation until ten days after the onset of symptoms. 

Isolation and quarantine get mixed up.

My suggestion is to reduce the isolation time.

If the cluster is isolated as a whole, then briefly (e.g. 5 days) and with free testing for residual infectivity.

In the # ZEIT article, this means "cooldown", neither isolation nor quarantine.

https://t.co/8BdeJv4vS6

- Christian Drosten (@c_drosten) September 4, 2020

The

is only intended as a kind of "emergency mode", it does not mean a change in the overall strategy.

The “steep thesis” of Drosten also only refers to the clusters in which many people are affected at the same time.

Despite all this, one thing remains unclear: Whoever goes into quarantine due to a cluster may only do so for five days - who, however, was infected elsewhere, but for 14?

In this regard, Drosten said: “There is currently a discussion at EU level as to whether the 14 days can be reduced to 10 days.

I think you can.

I can also imagine that you can even reduce it by a few days, for example to seven days. ”

List of rubric lists: © Christophe Gateau / dpa