Thesis about the origin of the corona causes a dispute: virologist Drosten and physicist Wiesendanger in court

Created: 05/19/2022, 13:53

By: Jennifer Lanzinger

Christian Drosten.

(Archive image) © Stefan Boness/IMAGO

Does the coronavirus come from a laboratory or from the animal kingdom?

The court is now dealing with this question, because virologist Drosten and physicist Wiesendanger have clashed.

Hamburg – The corona virus has been making headlines, concerns and global measures to combat the spread of the pandemic for more than two years.

Virologist Christian Drosten is considered one of the expert faces in Germany, but now a court in Hamburg has to deal with Drosten, the corona virus and the Hamburg physicist Roland Wiesendanger.

Thesis about the origin of the corona causes a dispute: virologist Drosten and physicist Wiesendanger in court

Even more than two years after the first corona case was registered, the actual origin of the virus does not seem to have been clarified beyond doubt.

While soon after the first outbreak a laboratory thesis caused a stir that China is said to have withheld important information, some experts also expressed the thesis from the animal kingdom.

Two scientists even clashed over the question of the origin of the corona virus.

The Hamburg physicist Roland Wiesendanger accuses the Berlin virologist Christian Drosten of deception.

The dispute is now to be fought in court.

On Friday, the Hamburg Regional Court will deal with the dispute between the two experts.

The oral hearing is about statements by Wiesendanger in an interview with

magazine , which was published on February 2 of this year under the headline: “Does the corona virus come from the laboratory?

- "Mr. Drosten misled politicians and the media"" was published.

Christian Drosten and physicist Wiesendanger meet in court - Corona origin heats up

In it, Wiesendanger accused the director of the Institute of Virology at the Charité of deliberately deceiving society about the origin of the corona pandemic.

He also accused other international virologists, who assume that the virus originated in the animal kingdom, of deliberately misleading and covering up.

He was primarily referring to an open letter published by 27 virologists on February 19, 2020 in the journal The Lancet.

In it, they rejected the claim that the virus had no natural origin as a conspiracy theory.

After the

interview was published, Drosten Wiesendanger issued a warning and on March 14 this year obtained an injunction from the Hamburg Regional Court, as a spokesman for the court said.

For example, the nanoscientist should not repeat the claim that Drosten deliberately deceived the public.

Wiesendanger has appealed the decision.

He is convinced that there are many indications that Sars-CoV-2 was caused by a laboratory accident at the virological institute in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

Wiesendanger wants to represent his position personally in court.

It is about "statements in connection with one of the most crucial questions facing humanity in the past hundred years," he said.

also read

Explosive weather conditions: Extreme thunderstorms and supercells threaten

Weather supercells over Germany: flash floods possible – tornado danger increases

Corona origin in the laboratory?

Thesis causes controversy

Drosten initially did not comment before the hearing.

A spokeswoman for the Berlin Charité had announced at the beginning of March: "The interview with Mr. Wiesendanger published by

contains a large number of inaccurate factual allegations that violate Professor Drosten's personal rights." to refrain from allegations that Professor Drosten misled the public about the origin of the virus and engaged in alleged cover-up activities".

After the interview appeared, Drosten described his opponent on Twitter as an "extreme character".

The interview is currently not available online.

Instead, the magazine published a statement stating that the individual points are currently being legally examined and the substantive results of the dispute between Drosten and Wiesendanger are awaited.

It is unlikely that the court will announce a verdict on Friday.

Meanwhile, monkeypox is causing a stir.

she

have now also arrived in America, a first case was registered after a trip to Canada.

The RKI also warns doctors in this country