The scientific basis for the German measles virus trial stemmed from a challenge issued by German biologist Dr. Stefan Lanka in November 2011. He offered a €100,000 prize to anyone who could present a single scientific publication proving the existence of the measles virus and determining its diameter. In January 2012, medical doctor David Bardens submitted six scientific papers to claim the reward.
Dr. Lanka refused to pay the prize, sparking a court battle grounded in several key scientific and methodological arguments:
- Misinterpretation of Cytopathic Effects & Lack of Controls: Lanka argued that the foundational 1954 study by Enders & Peebles misinterpreted cell destruction (cytopathic effects) in test tubes as proof of a virus. He maintained that the cell death was actually caused by laboratory stress—specifically nutrient deprivation and cell-destroying antibiotics—and noted that negative control experiments were omitted to rule out these factors.
- Failure to Isolate and Purify the Virus: Lanka asserted that researchers never isolated a complete, purified virus directly from human or animal fluids using standard methods like density gradient centrifugation. Instead, he argued that the studies merely centrifuged cellular debris at the bottom of test tubes (pelletising) and misinterpreted dying cellular particles as a virus.
- Theoretical Genome Reconstruction: Lanka claimed that the published “measles virus genome” was not sequenced from an isolated physical virus, but was a theoretical “jigsaw puzzle” constructed on paper by combining short, cell-specific nucleic acid fragments.
Court Rulings and Expert Testimony
- Judicial Verdict: In 2016, the Higher Regional Court of Stuttgart (OLG Stuttgart) and subsequently the German Federal Court of Justice (BGH) ruled in Dr. Lanka’s favor. The legal decision rested on the formal criteria of his contest, which required proof presented in a single publication, whereas Dr. Bardens had provided a combination of six papers.
- Expert Witness Findings: During the trial, court-appointed expert witness Prof. Andreas Podbielski (Head of Medical Microbiology, Virology and Hygiene at University Hospital Rostock) testified that while he believed the virus’s existence could be inferred by combining the six papers, none of the six publications had performed control experiments in accordance with internationally recognized rules of good scientific practice, explicitly calling this a “methodological weakness”.
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