Osterhaus' role in avian flu and in the successes regarding SARS resulted in a dramatic increase in public, political and scientific credibility. Through his countless media appearances he gained the status of a public figure, and some even call him 'the David Beckham of virology' (Volkskrant 10 February 2009) . He seems to be an invincible expert, not just because of this increase in credibility, but also because the risks of entanglement had been resolved. But as the H1N1 pandemic demonstrated, 'David Beckhams' are particularly prone to loss of credibility; there was great upheaval with regard to Osterhaus' commercial, scientific and political interests (Enserink 2009 ).