Lothar Wieler is leaving the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), which he has headed for almost eight years. He will “resign from his post at his own request on April 1st to devote himself to new tasks in research and teaching,” said the federal institute and the Federal Ministry of Health. This was done “in agreement” with Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach.
Wieler has headed the RKI since March 2015. He came to unusual, and in some cases certainly unwanted, prominence in the course of the corona pandemic, not least through the weekly appearances before the federal press conference, where he explained the current situation with the respective health minister. For a long time he acted as a reminder who warned of the dangers of the corona virus and advocated strict measures against it. As a result, he became the enemy of many so-called lateral thinkers and opponents of anti-corona measures. Increasingly, however, he also attracted the displeasure of many state and health politicians, who considered his warnings to be exaggerated.
The doctor of veterinarians insisted on numbers, data and facts as the basis for decisions that scientists and the experts at his authority wanted to provide to politicians. With these, however, he repeatedly got caught between the fronts in the often emotional political debate about corona measures. Wieler apparently often felt that politicians did not take him seriously, and he accused some journalists of reporting too pointedly and not sufficiently differentiated.
A good year ago, Lauterbach became Wieler’s new boss. Lauterbach is a doctor, so it was actually to be expected that the two would complement each other well in their efforts to achieve science-based politics. Soon, however, there were several reports of a falling out between the two, which they, of course, denied. The occasion was, for example, a possibly uncoordinated appeal by the RKI for massive contact restrictions or a short-term reduction in the corona recovery status ordered by the authority.
Lauterbach praised on Wednesday: Wieler had “rendered lasting and outstanding services to the country in overcoming the pandemic”. He “greatly appreciated the trusting cooperation with him over the years” and regrets that Wieler is leaving the RKI.
He in turn thanked me in a joint press release the health ministers with whom he worked and warned: “The independence of research must also be accepted in the future, because it is essential for the RKI to be able to fulfill its tasks.” According to the RKI, Wieler’s deputy Lars Schaade will take over the management of the authority “for a transitional period”.