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| {{short description|Thai virologist}} | {{short description|Thai virologist}} | ||
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| | field = Medicine/surgery, Epidemiology | | field = Medicine/surgery, Epidemiology | ||
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| '''Sucharit Bhakdi''' (born Sucharit Punyaratabandhu, 1 November 1946, in Washington, D.C.) is a Thai-German |
'''Sucharit Bhakdi''' (born Sucharit Punyaratabandhu, 1 November 1946, in Washington, D.C.) is a Thai-German specialist in microbiology.<ref> ''aetf.academy.online.fr'', accessed 11 October 2020</ref> He studied at the Universities of ], ], ] and ], and at the ] in Freiburg. He is a retired Professor of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and from 1991 to 2012 was Head of the Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hygiene there.<ref name=CV>{{cite web|url=https://studylibde.com/doc/2013845/sucharit-bhakdi--punyarataband-|title=Sucharit Bhakdi (Punyarataband) Lebenslauf |trans-title=curriculum vitae|website=studylibde.com |access-date=11 October 2020}}</ref> | ||
| ⚫ | Over his career, Bhakdi has produced scientific work across a breadth of fields such as ], ], ], and ], and has published over three hundred scientific articles in those areas. He has received numerous awards, including the ].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Sucharit Bhakdi MD|url=https://www.chelseagreen.com/writer/sucharit-bhakdi-md/|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=19 November 2020|website=chelsea green}}</ref> | ||
| He has prominently raised concerns over scientific claims regarding the ] and many states ']' responses to it. He is a signatory to the ], an open letter dedicated to an alternative, risk-based approach of "Focused Protection" for people most at risk of the virus.<ref name="BMJ">{{cite journal|author=Lenzer, Jeanne|date=7 October 2020|title=Covid-19: Group of UK and US experts argues for "focused protection" instead of lockdowns|url=https://www.bmj.com/content/371/bmj.m3908|journal=]|publisher=British Medical Association|doi=10.1136/bmj.m3908|accessdate=18 October 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Sample|first=Ian|date=7 October 2020|title=Why herd immunity strategy is regarded as fringe viewpoint|work=The Guardian|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/07/why-herd-immunity-strategy-is-regarded-as-fringe-viewpoint|url-status=live|access-date=10 October 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201010024403/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/07/why-herd-immunity-strategy-is-regarded-as-fringe-viewpoint|archive-date=10 October 2020}}</ref> | |||
| == COVID-19 opinion == | |||
| In the wake of the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bhakdi began his research into the virus. He argues that the virus is a much less serious threat to the general population than is widely believed. He gives many ] and ] reasons for why he believes the severity of the virus for the general population and the response to it have been inaccurate. The very negative sounding reports in the news media about the severity of the virus often result from bad statistics which are a product of poor quality of data collected, and of severely manipulated interpretations of the statistics. | |||
| Bhakdi highlights the ] as an example for how the statistics were inaccurate or skewed. Here, he says, the "apparent high mortality rate" caused by the virus was actually caused by numerous factors. For instance, incorrect categorisation of 'cases' of virus as infections when in infectiology, a distinction is made between infection and disease. An illness must requires a clinical manifestation, so only patients with symptoms such as fever or cough should be included in the statistics as new cases. This was caused by situations where the virus would be detected when patients were being admitted to hospital or even post-mortem, Covid would be automatically incorrectly assigned as the cause of their death. The statistics about how deadly the virus had been skewed by ] not making the distinction between those who die as a direct result of the virus, and those who caught it but would have died anyway, or whose death was related to it but not directly caused by it. | |||
| ] | |||
| On 26 March, Bhakdi wrote a public letter to the ] calling for an urgent reassessment of the ]. In the letter he argued that the science that the government had followed for the decision was questionable and the ] costs of lockdown would be too high. In the letter he outlined five questions that he believed needed to be answered for a better analysis of the situation: | |||
| # '''<u>Statistics</u> ''- Did the projections make a distinction between symptom-free infected people and actual, sick patients – i.e. people who develop symptoms?''''' Bhakdi pointed out that in infectiology a distinction is made between infection and disease. An illness requires a clinical manifestation. So only patients with symptoms such as fever or cough should be included in the statistics as new cases. | |||
| # '''<u>Dangerousness</u> ''- How does the current workload of intensive care units with patients with diagnosed COVID-19 compare to other coronavirus infections, and to what extent will this data be taken into account in further decision-making by the federal government? In addition: Has the above study been taken into account in the planning so far?''''' The "above study" he referred to was 'SARS-CoV-2: fear versus data'<ref name=":4" /> which tries to show how the virus compares with other viruses and that it was not as serious as was widely believed. | |||
| # '''<u>Dissemination</u> ''- Has there already been a random sample of the healthy general population to validate the real spread of the virus, or is this planned in the near future?''''' He questioned whether the virus had already spread a lot by that point and that an increase in cases was being seen because of an increase in testing. | |||
| # '''<u>Mortality</u> ''- Has Germany simply followed this trend of a COVID-19 general suspicion? And: is it intended to continue this categorisation uncritically as in other countries? How, then, is a distinction to be made between genuine corona-related deaths and accidental virus presence at the time of death?''''' He questioned whether an official and critical analysis of medical records had been done to determine whether deaths were actually caused by the virus. | |||
| # '''<u>Comparability</u> ''- What efforts are being made to make the population aware of these elementary differences and to make people understand that scenarios like those in Italy or Spain are not realistic here?''''' He argues that countries COVID-19 situations have elementary differences between each other so are not directly comparable to each other. So using ] and ] as reference scenarios for predictions in Germany and other countries is inaccurate. | |||
| Bhakdi argued in favour of a 'focused protection' approach involving; "protecting high risk groups without restricting public life across the board and sow the seeds for an even more intensive polarization of society than is already taking place".<ref name=":3" /><ref>{{Cite web|last=Bhakdi|first=Sucharit|date=26 March 2020|title=(Original German) Open letter from Professor Sucharit Bhakdi to Federal Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel|url=https://swprs.org/offener-brief-von-professor-sucharit-bhakdi-an-bundeskanzlerin-dr-angela-merkel/|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=19 November 2020|website=Swiss Policy Research}}</ref> | |||
| In the letter, he cited evidence from the article; 'SARS-CoV-2: fear versus data', which hypothesised that SARS-CoV-2 figures were being overestimated at the time (19 March) so were not accurate enough to follow. Others disputed the article, arguing that it was too soon to tell in March because the virus had not yet reached its ']' phase.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Mosig|first=Axel|date=3 July 2020|title=Letter to the Editor regarding the recent contribution by Roussel et al., SARS-CoV-2: Fear versus data|url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7333609/|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=19 November 2020|website=US National Library of Medicine - National Institutes of Health}}</ref> This view was taken by people such as ] of ], a member of the UK government’s ]<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ferguson, Laydon, Nedjati Gilani, Imai, Ainslie, Baguelin|first=N, D, G, N, K, M|date=16 March 2020|title=Impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) to reduce COVID-19 mortality and healthcare demand|url=https://dsprdpub.cc.ic.ac.uk:8443/bitstream/10044/1/77482/15/2020-03-16-COVID19-Report-9-Spanish.pdf|journal=Imperial College, London. 2020 doi: 10.25561/77482.|volume=10|pages=|via= ic.ac.uk}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Roussel, Giraud-Gatineau, Jimeno, Rolain, Zandotti, Colson, Raoulta|first=Yanis, Audrey, Marie-Thérèse, Jean-Marc, Christine, Philippe, Didier|date=19 March 2020|title=SARS-CoV-2: fear versus data|url=https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7102597/|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=19 November 2020|website=US National Library of Medicine - National Institutes of Health}}</ref> who predicted that there could be up to 500,000 COVID-19 deaths if a lockdown was not imposed in March.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Ferguson|first=Neil|date=16 March 2020|title=Imperial College COVID-19 Response Team Report 9|url=https://www.imperial.ac.uk/media/imperial-college/medicine/sph/ide/gida-fellowships/Imperial-College-COVID19-NPI-modelling-16-03-2020.pdf|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=|website=www.imperial.ac.uk}}</ref> Fergusons advice was taken very seriously and was one of the main statistics that the ] on 23 March.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Ward|first=Bob|date=6 May 2020|title=It's not just Neil Ferguson – scientists are being attacked for telling the truth|url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/06/neil-ferguson-scientists-media-government-adviser-social-distancing|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=19 November 2020|website=The Guardian}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Stewart|first=Heather|date=5 May 2020|title=Neil Ferguson: UK coronavirus adviser resigns after breaking lockdown rules|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/may/05/uk-coronavirus-adviser-prof-neil-ferguson-resigns-after-breaking-lockdown-rules|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=19 November 2020|website=The Guardian}}</ref> Bhakdi's advice was not taken in Germany. As the virus was measured over the ensuing months, Bhakdi argued that many of the projected predictions such as exponential growth had not occurred in the ways expected or to anywhere near as extreme as predicted.<ref name=":4">{{Cite web|last=Roussel, Giraud-Gatineau, Jimeno, Rolain, Zandotti, Colson, Raoulta|first=Yanis, Audrey, Marie-Thérèse, Jean-Marc, Christine, Philippe, Didier|date=19 March 2020|title=SARS-CoV-2: fear versus data|url=https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32201354/|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=19 November 2020|website=Pub Med gov}}</ref> | |||
| === Criticism of "lockdowns" === | |||
| He is very critical of the '] ], and that lockdowns would have very severe health consequences that would outweigh the benefits. He argues that most important statistics that have been cited by governments as justifications for lockdowns have been faulty or warped due to inaccuracy and is responsible for the mistaken lockdown response that many countries around the world have taken. | |||
| When the lockdowns were imposed, health care systems especially in ] and ], broke down completely because of the imposed preventive measures (patient isolation, personnel quarantine, etc), which leads to restricted attention of patients in general and accounts for the higher numbers of deaths in general (March) in these countries.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=C. VenMeter, Bhakdi, P. Gerilovych|first=Karin, Sucharit, Antony|date=2020|title=Covid-19 Outbreak Role in the Development of Societies: Questions and Inconsistencies|url=https://thebeacon.ru/pdf/Vol.%203.%20Issue%201.%20011140018%20ENG.pdf|journal=THE BEACON: ENG Journal for Studying Ideologies and Mental Dimensions|volume=3|pages=3,4,5|via=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Ventegodt, Merrick|first=Søren, Joav|date=2020|title=A tribute to the Corona virus Covid-19 whistle blowers|url=https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Soren_Ventegodt/publication/341298531_A_tribute_to_the_Corona_virus_COVID-19_SARS-CoV-2_whistle-blowers/links/5eb9dc0ea6fdcc1f1dd2cfaa/A-tribute-to-the-Corona-virus-COVID-19-SARS-CoV-2-whistle-blowers.pdf|journal=J Altern Med Res|volume=12 (2)|pages=1 99|via=Research Gate}}</ref> | |||
| In turn, he has been criticised for his theses on the COVID-19 pandemic by various experts and institutions such as the German Medical Tribune, scientists at the universities of Mainz and Kiel, and various ] websites.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Matz|first=Christian|date=2020-10-31|title=Unimedizin Mainz distanziert sich klar von Bhakdi - Allgemeine Zeitung|url=https://www.allgemeine-zeitung.de/lokales/mainz/nachrichten-mainz/unimedizin-mainz-distanziert-sich-klar-von-bhakdi_22518635|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-11-17|website=www.allgemeine-zeitung.de|language=de}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Mediziner Bhakdi unterschätzt Gefährlichkeit des Coronavirus|url=https://www.presseportal.de/pm/133833/4555917|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=|website=dpa|language=de}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Urschinger|first=Kira|last2=|date=|title=Video im Faktencheck: Prof. Sucharit Bhakdi kritisiert Corona-Maßnahmen|url=https://www.swr3.de/aktuell/multimedia/bhakdi-video-faktencheck-massnahmen-corona-100.html|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-11-17|website=SWR3.de|language=de}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Metzger|first=Nils|date=|title=Corona-Faktencheck: Warum Sucharit Bhakdis Zahlen falsch sind|url=https://www.zdf.de/uri/67c27d4c-c406-49e9-8590-7013e9067c7b|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=2020-11-17|website=www.zdf.de|language=de}}</ref> | |||
| ===Public work on COVID-19=== | |||
| {{external media| float = right| video1 = , ] }} | |||
| Bhakdi's has been outspoken in his work on COVID-19, especially ]. His work includes: | |||
| *writing an open letter to the German Chancellor ] regarding the 'socio-economic consequences of the drastic containment measures which are currently being applied in large parts of Europe'<ref name=":3"> ''swprs.org'', accessed 8 October 2020</ref> | |||
| *posting videos on YouTube<ref name="about">{{Cite web |url=https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgjxQLDkeoa-uJu4sE0eNrg/about |title=Prof. Dr. med. Sucharit Bhakdi <!--|titelerg=Kanalinfo mit Beitritt am 18. März 2020 und über 4 Millionen Aufrufen--> |website=] |accessdate=2020-04-23}}</ref> | |||
| *founding the initiative 'Medical Professionals and Scientists for Health, Freedom and Democracy'<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mshfd.org/|title=Medical Professionals and Scientists for Health, Freedom and Democracy|last=|first=|date=|website=www.mshfd.org/|access-date=21 October 2020}}</ref> | |||
| *involvement in the writing of a 'position paper of the BMI' by an employee of the German crisis management department.<ref>{{cite news |author=Julia Sextl |url=https://www.abendzeitung-muenchen.de/inhalt.mitarbeiter-des-bmi-suspendiert-brisantes-corona-papier-war-das-alles-richtig-so.b20f08c6-fd41-4c10-b01a-1995fb60aa2b.html |title=Brisantes Corona-Papier: War das alles richtig so? |trans-title=Explosive Corona paper: was it all right? |website=] |date=2020-05-13 |access-date=2020-05-16 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |author=Stephan Kohn |url=https://www.abendzeitung-muenchen.de/media.media.5284c61e-1721-4af4-8af1-c1a6330b4b89.original.pdf |title=KM4 Analyse des Krisenmanagements (Kurzfassung) |trans-title=KM4 analysis of crisis management (short version) |website=Stephan Kohn / Abendzeitung |date=2020 |format=PDF |access-date=2020-05-16 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.abendzeitung-muenchen.de/media.media.98cfe8dc-2b67-4861-899d-d12b7f65fbe4.original.pdf |title=Gemeinsame Pressemitteilung der Experten des Corona-Papiers aus dem Bundesministerium des Innern |trans-title=Joint press release by the experts on the Corona paper from the Federal Ministry of the Interior |author=Sucharit Bhakdi, Gunter Frank, Gunnar Heinsohn, Stefan W. Hockertz, Karina Reiß, Peter Schirmacher, Andreas Sönnichsen, Till Uebel, Harald Walach / Abendzeitung |date=2020-05-11 |format=PDF |access-date=2020-05-16 }}</ref> The Federal Ministry distanced itself from the position paper as a "private opinion" circulating on official letterhead and released the chief government councillor Stephan Kohn from duty.<ref>{{cite news |author=Benjamin Reuter |url=https://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/zehn-vermeintliche-experten-und-viele-fragezeichen-wie-der-angebliche-corona-geheimreport-im-innenministerium-entstand/25829982.html |title=Wie der angebliche Corona-Geheimreport im Innenministerium entstand |trans-title=How the alleged Corona secret report in the Interior Ministry was created |website=Der Tagesspiegel |date=2020-05-14 |access-date=2020-05-16}}</ref> | |||
| *published a book; ''Corona false alarm?'' (2020), German: ('Corona Fehlalarm? ')<ref name=":0">{{cite news |url=https://www.goldegg-verlag.com/titel/corona-fehlalarm/ |title=Corona Fehlalarm? Zahlen, Daten und Hintergründe |trans-title=Corona false alarm? Numbers, dates and backgrounds |website=www.goldegg-verlag.com |access-date=2020-06-09}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{cite news |url=https://www.buchreport.de/bestseller/buch/isbn/9783990601914.htm/ |title=buchreport, Corona Fehlalarm? |trans-title=Bookreport |access-date=2020-07-04}}</ref> with his wife Karina Reiss, biologist and biochemist at the Quincke Research Center, ].<ref name=":2"> ''www.uni-kiel.de'', accessed 8 October 2020</ref> | |||
| ⚫ | Bhakdi is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the PANDA (Pandemics ~ Data & Analytics) organisation.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://pandata19.org/scientific-advisory-board|title=PANDA: Scientific Advisory Board|last=|first=|date=|website=pandata19.org/scientific-advisory-board|access-date=8 November 2020}}</ref> He is also a member of the 'Corona-Quartett', a weekly talk show on the Austrian TV station ]. | ||
| <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.servustv.com/videos/aa-2549xqckh2111/|title=Corona quartet|last=|first=|date=|website=www.servustv.com/videos/aa-2549xqckh2111/|access-date=21 October 2020}}</ref> | |||
| == Scientific work == | |||
| Bhakdi is known for his work on the ], a part of the human ]. He later applied his results to develop a new theory about the nature of ].<ref> Published 2013. DOI:10.1016/j.clinbiochem.2012.09.012 ''www.semanticscholar.org'', accessed 8 November 2020</ref> | |||
| ==Publications== | |||
| Bhakdi is listed as main author or co author of many articles on ], his corresponding ] is 67.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Scopus preview - Bhakdi, Sucharit - Author details - Scopus|url=https://www.scopus.com/authid/detail.uri?authorId=7102467285|access-date=2020-11-14|website=www.scopus.com}}</ref> Furthermore, he served as Editor in Chief of ] from 1990 to 2012.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.springer.com/430|title=Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Springer|last=|first=|date=|website=www.springer.com|access-date=20 October 2020}}</ref> | |||
| He is the co-author of ], German: ('''Corona Fehlalarm''?') alongside his wife Karina Reiss, a biologist and biochemist at the Quincke Research Center, ].<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />. The book was published in Germany on 1 June and sold 200,000 copies and 75,000 e-books in 6 weeks. It was released in the UK on 1 October and was a best seller in Family & Lifestyle Infectious & Contagious Diseases section on ].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Amazon page for book (for evidence of the original 1st party source)|url=https://www.amazon.co.uk/Corona-False-Alarm-International-Bestseller/dp/1645020576|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=19 November 2020|website=Amazon}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Corona, False Alarm? Facts and Figures|url=https://agreatread.co.uk/corona-false-alarm-facts-and-figures-9781645020578/|url-status=live|archive-url=|archive-date=|access-date=19 November 2020|website=A Great Read}}</ref> | |||
| ⚫ | Over his career, Bhakdi has produced scientific work |
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| He is also the author of ''Bogeyman Infections - Myths, Delusions and Reality'' (2016), German: (''Schreckgespenst Infektionen – Mythen, Wahn und Wirklichkeit'' (''tr.'' ).<ref>{{cite news|title=Schreckgespenst Infektionen – Mythen, Wahn und Wirklichkeit|trans-title=Bogey Infections - Myths, Delusions and Reality|website=www.goldegg-verlag.com|url=https://www.goldegg-verlag.com/title/schreckgespenst-infektionen/|access-date=2020-06-09|isbn=9783903090668}}</ref> | |||
| During the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic, Bhakdi started a ] channel proposing that deaths from the virus has been overstated. Writing for '']'', Tyson Barker described Bhakdi as a prominent example from a "crop of debunked but credentialed so-called experts minting conspiracy theories and undermining fact-based information".<ref name=barker/> The German non-profit ] fact-checked one of Bhakdi's Youtube videos, and found a number of problematic claims, including the claim that any ] would be "pointless", and that the virus posed no more threat than ].<ref name=correct>{{cite web |website=] |author=Kathrin Wesolowski |language=de |title=Impfung gegen Covid-19 "sinnlos"? Sucharit Bhakdi stellt unbelegte Behauptungen auf |date=19 June 2020 |url=https://correctiv.org/faktencheck/2020/06/19/impfung-gegen-covid-19-sinnlos-sucharit-bhakdi-stellt-unbelegte-behauptungen-auf/ |type=Fact check}}</ref> | |||
| ==Awards== | |||
| ⚫ | Bhakdi is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the PANDA (Pandemics ~ Data & Analytics) organisation.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://pandata19.org/scientific-advisory-board|title=PANDA: Scientific Advisory Board|last=|first=|date=|website=pandata19.org/scientific-advisory-board|access-date=8 November 2020}}</ref> He is also a member of the 'Corona-Quartett', a weekly talk show on the Austrian TV station ]. |
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| Bakhdi has received the following awards:<ref name=CV/> | |||
| * 1979 Prize of the Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen | |||
| * 1979 Konstanzer Medizinischer Förderpreis | |||
| * 1987 Prize of the ] | |||
| * 1988 Dr.-Friedrich-Sasse Prize | |||
| * 1989 Robert-Koch-Förderpreis of Clausthal-Zellerfeld | |||
| * 1989 Ludwig-Schunk Prize for Humanmedizin | |||
| * 1990 Gotthard-Schettler Award | |||
| * 1991 ]<ref> (PDF; 82 kB)</ref> | |||
| * 1999 Schwarz-Pharma Prize | |||
| * 2001 ] for „wegweisende Arbeiten auf dem Gebiet des Komplementsystems und bakterieller Toxine“ (''tr. "pioneering work in the field of the complement system and bacterial toxins"'')<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.uni-protokolle.de/nachrichten/id/9963/|title=Mainzer Universitätsprofessor Sucharit Bhakdi wird mit dem Aronson-Preis 2001 ausgezeichnet |trans-title=Mainz university professor Sucharit Bhakdi is awarded the Aronson Prize 2001 |website=www.uni-protokolle.de|accessdate=}}</ref> | |||
| * 2005 H. W. Hauss Award<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.uni-mainz.de/Organisationen/ICE/people/bhakdi.htm |title=Sucharit Bhakdi, M.D. |website=Universität Mainz |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304061950/http://www.uni-mainz.de/Organisationen/ICE/people/bhakdi.htm |archive-date=2016-03-04 |accessdate=2014-10-15}}</ref> | |||
| * 2005 Verdienstorden des Landes Rheinland-Pfalz | |||
| * 2009 Rudolf-Schönheimer Medal of the Deutschen Gesellschaft für Arterioskleroseforschung<ref>{{cite web |author=Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz |url=https://www.unimedizin-mainz.de/presse/pressemitteilungen/aktuellemitteilungen/newsdetail/article/mainzer-mediziner-bhakdi-fuer-hypothese-zur-entstehung-von-atherosklerose-ausgezeichnet.html?type=98 |title=Mainzer Mediziner Bhakdi für Hypothese zur Entstehung von Atherosklerose ausgezeichnet |trans-title=Mainz physician Bhakdi honored for hypothesis on the development of atherosclerosis |date=2009-04-20 |accessdate=2018-04-16}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |author=] |title=Namen und Nachrichten |trans-title=Names and messages |url=https://www.aerzteblatt.de/archiv/65123/Namen-und-Nachrichten |accessdate=2018-04-16}}</ref> | |||
| ==References== | ==References== | ||
Revision as of 22:14, 22 November 2020
Thai virologist
| Sucharit Bhakdi | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1 November 1946 (age 74 years) Washington, D.C., USA |
| Nationality | Thai-German |
| Alma mater | |
| Known for | epidemiology of COVID-19 Great Barrington Declaration |
| Awards | Order of Merit of Rhineland-Palatinate, Aronson Prize |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Medicine/surgery, Epidemiology |
Sucharit Bhakdi (born Sucharit Punyaratabandhu, 1 November 1946, in Washington, D.C.) is a Thai-German specialist in microbiology. He studied at the Universities of Bonn, Gießen, Mainz and Copenhagen, and at the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg. He is a retired Professor of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and from 1991 to 2012 was Head of the Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hygiene there.
Over his career, Bhakdi has produced scientific work across a breadth of fields such as immunology, bacteriology, virology, and parasitology, and has published over three hundred scientific articles in those areas. He has received numerous awards, including the Order of Merit of Rhineland-Palatinate.
He has prominently raised concerns over scientific claims regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and many states 'Lockdown' responses to it. He is a signatory to the Great Barrington Declaration, an open letter dedicated to an alternative, risk-based approach of "Focused Protection" for people most at risk of the virus.
COVID-19 opinion
In the wake of the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, Bhakdi began his research into the virus. He argues that the virus is a much less serious threat to the general population than is widely believed. He gives many statistical and epidemiological reasons for why he believes the severity of the virus for the general population and the response to it have been inaccurate. The very negative sounding reports in the news media about the severity of the virus often result from bad statistics which are a product of poor quality of data collected, and of severely manipulated interpretations of the statistics.
Bhakdi highlights the early spread of the virus in Europe as an example for how the statistics were inaccurate or skewed. Here, he says, the "apparent high mortality rate" caused by the virus was actually caused by numerous factors. For instance, incorrect categorisation of 'cases' of virus as infections when in infectiology, a distinction is made between infection and disease. An illness must requires a clinical manifestation, so only patients with symptoms such as fever or cough should be included in the statistics as new cases. This was caused by situations where the virus would be detected when patients were being admitted to hospital or even post-mortem, Covid would be automatically incorrectly assigned as the cause of their death. The statistics about how deadly the virus had been skewed by death certificates not making the distinction between those who die as a direct result of the virus, and those who caught it but would have died anyway, or whose death was related to it but not directly caused by it.
On 26 March, Bhakdi wrote a public letter to the Chancellor of Germany calling for an urgent reassessment of the German lockdown on various states on 22 March. In the letter he argued that the science that the government had followed for the decision was questionable and the socio-economic costs of lockdown would be too high. In the letter he outlined five questions that he believed needed to be answered for a better analysis of the situation:
- Statistics - Did the projections make a distinction between symptom-free infected people and actual, sick patients – i.e. people who develop symptoms? Bhakdi pointed out that in infectiology a distinction is made between infection and disease. An illness requires a clinical manifestation. So only patients with symptoms such as fever or cough should be included in the statistics as new cases.
- Dangerousness - How does the current workload of intensive care units with patients with diagnosed COVID-19 compare to other coronavirus infections, and to what extent will this data be taken into account in further decision-making by the federal government? In addition: Has the above study been taken into account in the planning so far? The "above study" he referred to was 'SARS-CoV-2: fear versus data' which tries to show how the virus compares with other viruses and that it was not as serious as was widely believed.
- Dissemination - Has there already been a random sample of the healthy general population to validate the real spread of the virus, or is this planned in the near future? He questioned whether the virus had already spread a lot by that point and that an increase in cases was being seen because of an increase in testing.
- Mortality - Has Germany simply followed this trend of a COVID-19 general suspicion? And: is it intended to continue this categorisation uncritically as in other countries? How, then, is a distinction to be made between genuine corona-related deaths and accidental virus presence at the time of death? He questioned whether an official and critical analysis of medical records had been done to determine whether deaths were actually caused by the virus.
- Comparability - What efforts are being made to make the population aware of these elementary differences and to make people understand that scenarios like those in Italy or Spain are not realistic here? He argues that countries COVID-19 situations have elementary differences between each other so are not directly comparable to each other. So using Italy and Spain as reference scenarios for predictions in Germany and other countries is inaccurate.
Bhakdi argued in favour of a 'focused protection' approach involving; "protecting high risk groups without restricting public life across the board and sow the seeds for an even more intensive polarization of society than is already taking place".
In the letter, he cited evidence from the article; 'SARS-CoV-2: fear versus data', which hypothesised that SARS-CoV-2 figures were being overestimated at the time (19 March) so were not accurate enough to follow. Others disputed the article, arguing that it was too soon to tell in March because the virus had not yet reached its 'exponential growth' phase. This view was taken by people such as Neil Ferguson of Imperial College London, a member of the UK government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) who predicted that there could be up to 500,000 COVID-19 deaths if a lockdown was not imposed in March. Fergusons advice was taken very seriously and was one of the main statistics that the UK government cited for going into lockdown on 23 March. Bhakdi's advice was not taken in Germany. As the virus was measured over the ensuing months, Bhakdi argued that many of the projected predictions such as exponential growth had not occurred in the ways expected or to anywhere near as extreme as predicted.
Criticism of "lockdowns"
He is very critical of the 'lockdown' response taken by many governments, and that lockdowns would have very severe health consequences that would outweigh the benefits. He argues that most important statistics that have been cited by governments as justifications for lockdowns have been faulty or warped due to inaccuracy and is responsible for the mistaken lockdown response that many countries around the world have taken.
When the lockdowns were imposed, health care systems especially in Spain and Italy, broke down completely because of the imposed preventive measures (patient isolation, personnel quarantine, etc), which leads to restricted attention of patients in general and accounts for the higher numbers of deaths in general (March) in these countries.
In turn, he has been criticised for his theses on the COVID-19 pandemic by various experts and institutions such as the German Medical Tribune, scientists at the universities of Mainz and Kiel, and various fact-checking websites.
Public work on COVID-19
| External videos | |
|---|---|
 'Are We Being Told the Truth About COVID-19? | Prof. Sucharit Bhakdi' | Sucharit Bhakdi Coronavirus UK interview 2020, YouTube |
Bhakdi's has been outspoken in his work on COVID-19, especially in Germany. His work includes:
- writing an open letter to the German Chancellor Angela Merkel regarding the 'socio-economic consequences of the drastic containment measures which are currently being applied in large parts of Europe'
- posting videos on YouTube
- founding the initiative 'Medical Professionals and Scientists for Health, Freedom and Democracy'
- involvement in the writing of a 'position paper of the BMI' by an employee of the German crisis management department. The Federal Ministry distanced itself from the position paper as a "private opinion" circulating on official letterhead and released the chief government councillor Stephan Kohn from duty.
- published a book; Corona false alarm? (2020), German: ('Corona Fehlalarm? ') with his wife Karina Reiss, biologist and biochemist at the Quincke Research Center, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel.
Bhakdi is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the PANDA (Pandemics ~ Data & Analytics) organisation. He is also a member of the 'Corona-Quartett', a weekly talk show on the Austrian TV station Servus TV.
Scientific work
Bhakdi is known for his work on the complement system, a part of the human immune system. He later applied his results to develop a new theory about the nature of atherosclerosis.
Publications
Bhakdi is listed as main author or co author of many articles on PubMed, his corresponding h-index is 67. Furthermore, he served as Editor in Chief of Medical Microbiology and Immunology from 1990 to 2012.
He is the co-author of Corona, False Alarm? Facts and Figures (2020), German: ('Corona Fehlalarm?') alongside his wife Karina Reiss, a biologist and biochemist at the Quincke Research Center, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel.. The book was published in Germany on 1 June and sold 200,000 copies and 75,000 e-books in 6 weeks. It was released in the UK on 1 October and was a best seller in Family & Lifestyle Infectious & Contagious Diseases section on Amazon.
He is also the author of Bogeyman Infections - Myths, Delusions and Reality (2016), German: (Schreckgespenst Infektionen – Mythen, Wahn und Wirklichkeit (tr. ).
Awards
Bakhdi has received the following awards:
- 1979 Prize of the Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen
- 1979 Konstanzer Medizinischer Förderpreis
- 1987 Prize of the German Society for Hygiene and Microbiology
- 1988 Dr.-Friedrich-Sasse Prize
- 1989 Robert-Koch-Förderpreis of Clausthal-Zellerfeld
- 1989 Ludwig-Schunk Prize for Humanmedizin
- 1990 Gotthard-Schettler Award
- 1991 Gay-Lussac Humboldt Prize
- 1999 Schwarz-Pharma Prize
- 2001 Aronson Prize for „wegweisende Arbeiten auf dem Gebiet des Komplementsystems und bakterieller Toxine“ (tr. "pioneering work in the field of the complement system and bacterial toxins")
- 2005 H. W. Hauss Award
- 2005 Verdienstorden des Landes Rheinland-Pfalz
- 2009 Rudolf-Schönheimer Medal of the Deutschen Gesellschaft für Arterioskleroseforschung
References
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