“We will live again as before the pandemic”

Mr Drosten, it’s almost two years to the day since you first appeared in the Daily mirrors were quoted on a new viral disease. If someone had asked you, “How are we going to talk about this virus in two years’ time?” what would you have said?
I can tell you what I said then: This will be the news topic of the year, there will be no other in 2020. I only said that to my wife though.

What made you so sure back then? At the beginning it was not even clear whether the new virus would be transmitted from person to person.
In mid-January, based on the data, it was already becoming apparent that things were getting serious. It was known that the number of cases in China was increasing rapidly, especially among hospital staff – which is always a first indicator of whether a virus is easily transmissible from person to person.