display
The debate about the corona paper by Hamburg's top researcher Roland Wiesendanger is now reaching politics.
Social Senator Melanie Leonhard (SPD) said in the health committee that, based on the sources cited, she would not have dared to make this thesis of a laboratory accident.
The responsible science authority quickly distanced itself after the publication.
Hamburg's top researcher Roland Wiesendanger, an expert in nanotechnology and who has repeatedly acted as a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Physics, had published a self-made study on the origin of the coronavirus through the university's press office last Thursday.
This is not the market in Wuhan, but a laboratory in the city in which research on the corona virus was carried out.
Wiesendanger said he was "99.9 percent" sure.
An employee was infected there and thus carried the virus outwards.
The 100-page thesis paper with lots of colorful markings, greased comments and copied pictures looks more like a collection than a study - and arouses a lot of criticism and irritation.
"Does not meet the scientific standards"
display
The spokespersons for the Hamburg parliamentary groups were shocked to astonished.
All emphasized the high value of academic freedom, but criticized the sources and methodology of the paper.
"This work does not meet the high scientific standards that we are used to from the University of Hamburg," said Green MP Miriam Block.
Clues are not scientifically founded facts.
"Without going through a peer review beforehand, the physicist expresses himself compatible with conspiracy ideologues such as Xavier Naidoo and others," says left-wing politician Stephanie Rose.
It is a mystery to her why a study of which there are obviously methodological doubts is being put into the spotlight without prior review by specialist experts.
The laboratory thesis is not new; according to research by the World Health Organization (WHO), it is not disproved, but it is unlikely.
The majority of the published studies also show transmission via a host animal as the most likely variant.
display
Wiesendanger, however, claims to have collected 600 pieces of evidence that speak in favor of the laboratory orthosis: including scientific studies, but also YouTube snippets and links to articles in publications such as the "Epoch Times", which is popular with conspiracy theorists.
The physicist did not do any research on the subject himself.
Although there is talk of an “interdisciplinary approach” and Wiesendanger is listed as the head of the study, he is the only author.
There was also no classic scientific appraisal by peer review, as is usually the case in studies of this type before publication.
The paper is not aimed at the scientific community but is intended for the public, explained Wiesendanger.
"I assume that the university - after the study has now received so much media attention - will carry out a very careful examination and check the evidence and conclusions it contains extremely thoroughly for plausibility, sources and correctness", Annkathrin Kammeyer, spokeswoman for science policy of the SPD parliamentary group.
"If it turns out that mistakes have been made, that must also be made public."
display
CDU spokeswoman Anke Frieling said: “Under no circumstances should this form of publication become the rule.” Hamburg is a University of Excellence and wants to remain one.
“University President Lentzen has to ask himself whether he has done justice to his task here.
Under no circumstances should this form of publication become the rule. "
There is “no censorship”
University President Dieter Lentzen remains on the diving station and does not comment on the publication, which, according to Wiesendanger, was closely coordinated with him.
"He encouraged me, in my role as a scientist, to bring these things into the public eye and not just to discuss them in scientific circles," said Wiesendanger.
The university's press office said there was no censorship on the research objects and results of their scientists, said a spokeswoman.
One is obliged to make studies by their scientists available for exchange and discussion in the specialist community or the public.
Every scientist has the right to conduct research regardless of his or her specialist area and to publish the findings.
"Chaotic Internet Research"
The dean's office of the natural science faculty, to which Wiesendanger himself belongs, is all the more clear: the drafting is “not a scientific study”.
However, the dissemination via official channels gives the impression that it is a matter of "sound scientific findings".
This alienates the dean's office.
The University's Coronavirus Structural Task Force, which researches the virus, calls Wiesendanger's theses a "rather chaotic and tendentious Internet research that in no way corresponds to good scientific practice".