In the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, Priesemann researched the spread and containment strategies of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 and also increasingly appeared in public. She was co-author and first signatory of the statements of the non-university research institutions, the John Snow Memorandum and the Leopoldina. She is initiator of a Pan-European Statement, which emphasizes the need for a common European approach to COVID-19 containment and presents a clear action plan. The weekly newspaper Die Zeit devoted a multi-page dossier to the mathematical study of the pandemic by Priesemann and her research group at the Max Planck Institute in December 2020.