Final report of the “Heinsberg Study”
Hendrik Streeck and others: Infection fatality rate of SARS-CoV-2 infection in a German community with a super-spreading event, 4 May 2020
In April 2020, an interdisciplinary team from the University of Bonn carried out a random sample to assess the frequency and lethality of the Covid 19 pandemic. They chose the village of Gangelt in the district of Heinsberg (North Rhine-Westphalia), where a focus of infection had formed towards the end of February. The researchers interviewed 919 participants from 405 randomly selected households, tested them for an acute Covid-19 infection and took blood samples to clarify a possible already existing immunity against the virus.
This was the first representative survey conducted in Germany. The results and their interpretation by the research group triggered lively controversy.