Commentary Professor Dr. Sucharit Bhakdi was once a universally respected scientist who retired from the University of Mainz in 2012. There, he ran the Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hygiene. He also set up the first specialized virology department in Germany. Most of his career was spent researching the human immune system and, in 1978, as a young scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Immunobiology in Freiburg, he discovered a protein that attacks and damages cells by sinking into the cell membrane. This vast experience led him to question his government’s official stance on COVID-19 and, in December 2020, he accused Germany of having become a “health dictatorship.” More recently, he described the vaccine rollout as “the biggest and most horrible medical experiment on humankind—we are the guinea pigs.” He was branded a conspiracy theorist for making “false statements,” and even the University of Mainz has disassociated itself from its …