A leading German virologist who helped identify the SARS virus in 2003 is claiming that five days is long enough to quarantine after suspected exposure to the novel coronavirus.
Christian Drosten, the head of virology at Berlin's Charité hospital and a member of the European Commission’s advisory panel on coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19), said on his “Coronavirus Update” podcast that the 14-day quarantine is nearly three times long as necessary according to research.
"There's already, let's say, a steep thesis, that after five days we say the infectious period is actually over," Drosten said on his podcast distributed by German public broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR).
"What can you do in reality so that you don't have a de facto lockdown? It's no use having all kinds of school classes, all kinds of workplaces under weeks of quarantine."
Drosten also said that the quarantine period should not be “wasted” by testing those suspected of exposure. He recommended testing only after the five-day quarantine had elapsed to determine if they were infected and still infectious.
And he dismissed the likelihood of re-infection from the SARS-CoV-2 virus and cast doubt on the effectiveness of face masks.
Once infected and antibodies are produced in the body, immunity should continue.
"I am very confident about this," he said.
He was dismissive of a Hong Kong study about the first documented case of a re-infection, saying, "It's all just attention-grabbing."
He characterized the efficacy of masks as a “complex issue,” claiming that while the larger “droplets” may get caught or dispersed different in “everyday community masks,” the smaller aerosols – considered critical in spreading the virus -- “do not get caught in the material of an ill-fitting mask".
"This weakness of the masks clearly exists," Drosten said.
He still recommended wearing masks, suggesting that if passing an infected person in a grocery store, one wouldn’t be directly in contact with contaminated aerosols if both are wearing a facial covering.
He added that masks are also useful against bad breath.
“With bad breath, these are aerosols," he said. If two acquaintances meet without a mask, an individual’s bad breath will be noticeable, but not with a mask, proving they are useful.
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