In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic the notion of “infection drivers” (Infektionstreiber) has gained currency in German discourse on school closings. This paper traces its discursive origins and its typical usage, using two twitter-corpora. The analysis indicates that the term is not so much used to name driving forces in the dynamics of the pandemic, but to exempt specific areas of society from the responsibility of spreading the virus, thereby criticising the measures and restrictions imposed upon it. Infektionstreiber thus becomes a discursive strategy to negotiate questions of who carries the responsibilities for the pandemic.