Virologist Hendrik Streeck is dealt with heavily in public.
In the Merkur.de interview, he defends himself, speaks of the mirror's 'character killing' and his own misjudgments.
Virologist Prof. Dr.
Hendrik Streeck is considered controversial among Corona * experts, he has to endure death threats and is increasingly exposed to media criticism.
The media
magazine Übermedien
recently published a list of his alleged false statements, and
Der Spiegel
sent the director of the Institute for Virology and HIV Research at the University of Bonn a list of 15 questions.
This interpreted Streeck according to the
world
as "charges".
In an interview with
Merkur.
de
(the interview in full length can be found here
)
it becomes clear: “What some media like
Der Spiegel
do is deliberate 'character killing'.
A conscious attempt was made to find alleged false statements and then turn them around. "(Also fr.de * reported on it)
Hendrik Streeck defends himself against criticism of Corona predictions: "I think the WHO tweet is a great example"
The problem is that statements are often presented in abbreviated form “and some people simply do not understand my statements or want to misunderstand them in order to conduct politics.
The problem is, as soon as you differentiate, it is more difficult to make it clear where the boundary lines run and that you want to show different paths ”.
It would actually be much easier to limit oneself to dunning and to call for the most radical measures possible, Streeck continued.
However, he wants to continue down the middle path.
The virologist also admits mistakes: he found a drastic WHO warning on Twitter to be "wrong" at the very beginning of the pandemic.
Today he says: “I think the WHO tweet is a great example, I could have deleted it at some point.
It was a misjudgment and I stand by it.
I didn't consider the virus to be that dangerous at the beginning and revised it a few weeks later. ”In science it is just like this,“ If the opinion is revised in the end, it is not a sign of failure, but of progress ”.
Virologist Streeck: "It was assumed that I had not seen the so-called second wave"
He also assessed the influence of masks differently at the beginning: “I see it differently today than a year ago.
As a virologist, you would look at the masks and say 'is not significant' because up to 80 viruses can pass through the openings at once.
But: We have learned from experience. "
Nevertheless, in retrospect he would have done a few things differently: “With others - supposed false prognoses - I should have made it clearer what is meant.
That there is no second, third or fourth wave, for example, but a permanent wave *, which is also higher or lower depending on the season, I still see it that way, but it has been misunderstood - intentionally or not - by certain media - it was assumed to me, I would not have seen the so-called second wave. "
In a long interview with Merkur.de, Streeck also talks about the rivalry with Karl Lauterbach, the new opening strategy of the federal government and gives hope for the summer.
* Merkur.de and fr.de are offered by IPPEN.MEDIA
List of rubric lists: © Federico Gambarini