Why the German media needs to become more critical of its favourite virologist
Not everyone’s favourite… (© Jaz_Online via Shutterstock)
With half a million Twitter followers, virologist Christian Drosten isn’t quite as influential as Union Berlin goalkeeper Loris Karius (620,000 followers), but his social media following is pretty impressive for a middle-aged man in a lab coat.
For his fans in the media, the hyperbole knows no bounds. Early on in the pandemic, Stern magazine mocked up an Obama-style image of him and heralded him as “the Enlightener.”
For one young journalist, the news that he cycles to work was too much to take. “Oh my God, now he’s revealed that he cycles to meetings. He’s perfect!” she gushed on Twitter.
If you’ve been living under a rock and don’t know who Drosten is, his basic thesis is that people need to sit tight until a coronavirus vaccine becomes available; he is an advocate of PCR testing combined with tracing “cluster events” to break infection chains; and has …
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