In his much-noticed statement about a possible end of the pandemic, virologist Christian Drosten suspects a misunderstanding. In the interview, he actually said something different than what was received by parts of the public.
The virologist Christian Drosten feels misunderstood. After an interview with the Berliner daily mirror by the end of 2022 he was quoted as saying the pandemic was over. “That’s a misunderstanding,” says the Charité professor. In the interview he actually said something completely different than what finally came out in public. “What I said is: I expect that the coming winter wave will be more of an endemic wave (…) and that the pandemic will then be over.” The end of the pandemic cannot be announced in advance, you can only look at it afterwards – i.e. after this wave.
About the reading of some media and politicians, after which he declared the pandemic over, he said: “I think everyone who has heard me communicate so far knows that I don’t actually say such research things in public.” He can only say what he expects: “That we will soon say in a few months: In hindsight, that was the first endemic wave of this virus, and that means the pandemic is over.”
Shortly before the turn of the year, sentences from a “Tagesspiegel” interview with Drosten also led to political calls for further easing. The newspaper quoted him as saying at the end of December: “We are experiencing the first endemic wave of Sars-Cov-2 this winter, and in my opinion the pandemic is over.” He added: This means that after this winter there will be such broad and resilient population immunity “that the virus can hardly get through in the summer”.
At the end of March, Drosten and the Frankfurt virologist Sandra Ciesek withdrew as regular conversation partners of the Corona podcast. However, a return to the microphone depending on the situation had not been ruled out. In recent months, several special episodes with other guests have appeared in the series. According to the broadcaster, the podcast was accessed almost 146 million times by the end of December 2022.