In a video excerpt circulating on Telegram, German chief virologist Christian Drosten says in an online discussion: “The disease does not exist, it is not there.”
However, the video only shows an excerpt; it is probably important to put the statement in the entire context in order to see what Drosten wanted to say with it. Because we assume that he is aware that the disease – COVID-19 – exists.
An article by guest author Martin Ushakov
What is the content of the video?
In the English original, Christian Drosten says: “The disease does not exist, it’s not there” . In the video that is currently circulating on Telegram with the following German subtitles, Drosten continues: “The typical finding is that the number of cases is going up, but the number of deaths is not going up. We don't have any deaths. And that stops people who don’t care about the numbers from doing so…”
At this point the video stops in the middle of Drosten's explanation. This is intended to suggest that even the best-known virologist in German-speaking countries denies or at least relativizes the existence of coronavirus diseases.
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Where does the excerpt come from? What is being said?
The excerpt comes from a science podcast that was created Vincent Racaniello In the two-hour podcast, Christian Drosten , along with Vincent Racaniello, Richard Condit , a virologist and professor emeritus at the University of Florida, and Brianne Barker , an immunologist and assistant professor of biology at Drew University, talk for an hour about the virus and the current situation in Germany.
Racaniello explains the problem here that there was a lot of denial in the USA, and that the government also denied the existence and extent of the problem. This would certainly be a reason for it to get out of control and for public perception of the seriousness of the situation to suffer.
Drosten confirms that the same phenomenon exists in Germany. The role of the public is a very important one, and it is not quite as bad in Germany as in the USA, but there is still a loss of public trust in the measures to ward off the coronavirus.
When asked why this is also the case in Germany, Drosten addresses the question at minute 32:48 of the podcast and explains the public's perception:
“Well, because the disease doesn't exist, it's not there, and I mean, what we're seeing now is the typical finding: although case numbers are going up, deaths are not going up. There are no deaths. And that actually prevents people who don't deal with the numbers and who don't stick to the principles of the whole phenomenon, who don't see the connection, how infections come about, how deaths come about a little later, how mortality occurs as expected is lower if they have students who are infected rather than nursing home residents. If you don't make that connection, you lose faith, you stop believing. You just see a few numbers and a few charts and think 'what the hell is going on here, the economy is losing ten percent'."
Conclusion: How should Drosten's answer be classified?
As can be seen from the transcript of the relevant passage, this is a much more comprehensive answer from Drosten than is conveyed in the 41-second excerpt. In the video excerpt, Drosten's answer is presented in a shortened manner and taken out of context. As a result, it was reinterpreted into the message to be conveyed : “Corona does not exist” . It should also confirm that the rejection of measures to combat the COVID-19 pandemic is justified.
The context is crucial for understanding Drosten's statement. He classified the public's perception. Following his explanations, it becomes clear that he is not claiming that there is no Corona, but that the virus was barely present in public perception at the time.
This was due to the infection of young people such as schoolchildren and students, for whom an infection with COVID-19 in most cases has mild to no symptoms. The connection between the occurrence of infections, the delay in deaths as a result of infections and mortality must be assessed according to the risk to those affected. If this connection is missing, all you see are numbers, diagrams and economic losses. And ultimately loses public trust.
Sources: mocrobe.tv – Podcast from September / YouTube
This article was written by Martin Ushakov.
Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )