Covid vaccines: 10 times more side effects than announced

On 21 February 2022, Andreas Schöfbeck, Chairman of the German health insurer BKK-ProVita, sent a letter ^[1] to Prof. Klaus Cichutek of the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut (PEI), the German pharmacovigilance institute, in which A. Schöfbeck expressed his concern about the explosion of post-vaccination covid side effects.

4 to 5% of the vaccinated in Germany

In his letter, A. Schöfbeck expressed his doubts about the official figure of 244,576 suspected side effects reported in Germany. For, by evaluating medical data covering nearly 11 million insured persons in Germany – even though this data does not yet include all the 2021 data – BKK-ProVita already arrives at 216,695 reported side effects treated, i.e. severe enough for patients to consult a doctor. By projecting these figures onto the whole of 2021 and the entire German population, BKK-ProVita arrives at an estimate of between 2.5 and 3 million suspected side effects, ten times the official number [a factor often corroborated ^[2], among others by studies from the WHO itself ^[3], Ed.].

Ultimately, this would represent between 4 and 5% of the vaccinated in Germany. BKK-ProVita deduces from this a massive under-reporting, the real extent of which could be verified using data from the other health insurers. Stressing the latent danger of death, he concluded his letter by requesting a rapid response from the PEI by 6 p.m. the following day, 22 February 2022.

The first days: radio silence

Apart from the investigative magazine Multipolar ^[4] and the blog of independent journalist Boris Reitschuster ^[5], which had independently relayed the information in articles on 24 February, among the so-called “mainstream” media only the daily Die Welt had reported these figures, on 25 February^[6], – and even then, the article is behind a paywall.

According to Multipolar, based on BKK-Provita’s figures, suspected vaccine-related side effects caused some 383,000 days of sick leave from January to August 2021, compared with only 374,000 days of sick leave due to covid over the same period. The magazine also points out that refusing to report a suspected side effect is illegal in Germany, and that, after more than 14 months, the vaccines still only have a conditional marketing authorisation from the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

The German government in denial

At the German federal government’s press conference of 28 February 2022 ^[7], journalist B. Reitschuster asked what the Ministry of Health’s position was on the figures put forward by BKK-ProVita (his question and the ministry spokesperson’s answer can also be found on his blog in an article of 1 March 2022 ^[8]). In short, according to the German government, the figures are not accurate because BKK-ProVita allegedly did not carry out its analysis according to the statutory diagnostic classification codes (ICD), but used a broader notion of vaccine-related side effects which, from a legal point of view, are not side effects, such as fatigue after injection. B. Reitschuster then pressed the point, asking for clarification as to whether fatigue after injection is not considered a side effect, which the ministry spokesperson confirmed. Yet, according to B. Reitschuster, BKK-ProVita based itself on ICD code U12.9 ^[9].

Whistleblower fired and bogus “debunking”

In the days that followed, things moved very fast. Before A. Schöfbeck had even had the opportunity to speak with the PEI, he was already ousted from his post as chairman of the health insurer on 2 March 2022 ^[10]. On 3 March 2022 ^[11] BKK-ProVita distanced itself from these figures and from their interpretation by its former chairman, disputing that they reflected scientific reality. It also distanced itself from its former chairman by accusing him of being under the influence of the Querdenken opposition movement ^[12].

Only now is ARD, the public broadcaster, pouncing on the story. Not by focusing on the analysis itself, but by resorting to the well-known “debunking” patterns: quoting a contrary expert – who merely asserts that the figures are “bogus”, without demonstrating it –, an ad hominem attack – reiterating the association between A. Schöfbeck and Querdenken without substantiating it, merely saying that the person who analysed the figures, Tom Lausen, is popular within the movement –, and guilt by association – insisting that BKK-ProVita’s figures and Tom Lausen’s analyses are regularly picked up by “alternative media” ^[13].

Bogus arguments

ARD’s only concrete criticism is that it is unclear whether or not these are serious side effects. It thus ignores the fact that, firstly, they were presumably severe enough for patients to go and see their doctor; secondly, that the doctors treated them and passed them on to the health insurers; and thirdly, that, according to Multipolar, they caused more days of sick leave than covid over the same period!

On top of that, ARD is spreading false information. When it says that there is not necessarily a causal link between a vaccine and a reported suspected side effect, it is right in an individual case. But it is wrong when it headlines and insinuates that these should first be verified before being reported or analysed by pharmacovigilance. European pharmacovigilance legislation ^[14] explicitly states that, by definition, what must always be reported first are suspectedside effects, because with new medicines the proven side effects are by definition unknown, and causal links can only be uncovered if doctors report all suspected side effects, not just those for which a causal link has already been established. In this way, ARD shows that it has not understood how pharmacovigilance works as a statistical alarm signal and not as a register of proven side effects.

If A. Schöfbeck’s analysis is “bogus”, as it claims, then ARD need only carry out its own investigation and refute this analysis; that seems essential to shed light on this affair. What would it have to lose, otherwise?

By Colin Meier, independent citizen journalist and Germany correspondent for BAM!

[1] https://multipolar-magazin.de/media/220224-bkk-brief-pei.pdf

[2] https://bam.news/bam-detox/bam-detoxe-le-formulaire-de-johnsson-johnsson-cense-aider-les-jeunes-a-faire-un-choix-eclaire-pour-la-vaccination/

[3] https://www.who.int/medicines/areas/quality_safety/safety_efficacy/trainingcourses/4notification_spontanee.pdf

[4] https://multipolar-magazin.de/artikel/mehr-impfnebenwirkungen

[5] https://reitschuster.de/post/erhebliches-alarmsignal-krankenversicherer-schickt-brandbrief-an-pei/

[6] https://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/plus237106177/Coronavirus-Impf-Nebenwirkungen-deutlich-mehr-als-bisher-bekannt.html

[7] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ii5t_DXQaPo

[8] https://reitschuster.de/post/impfnebenwirkungen-sind-fuer-regierung-keine-impfnebenwirkungen-2/

[9] https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/classification/icd/covid-19/covid-19-coding-updates-3-4-combined.pdf?sfvrsn=39197c91_3

[10] https://www.berliner-zeitung.de/gesundheit-oekologie/nach-kassen-kritik-an-impfnebenwirkungszahlen-wir-muessen-ihn-sofort-entfernen-li.214855?pid=true

[11] https://bkk-provita.de/aktuelles/bkk-provita-distanziert-sich-von-andreas-schofbeck/

[12] On Querdenken, the main movement opposing freedom-destroying measures, and its defamation by the authorities and the mainstream media, also read the BAM articles here (in French), here (in French) and here (in French).

[13] https://www.tagesschau.de/investigativ/swr/bkk-provita-studie-querdenken-101.html

[14] https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32012R0520&from=EN

Photo source:
Montage based on the original image on emojisky