Prof. Christian Drosten is a household name in German-speaking countries. Not so much elsewhere, yet he is a crucially important figurehead in the COVID-19 test pandemic that continues to plague the entire world.
A cult has developed around Drosten, but not quite everyone is a fan. Some people haven’t forgotten that the high profile virologist was already heavily involved in the needless scaremongering in the non-event that was the 2010 swine flu, which led to the development of a rushed vaccine that resulted in a huge amount of waste and some considerable harm to those unfortunate people who got vaccinated and subsequently developed narcolepsy. (Looks like history could be about to repeat itself…)
Despite this, Drosten is the German Government’s only trusted advisor, or was, until recently.
Actually, Drosten is the one who developed the very first PCR test for this allegedly new Chinese virus. On 1 January, the very day he heard about the possible SARS cases in China, and without having any validated scientific evidence, he developed the test. He submitted the test to the WHO within days, and on 21 January, the WHO endorsed it to the rest of the world, even before he published his study! The rest is history. The timeline and arguments that Drosten has committed scientific fraud is available here (in German).
So you could say Drosten is the guy who kicked off this entire madness. Without him developing this test, we would have been none the wiser the world we would have continued along its imperfect but normal path. Well, it’s not quite like that, as the Chinese also developed their own test, presented only shortly after Drosten, according to Prof. Ulrike Kaemmerer, but she does pull apart the sloppy work by Drosten in this interview as part of the German Stiftung Corona-Ausschuss hearings. In any event, Drosten’s test was favoured by the WHO.\
Interestingly, Drosten, in his first NDR podcast on 3 March, Drosten was still saying there was no need to panic about COVID-19.
Even when MERS was in the news in 2014, Drosten was saying things that are diametrically opposed to the claims he is making today, things that would land all those who do not strictly adhere to the COVID-19 Government-imposed narrative in hot waters. In this article which appeared on 16 May 2014 in the German economic magazine Wirtschaftswoche, he comments, when asked about the usefulness of high-frequency application of the PCR test in Saudi-Arabia:
Yes, but the method is so sensitive that it can detect a single hereditary molecule of this virus. For example, if such a pathogen scurries across the nasal mucosa of a nurse for a day without her getting sick or noticing anything else, then she is suddenly a MERS case. Where previously terminally ill people were reported, now suddenly mild cases and people who are actually in perfect health are included in the reporting statistics. This could also explain the explosion in the number of cases in Saudi Arabia. In addition, the local media have been cooking up the matter to unbelievable heights. […] In the region there is hardly any other topic in the TV news or daily newspapers. And doctors in hospitals are also consumers of this news. They also consider that they should keep an eye on this disease, which is very rare in Saudi Arabia. Medicine is not free of fashion trends.
Unbelievable, isn’t it? And it gets better. Asked about what should be done about the excessive focus on this disease, he says:
It would be very helpful if the authorities in Saudi Arabia were to revert to the previous definitions of the disease. After all, what interests them first are the real cases. Whether symptomless or mildly infected hospital employees are really carriers of the virus is questionable in my opinion. Even more questionable is whether they can pass the virus on to others. The team of advisors to the new Minister of Health should distinguish more clearly between medically necessary diagnostics and scientific interest.
Interestingly, he sings such a very different tune today. Sure, it’s a different virus that does seem to pass amongst humans. But even today, neither he nor anybody else from the establishment cares about the definition of a case. In these heady Covid days, you test positive and you’re a “case” no matter what. Better still, you die not matter how, if you have that RNA sequence in your system, you’re sure to be counted as a Covid death. And the media of course are only telling the truth now in his view, because they’re faithfully repeating what he says and giving him a great platform. Perhaps the fact that German channel NDR has even given Drosten his own podcast series is telling. Ambitious virologist are only human.
Drosten could soon find himself in hot waters himself. A group of German lawyers are in the process of launching class action law suits in the US and Canada, suing Drosten and his team, for bringing onto the market a let’s call it unsuitable product, on which all the harmful government measures that were taken are ultimately based. Interesting approach. A translation of the very good interview with the lawyer spearheading this initiative is available here.
There are also fascinating revelations around Drosten’s status as a professor, including the mysterious circumstances around his PhD thesis, and the many interesting relationships and conflicts of interest Drosten enjoys, in hearing 22 of the German Stiftung Corona Ausschuss.
