During the 2019–2020 coronavirus pandemic, Drosten was called by The Guardian as "the [German] country's real face of the coronavirus crisis", who also noted that the Süddeutsche Zeitung had described Drosten as "the nation's corona-explainer-in-chief".[1] He was a counterpart to Lothar Wieler [de], head of the State's Robert Koch Institute in Berlin, in consulting to German federal and state authorities.[1]