23 September 2020
On 22 September 2020, RECOVER Consortium Member, Dr. Christian Drosten, was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit (Bundesverdienstkreuz) for his contribution to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Federal Cross of Merit is the highest federal decoration of Germany, awarded by the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.
The Order of Merit is awarded for achievements in the political, economic, social and intellectual field, as well as for “all kinds of outstanding services to the nation in the field of social, charitable or philanthropic work”. It is the is the highest accolade that the Federal Republic of Germany can award to individuals for their services to the nation. Drosten was awarded for, among other things, providing important and globally recognized findings on the virus, as well as communicating these findings to the public in understandable and innovative formats (e.g. his podcast entitled ‘Coronavirus-Update’).
Christian Drosten is a director of the Institute of 
Virology at the Charité Hospital in Berlin. He is an internationally recognized virologist and one of the co-discoverers of SARS-CoV in 2003. In 2020, his lab developed the first test for SARS-CoV-2. Drosten’s research focuses on novel viruses. He is involved in many European collaborations, including Platform foR European Preparedness Against (Re-) emerging Epidemics (PREPARE) and RECOVER.
Within RECOVER, Drosten co-leads the Clinical Biological Studies. The goal of these studies is to provide answers to key outstanding questions on SARS-CoV-2 severity, and transmissibility during evolution of the current pandemic and in the European context. This work builds from expertise in MERS, SARS, and human coronaviruses, and refocus the tools developed for studies of these pathogens in PREPARE, COllaborative Management Platform for detection and Analyses of (Re-) emerging and foodborne outbreaks in Europe (COMPARE), and Zoonotic anticipation and preparedness initiative (ZAPI) to include the SARS-CoV-2.
Read the full article here.
About RECOVER
RECOVER is one of the 18 projects that the European Union has founded in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It aims to obtain crucial unknown information about the disease through clinical research to help the EU fight the virus and save patients’ lives. The research from RECOVER will help improve the EU’s response to future epidemics and pandemics