Sotiris Tsiodras is the Most Popular Greek

Sotiris Tsiodras, the soft-spoken epidemiologist who serves as the Director of the Infectious Diseases Committee, is the most popular Greek personality during these coronavirus times.
In an opinion poll conducted by Marc for Alpha TV and published on Wednesday, 94.6 percent of respondents have a “positive” or “quite positive” view of the physician and professor. Greek citizens have credited him with the country’s successful battle against the pandemic. 

The man who is tasked with the mission to fight COVID-19 and inform the public about the developments in the spread of the pandemic, has made Greeks glued to their television sets every evening at 6 p.m. to listen to his announcements.
Tsiodras is the most popular man in Greece although he has yet to say anything that sounds pleasing to the ear. On the contrary, he says forthrightly that we are all in danger. He is so popular that there are some of the opinion that he would make a great prime minister, or at least a president of the republic.
In fact, French newspaper Le Figaro wrote a tribute on him entitled “Infectious Disease Specialist Sotiris Tsiodras is the New Favorite of the Greeks.”
He has grey hair, wears glasses, is conservatively dressed and his voice is soft and soothing, but sincere.
Tsiodras was teary-eyed when advising people to stay home to protect the elderly from the infection that could lead to their death. “We must stay at home to protect our fathers and mothers, our grandfathers and grandmothers. We need to protect everyone.”

He also cautioned against scapegoating the Roma community during the pandemic. “Roma are not a threat; they are a vulnerable social group,” Tsiodras stated.
The epidemiologist’s impressive resume makes him most suitable for the job and his reassuring demeanor and personality make him the ideal person for this most difficult task.
Tsiodras was born on October 13, 1965, in Sydney, Australia. He began his hospital training at 401 General Army Hospital (1992-1993). This was also the beginning of his specialization in Internal Pathology.
After completing his nine months of field service, Tsiodras continued his studies in the United States, where he lived for seven years and completed his postgraduate education.
He spent three years at the Department of Internal Pathology at Albert Einstein University Hospital, where he gained significant experience in ICUs and the treatment of infectious diseases. At the same time, he was also teaching at Temple University Medical School.
His experience secured him a place as an Infectious Disease Specialist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, the teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. He was the only candidate from a foreign country accepted into this position.
During his four years in that hospital complex, he was trained in the clinical follow-up of a wide range of patients with infectious diseases, including patients with complex infections in the immunosuppressive realm.
In November of 2000, Tsiodras was awarded the title of Specialist in Infectious Diseases after successfully completing the Certification Examinations of the American Board of Internal Medicine subspecialty of Infectious Diseases.
Upon his return to Greece in 2001 the epidemiologist began working as an infectious disease specialist at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, KEELPNO.
In 2005 Tsiodras participated in the organization and planning for the influenza pandemic measures and in completing the National Pandemic Plan as a member of the team involved in its creation.
As a specialist in public health, he also participated in 4-member committees of the European Center for Disease Control and Prevention (European CDC), which inspected member states of the European Union in preparation for a national influenza pandemic (Italy and Hungary).
As an Infectious Disease Consultant at KEELPNO, he was actively involved in dealing with daily clinical problems of infections but also in investigating epidemics such as the myocarditis epidemic in Crete in 2003 and Salmonellosis in Argos in 2004.
He also was in charge of looking into the suspected human cases of HSN1 influenza in 2005-2006 as well as the 2009-2010 influenza pandemic, malaria, and West Nile epidemics in 2010-2012 and the rabies epidemic in animals in Northern Greece in 2012-2013.