The chief virologist at the Berlin Charité, Christian Drosten, believes that wearing masks in the current phase of the corona pandemic is no longer as effective as it used to be. “The mask will no longer be that efficient,” said Drosten on Thursday in the podcast “Coronavirus Update” of the Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR).
Since the masks are only worn on a few occasions, they hardly play a role in controlling the overall transmission of the corona virus.
Drosten said the reason why there is currently a relative calm in the corona situation is the high level of population immunity. “It contributes the most to containment.”
Despite this assessment, Drosten did not advocate lifting the mask requirement on trains. This is still useful to protect the so-called vulnerable groups. People in this group, who are particularly at risk from illnesses caused by the corona virus, would be better protected if not only they but also their counterparts wore a mask.
So it is a “good social thought” to maintain the mask requirement on trains, said Drosten. The virologist also spoke out against lifting all political guidelines. If the going gets tough again, it makes sense to have measures available.
Drosten sees “a certain fundamental danger” from the explosive spread of the corona virus in China. There is currently no evidence that the corona virus in China is changing in such a way that it can bypass human immunity. However, due to the large spread, it is currently getting the chance to come up with new solutions to circumvent human immunity. Therefore, the situation is “unpredictable”.
Drosten said, “we will see in a few weeks whether something new has emerged.” (AFP)
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