The so-called “ad hoc statement” of the Leopoldina, which calls for a “hard lockdown”, is anything but a scientific document, nor is it a scientific summary of the state of research. It is a conglomeration of worrying statements about the current situation, combined with some drastic suggestions, which should draw their authority from the fact that the authors are now in leading positions in research. The scientific content is so low that every attentive newspaper reader, every “Tagesschau” viewer and every internet-savvy high school teacher could have written the text, including the diagrams.