Sucharit Bhakdi was a professor at the University of Mainz, where from 1991 to 2012 he was head of the Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hygiene.
The university disassociated itself from Bhakdi's views on the Coronavirus pandemic. In 2021 Bhakdi's publisher broke off relations following the appearance of an online video in which Bhakdi made antisemitic comments, saying Israel is "even worse" than Nazi Germany, and "That’s the bad thing about Jews."
Bhakdi has made a number of false statements about the COVID-19 pandemic, saying that the pandemic is a "fake", that face masks and quarantines are "nonsense" and that the COVID-19 vaccines are deadly and will decimate the global population. Bhakdi's claims, in particular in his YouTube videos and in the book "Corona Fehlalarm?", have been extensively fact-checked and found to be variously unsubstantiated, misleading, or false.
How can anyone post anything Bhakdi says when his credibility has been torn to shreds? Have you been so blinded by the ideology that vaccines are bad; that you have swallowed the poison of every scammer using misinformation for their own profit; using the Andrew Wakefield school of fraud?
Thanks, here is more on Bhakhdi. The clincher is that he complained that the pandemic is fake.
Prominence during COVID-19 pandemic
See also: COVID-19 misinformation
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Bhakdi started a YouTube channel proposing that the number of deaths stemming from SARS-CoV-2 infection had been overstated. In November 2020 his account was terminated for violating YouTube’s community guidelines.[26] One of his first videos was published 18 March 2020; it went viral, with 300,000 views by 23 March.[27] In the video, he predicted the worst “horror scenario” would be a million infections and 30 deaths a day in Germany, and that death rates in Northern Italy and China were higher only because of high air pollution there (even though Germany typically has more deaths due to pollution than Italy).
Bhakdi has made a number of false statements about the COVID-19 pandemic, saying that the pandemic is a “fake”, that face masks and quarantines are “nonsense” and that the COVID-19 vaccines are deadly and will decimate the global population.[3]
He has been otherwise criticised for his theses on the COVID-19 pandemic; according to Medical Tribune [de], they are considered unscientific by a majority of experts.[28]
Bhakdi’s criticisms of the COVID-19 pandemic response
His criticisms of states’ (most particularly Germany’s) reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic have included:
Writing an open Letter in March 2020 to German Chancellor Dr. Angela Merkel regarding the “socio-economic consequences of the drastic containment measures which are currently being applied in large parts of Europe”[29]
Posting videos on YouTube claiming, for example, that the government was overreacting because the virus posed no more threat than influenza, and that any COVID-19 vaccine would be “pointless”.[30]
Participation in May 2020 in the writing of a “position paper of the BMI” by an employee of the German crisis management department.[31][32][33] The Federal Ministry distanced itself from the position, calling the paper a “private opinion” circulating on official letterhead, and released the chief government councilor Stephan Kohn from duty.[34]
He is the co-author of Corona, False Alarm? Facts and Figures (2020), German: (’Corona Fehlalarm?’) ISBN 978-3-99060-191-4[35][36] and Corona Unmasked. Neue Daten, Zahlen, Hintergründe. (Goldegg, Berlin/Wien 2021, ISBN 978-3-99060-231-7. An earlier book of his was published in 2016, Schreckgespenst Infektionen – Mythen, Wahn und Wirklichkeit (tr. “Bogeyman Infections - Myths, Delusions and Reality”) ISBN 978-3-903090-66-8.[37] He published these books together with his wife, Karina Reiss [de], a biologist and biochemist at the Quincke Research Center, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel.[38]
Describing Germany in December 2020 as a “health dictatorship”, saying he wanted to emigrate to Thailand because of this.[39]
Responses to Bhakdi’s claims
Bhakdi’s claims, in particular in his YouTube videos and in the book Corona Fehlalarm?, have been extensively fact-checked and found to be variously unsubstantiated, misleading, or false.[40][41]
In Germany, fact-checking activity has included articles at ZDF,[27] the Austrian independent fact-checkers Minikama [de],[29][42] dpa,[43] SWR3[44] and the German non-profit correctiv.org.[30] In March 2020, ZDF said “His theses are unscientific, his numbers too low”,[27] Minikama that his statements are “contrary to the scientific consensus of numerous experts, professors and colleagues and was described as largely dubious, unscientific and incorrect”.[42] Correctiv fact-checked one of Bhakdi’s YouTube videos in June 2020, and found a number of problematic claims, including the claim that any COVID-19 vaccine would be “pointless”, and that the virus posed no more threat than influenza.[30]
On the basis of fact checks by Correctiv, ZDF, die Welt, Der Spiegel and Bayerischer Rundfunk, the Süddeutsche Zeitung summed up in April 2020: “What Wodarg and Bhakdi say is not completely wrong, but they mix facts with speculation and disinformation.”[45] Writing for Foreign Policy, in September 2020 Tyson Barker (Head of DGAP’s Technology & Global Affairs Program)[46] described Bhakdi as a prominent example from a “crop of debunked but credentialed so-called experts minting conspiracy theories and undermining fact-based information”.[47]
In October 2020 the University of Mainz issued a statement to the effect that it does not support Bhakdi’s views.[5][48][49]
Political activism, antisemitism
In 2021, Bhakdi was a founder of the new German political party dieBasis [de], which emerged out of the “Querdenken” political movement, standing as a candidate in the 2021 German federal election in North Rhine-Westphalia.[50][51][52] In April 2021, the antisemitism commissioner for the state of Baden-Württemberg identified the Querdenken movement as providing space for antisemitic conspiracy theories, noting that Bhakdi singled out the German-Jewish minister of education in Schleswig-Holstein, Karin Prien, as “poisoning our children with CO2”.[53]
In a video released as part of his campaign, Bhakdi articulated antisemitic views, saying Israel is “even worse” than Nazi Germany, and “That’s the bad thing about Jews.” The Austrian publisher Goldegg Verlag [de] of three of Bhakdi’s books on the pandemic, said that it was severing ties with the author.[6][49][54][55] Bhakdi was criticised by antisemitism commissioners for the states of Berlin and Baden-Württemberg.[56][57][58]
