After a much criticized interview moment - Drosten now makes a clear statement about Streeck
Created: 12/25/2021, 06:08 AM
From: Yasina Hipp
The chief virologist at the Berlin Charité, Christian Drosten.
© imago / Jürgen Heinrich
A little over two years ago nobody was familiar with the name Christian Drosten.
Today you can see the Berlin virologist in the media almost every day - now he's talking about a colleague.
Berlin - Since the corona pandemic, Germany's virologists have gained significantly in popularity.
Above all Christian Drosten, chief virologist at the Berlin Charité.
Through his numerous appearances on talk shows and news broadcasts or through the expert's NDR podcast, almost everyone in Germany now knows the 49-year-old.
The topic of conversation in the pandemic was again and again supposed disagreements with another prominent colleague.
In an interview with the
Süddeutsche Zeitung,
Drosten spoke about
the virus variant Omikron and other measures to contain the virus, as well as his colleague Hendrik Streeck from Bonn.
Virologist Drosten: "No more big differences"
In addition to Christian Drosten himself, the Bonn virologist Hendrik Streeck was appointed to the Federal Government's Expert Council on the corona pandemic. In the past, the two tended to play in different “teams”: the two scientists had expressed very different views on some of the measures. With regard to the relationship to Streeck, Drosten says in an interview: "Lately I have not seen any major differences to my positions in his public statements." He expressly does not mean Streeck by people who regularly contradict him personally.
He also does not want to “fuel contrast”.
A reason for the debate: In an
interview with
Spiegel
, Drosten was confronted with the thesis that, among other things, Streeck had caused “bigger things than corona deniers” in the pandemic - Drosten was accused of an evasive answer of not distancing himself sufficiently to have.
At that time, however, he just wanted to “prefer to talk about something else”, as he now affirmed.
Virologist Drosten: "Basically, science is in agreement"
Again and again, the Berlin virologist is confronted with headwinds due to his statements.
But he emphasizes: "Basically, science is in agreement".
Nevertheless, there are always a few individual opinions that “look for the stage that also like to say controversial things”.
Often directed against him personally.
In view of the current development in the number of infections and the spread of the Omikron virus variant, the expertise of both Christian Drosten and Hendrick Streeck will probably be needed for some time - regardless of any discrepancies between the two.