Virologist Drosten contradicts claims made during the pandemic

Virologist Christian Drosten clarified false allegations during his recent questioning before the Corona Investigation Committee of the Saxon State Parliament. For example, the scientist presented a slide that clearly showed that the number of infections and deaths also decreased with the vaccinations. "We don't need to discuss whether vaccination interrupts transmission. We have the data." In the case of the Omikron variant, the vaccination then at least mitigated the severity of the disease.

Drosten cited another example in connection with school closures. There is an assumption that no other country has kept schools closed for as long as Germany - 183 days. However, this figure only describes the number of days on which schools were closed somewhere in Germany - across the board, this was only the case on 74 days.

Drosten insists on data availability

The figures on excess mortality are also not open to debate - unless one doubts that a doctor is not correctly certifying a cause of death or that a statistician cannot add up the figures, said Drosten.

Infecting the population by not taking measures at the beginning would have been the completely wrong strategy for Covid 19, Drosten emphasized. Because unlike influenza viruses, there was no protection for this coronavirus in the population through prior immunization.

Drosten criticizes abbreviated presentation of facts in the media

Drosten criticized abbreviated media publications, especially from talk shows at the time. The decision on who to believe during the pandemic was made by the media. If 200 scientists had held opinion A and only one opinion B, exactly two people with these opposing opinions would have been invited to the talk show. This gave the impression that both opinions were equally valid.

According to Drosten, there were fake controversies in public that never existed in science. As evidence, he cited the opinion that children were not drivers of the pandemic. The data showed that all age groups were affected by infections in roughly the same way. However, there was no discussion at the time about the long-term consequences of school closures for children.

Drosten had already testified in the committee in mid-May. At the time, he spoke out in favor of better defining the role of science in the event of another pandemic. It must be protected from exaggerated expectations and attributions. The roles of scientists and politicians should be clearly separated.

Drosten defends protective measures

Drosten also defended the protective measures during his latest questioning. In the first wave of the pandemic, the control strategy was very effective and many deaths were prevented. In Germany, for example, it was possible to protect many people in old people's homes with milder but timely control strategies.

Drosten is Director of the Institute of Virology at Charité in Berlin and was an expert in the pandemic whose advice was also relied on by politicians. The committee of inquiry was set up at the instigation of the AfD parliamentary group. Its purpose is to critically examine the work of the Saxon government in connection with the coronavirus. The pandemic has claimed the lives of around 17,750 people in Saxony so far.