Conspiracy theories of corona virus are currently circulating on the Internet. Now an interview with virologist Christian Drosten is spreading, which causes confusion.
Munich – In times of crisis like this, the Internet spread more and more False reports and distorted reports about the corona virus. It is often about an early vaccine *, the risk of infection * or a possible corona immunity *. The messages mostly spread on Facebook or WhatsApp are completely absurd, but still cause panic.
Corona danger “extremely low in Germany” – old interview by Christian Drosten causes excitement
An article by virologist Christian Drosten is currently circulating on the Internet. Specifically, it is an interview that he gave to RTL in 2013. The heading reads: “Deadly corona virus: danger to people in Germany extremely low“.
However, the report does not address the SARS-CoV-2 virus, i.e. the current corona virus, but rather the MERS virus circulating at the time. Although it also belongs to the family of corona viruses, it does not correspond to the currently rampant virus.
According to the World Health Organization, fewer than 2,500 people have contracted the MERS virus since 2012. The majority of those infected also come from the Arabian Peninsula, according to the Robert Koch Institute. For comparison: the current corona virus has According to Johns Hopkins University, 1,935,646 people are infected worldwide (As of April 14, 4:05 p.m.),
Corona: Quotes from Christian Drosten completely out of context
In the corresponding article, Drosten explains that the MERS virus “Actually no danger” for Germany be. Droten’s quotes would now be deliberately shortened and misrepresented seven years later, which, according to Patrick Gensing, of the Tagesschau fact finders, is a general problem in Corona times.
Because “there are people who just want to create confusion and take care of themselves. she take pictures out of context and claim that these are current pictures, even though they come from a completely different year or from completely different events. “
RTL has now responded and added the original article: “The following article with quotes from virologist Christian Drosten was originally published on May 30, 2013. His statements and classification refer to the virus MERS-CoV, which was mainly prevalent on the Arabian Peninsula at the time, which differs from the currently known coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.“
Coronavirus: conspiracy theories with absurd claims
In addition to distortions, as in the Drosten case, the current situation is sometimes also deliberately misused, to spread conspiracy theories. In essence, three views are propagated in these. So should the virus was grown in a laboratory have been. It is also claimed that it is Corona virus simply does not give. In this context, the conspiracy theorists speak of “epidemic inventors.” In addition, Covid-19 was only there to help Reduce world population.
Finally, another theory caused excitement: a war, disguised by the massive noise of the Corona crisis, is said to have started on European soil.
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* merkur.de is part of the nationwide Ippen-Digital editors network
List of rubric lists: © dpa / Christophe Gateau
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