Corona, False Alarm?: Facts and Figures

Does the race for vaccine development make sense? What are the chances of success? Will the vaccine be safe? Will people accept it

In June 2020, Corona, False Alarm? exploded into the German market, selling 200,000 copies and 75,000 e-books in the first six weeks.

No other topic dominates our attention as much as coronavirus and COVID-19, the infectious disease it triggers. There's been a global deluge of contradictory opinions, fake news, and politically controlled information. Differing views on the dangers posed by the pandemic have led to deep division and confusion, within governments, society, and even among friends and family.

In Corona, False Alarm?, award-winning researchers Dr. Sucharit Bhakdi and Dr. Karina Reiss give clarity to these confusing and stressful times. They offer analysis of whether radical protective measures--including lockdown, social distancing, and mandatory masking--have been justified, and what the ramifications have been for society, the economy, and public health. Dr. Bhakdi and Dr. Reiss provide dates, facts, and background information, including:

• How Covid-19 compares with previous coronaviruses and the flu virus
• What infection numbers and the death rate really tell us
• The challenges around lockdown: Were the protective measures justified?
• Mandatory mask-wearing: Does the science support it?
• Vaccines: What are the chances of success? What are the risks?

Corona, False Alarm? provides you with sound information and substantiated facts--and encourages you to form your own opinion on the corona crisis.

Karina Reiss was born in Germany and studied biology at the University of Kiel where she received her PhD in 2001. She became assistant professor in 2006 and associate professor in 2008 at the University of Kiel. She has published over sixty articles in the fields of cell biology, biochemistry, inflammation, and infection, which have gained international recognition and received prestigious honors and awards.

Sucharit Bhakdi was born in Washington, DC, and educated at schools in Switzerland, Egypt, and Thailand. He studied medicine at the University of Bonn in Germany, where he received his MD in 1970. He was a post-doctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg from 1972 to 1976, and at The Protein Laboratory in Copenhagen from 1976 to 1977. He joined the Institute of Medical Microbiology at Giessen University in 1977 and was appointed associate professor in 1982. He was named chair of Medical Microbiology at the University of Mainz in 1990, where he remained until his retirement in 2012. Dr. Bhakdi has published over three hundred articles in the fields of immunology, bacteriology, virology, and parasitology, for which he has received numerous awards and the Order of Merit of Rhineland-Palatinate. Sucharit Bhakdi and his wife, Karina Reiss, live with their three-year-old son, Jonathan Atsadjan, in a small village near the city of Kiel.