I know it’s not the repudiation we hoped for, but the widening displeasure over the deeply idiotic and imprudent contracts that the European Union negotiated with Pfizer and BioNTech for COVID-19 vaccine doses says a lot about where the vaccinators find themselves, politically and socially, at this late hour.
That erstwhile pillar of the vaccinator-industrial complex, the Süddeutsche Zeitung, has revealed a markedly reduced enthusiasm for the vaccines and their procurement in the past months. After attacking the lack of transparency surrounding the contract negotiations, they’ve found the energy to deplore all the worthless vaccine that our health ministers have purchased:
In Germany, by the end of March 2023, around 83 million COVID-19 vaccine doses expired and were thrown away by with the federal government alone. Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) has informed a private session of Bundestag budget committee of these developments …
These figures raise many questions. Did Germany, especially under Lauterbach’s predecessor Jens Spahn (CDU), but also during Lauterbach’s tenure during the fight against the pandemic, order too much vaccine? Could they have avoided these costs, which reach into the billions? Or did the state have no choice, because it was not foreseeable how many people would get vaccinated, and how many injections would be needed for effective protection in the longer run?
What devastating answers all of these questions have.
In any case, the EU and the Federal Republic of Germany have purchased far more vaccine than is needed now. As the Ministry of Health informed the Bundestag, Germany has donated 120 million vaccine doses to other countries. Even after these donated doses left the central warehouse, further doses nevertheless expired …
The Ministry explains that additional doses have expired “at the various stages” of the supply chain. This refers to doses shipped to wholesalers, pharmacies and doctors’ offices. These parties are in turn responsible for “proper disposal”, the ministry explains. They did not provide figures on how many doses had expired and been destroyed by these wholesalers, pharmacies and medical practices. It is possible that these numbers have not been collected.
In other words: The 83 million figure represents a floor; nobody actually knows or is all that eager to tabulate how many doses have been thrown away.
When asked by the SZ, the Ministry of Health did not say how much the expired and destroyed doses at the federal level cost. Publicly available data nevertheless supports the assumption that the costs to the taxpayer… are in the billions.
And that may not be all.
Through the start of 2023, the federal government had ordered a total of 672 million doses for 13.1 billion Euros, generally via the EU. Each jab therefore costs on average just under 20 Euros … According to the Ministry of Health, by the start of May, around 192 million doses had been injected in Germany, and some of the deliveries are still outstanding.
More than a year ago, the Berlin-based newspaper Tagesspiegel asked whether Lauterbach was threatened with “billions in damages”. At that time, it was already becoming apparent that vaccine could remain unused. In mid-2022, 3.9 million vaccine doses had expired. By the beginning of 2023, there were already 36.6 million vaccine doses. And now, only five months later, it is already 83 million. By the end of last year, approximately 54 million doses had expired and in the first quarter of 2023, approximately 29 million doses had been destroyed, the ministry informed the Bundestag.
Possibly even more vaccine will have to be destroyed. As of the beginning of May, the Federal Government still has stores amounting to around 120 million doses. Their future is “fraught with uncertainty” and depends, among other things, on the future course of the pandemic, the Ministry of Health informed the Bundestag. The Federal Government still intends to give “unneeded vaccine” to other countries.
Not a single country anywhere on earth can be found to take this stuff.
To avoid having to destroy more vaccine, the EU has now negotiated a partial cancellation of supply contracts with the pharmaceutical companies BioNTech and Pfizer. A “cancellation fee” is due for this, Lauterbach informed the Bundestag. According to reports, Lauterbach did not give a figure. The cancellation fees for unwanted vaccine is likely to reach costs in Germany alone of hundreds of millions of Euros.
While the details of the deal are officially secret, an outraged Polish health minister revealed several weeks ago that Pfizer and BioNTech have demanded that EU countries pay 50% of the cost for every previously ordered yet unneeded vaccine dose.
At the end of the article there lurks this foul paragraph:
With early access to safe and effective vaccines, many lives have been saved and millions of people have been protected from serious illness. The economic costs of the pandemic have also been reduced and the “impact on social life has been noticeably mitigated”. The vaccine surplus is a consequence of this strategy. This is how the Ministry of Health justified the bulk purchases in the Bundestag.
We’ve been over this many times at the plague chronicle, but as long as politicians and the press continue to indulge in these hollow excuses, I’ll keep repeating myself: It’s strange indeed that enthusiasm for these SaFE aNd EfFeCtIvE vaccines should have plummeted in precise inverse correlation to public experience with them. You’d almost think that the more the vaccinators were allowed to vaccinate, the more everybody decided the vaccines weren’t for them after all. This is hardly the response you’d expect to such miraculous, life-saving, side effect-free products.
A great many journalists, bureaucrats, politicians and ordinary people were complicit in the excesses of the past several years, and as the policies of the pandemic continue to sour, they’ll do anything but talk about it. This more than anything is the reason for the deafening silence surrounding all of these matters. What critique there is will increasingly attach itself to isolated matters, such as school closures, and to specific initiatives in which few participated directly, such as the buying of vaccines. They’ll do everything they can to assign blame in those few areas, where they can’t be blamed themselves.
This article originally appeared on Eugyppius’s Substack newsletter. You can subscribe here.
Stop Press: According to Politico, the European Commission has systematically blocked scrutiny of its COVID-19 vaccine deal with Pfizer.
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The Germans have a bit of form when it comes to authoritarianism.
They do. But in our country a lady was arrested for praying (silently in her own mind) outside an abortion clinic.
What I’m observing is that everywhere there seems to be an authoritarian minority striving to push and intimidate the flacid, weak-minded majority into accepting ever more authoritarian rule.
We were clearly contaminated by our liaison with our European neighbours who have never forgiven us or USA for saving them from the aforementioned Teutonic hordes.
They’re a bit distracted by still beingt busy to fight back the Russian hordes which subjugated them with an iron fist for the next 50 years, but they’ll certainly express their gratitude for this great British present in due time. Considering that the UK has just stripped itself of its capabilty to produce weapons-grade steel, times are becoming ever more favourable for that.
NB: This is sarcasm.
I am still surprised at the enthusiasm with which my friends, acquaintances (generally left-leaning but not political activists) and neighbours took advantage of the opportunity afforded them in April 2020 to mutate into covid-warriors, mask enforcers, aisle-patrollers and general snitches and quislings. Clearly it is very easy for any government to create a “Mencken Imaginary Hobgoblin” and use it to as a tactic for ensuring compliance. Once people sincerely believe in the menace, they will comply with almost any order (Milgram Experiment).even though it seriously challenges their personal values and direct perception. I was also surprised at the culture in teacher training establishments in which not only are teachers told what opinions are acceptable in children but also that any teacher who is suspected of not holding the “correct” opinion on “the current thing”, let alone express that opinion, is likely to be sent for “re-education” or simply blocked from progress in teaching. Overall, Generation Z seems to be sleep-walking into authoritarianism because they do not recognize what it looks like: they think authoritarianism looks like tyrannical third-world military rulers rather than Karen in aisle three.
This!
Dear They’re all Nazis! autoresponder, this was all engineered by the SPD and the only reason why the SPD is a force to be reckoned with is because of two huge wars fought against Germany with the intent of making it so. So, please consider taking responsibilty for your own actions. We don’t want these people. You do.
To be fair RW we don’t want them either.
When I head the word socialism, I release the safety-catch of my revolver.
[Otto v. Bismarck]
I don’t understand your comment. They have a reputaion for authoritarianism that dates back to to century before last. I wasn’t just referring to Adolf the painter.
The teutonian hordes were an invention of the Northcliffe-press, ie, British WWI wartime propaganda (and a seriously fictional one¹). Before this, Germans had a reputation for being scientists, poets, composer, painters and philosophers.
¹ Eg, a well-known German ‘crime’ of 1914 is the violation of the Belgian neutrality which was used as justification for England entering the war. In 1916, England and France invaded neutral Greece to occupy Saloniki where they created a huge miltary base for operations in the Balkans. Obviously someting completely different as the good guys did it.
Who mentioned teutonian hordes? The internet seems to be silent on this, and I still don’t understand that what you are say ing has any relevance to anything I said.
Also the reputation of the Knights of the Teutonic Order predates the first World War by many centuries
Minus the spelling error, you did. You’re also becoming increasingly bizarre. The Teutonic Order was just another religious order of knights formed in the context of the crusades. The pope sent it on the so-called Prussian Crusade to spread christianity to various heathen slavic tribes living in the south-eastern balticum, principally the so-called Old Prussians. The knights created a state in the area which was defeated by a combined Polish-Lithuanian army in 1410 and ultimatively became part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Minus the historic name which came from a pilgrim hostel in Jerusalem, it has no relation to Germany whatsoever. It also doesn’t have any particular reputation for anything.
Me, bizarre? I applaud your use of the internet for all the irrelevant data you are spewing forth.
I originally used the phrase as short-hand for German hordes, simply to avoid repetition. I am foolish in trying to justify its use to someone like you. You are not that important to me.
Well, yes. Germany carried out serious war crimes in Belgium. The brutal German was a real thing.
Can I remind all DS readers to please please be careful today and at all costs avoid the Lenny Henry tax that is “Comic” Relief.
I will be watching a re-run of “Magnum P.I.”
No risk whatsoever. It would involve watching the BBC, not something I ever do and I would strongly urge anyone else to avoid the BBC permanently.
This is not a flippant comment. It is a well established reality of human psychology that when you hear something repeated over and over and over, even when you know perfectly well that it’s untrue, the mind cannot help interiorising it and accepting it as true at some level. It’s physically impossible.
So if you don’t want to unwillingly and reflexively end up accepting the lies and warped worldview presented by the BBC (and most conventional media), then you really have to switch it off and avoid it altogether.
There is only one reason to watch the BBC, and that is that you cannot criticise something unless you know what they are saying. Can I suggest “BBC, Brainwashing Britain” by David Sedgewick
We also do it to ourselves. Auto or self-suggestion.
Always do.
I never watch the BBC and since there has been nothing funny about what passes for humour on the Beeb for at least two decades now, the event should be challenged by Ofcom on the grounds of mis-representation.
As one never needs to look far to find nonsense coming out of Germany here’s a bit more;
”Teachers at a comprehensive school in Germany have banned children from drinking water in their classrooms out of consideration for Muslim pupils fasting during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.
As reported by NIUS, fifth graders at the unnamed school located in the greater Frankfurt area, have informed their parents they were prohibited from drinking in class because a handful of students were fasting.
“At dinner, we always talk about how the day was. I asked my daughter what was new at school. She then told us that two teachers had forbidden the students from drinking in class because three of the 27 children were fasting,” a father of one of the pupils told the site.
It is understood that while the water ban is not an official school policy, it has been enforced by two separate teachers who have prevented students from accessing the water dispenser in the hall or having water bottles on their desks.”
https://www.rmx.news/germany/german-kids-banned-from-drinking-water-in-class-during-ramadan/
Our apathy and pandering to minorities, which will soon be the majority will mean that our daughters will all soon be going to school in headscarves and be banned from listening to pop groups and ofcourse mini skirts will be banned from shops. ——This is the direction travel.
But then, if all the girls wear the approved clothing, and are suitably ‘modest’, who will the rper grooming gangs rape?
wink
I would have thought that they would welcome seeing non-believers drink because it would empasise their devotion in the face of temptation.
The justification is obviously bizarre, but I don’t think anybody was allowed to drink during lessons when I was in school.
???drinking during class?
Since when?
Here’s a best effort translation of the actual press release of the police:
Press Release of the Police Headquarter Stralsund regarding News about an urgent Police Operation at a Grammar School in in Ribnitz
Around 09:45 on the 27th of Feb 2024, a head of a grammar school in Ribnitz requested that the police should investigate some possibly criminal activity. It had come to his notice that a school girl might have disseminated content which could pose a danger to the state on social media. Police officers immediately attended to ascertain the incriminating material, specifically, an e-mail secretly sent by another school girl. No grounds for police action could be established.
However, the police is not only responsible for investigating crimes and public order offences but also, to prevent crimes from being committed and to combat possible dangers to the general public. Because lay people oftentimes cannot really judge whether or not something is actually legal, the officers decided that they should proactively warn the school girl about the risks she was unknowingly exposing herself to. To facilitate this, the head called the girl out of class while the police officers where secretly waiting in a hallway to avoid being noticed. The warning was delivered in the head’s office. The girl was generally cooperative and accepted the justification why the police had been called and acted in the way it did. The police then called her mother to inform her about the informal caution which had been given to her daughter. She was very cooperative and agreed with the stated reasons for the police operation as well. The girl was then allowed to go back to class unattended. Despite efforts to maintain secrecy of the police operation had been made, it’s conceivable that it got noticed nevertheless.
Yes but c’mon what about the rest of the article about interfering with the finances and bank accounts etc of the non compliants? and those who have “undue social influence”? That has nothing to do with protecting people—- ESG is taking off and must be stopped if you want to remain a free person in a free country.—— I worked in the old Yugoslavia in the 80’s and when in Belgrade there was something I noticed. There were plenty of people going about but there was no chatter or “hubbub” like you would get in western countries. The people all seemed to go about minding their own business with their heads down. It was very strange indeed, and I was never so glad to get across that Austrian border back to the civilised world. The first thing tyranny does is SILENCE the people and have them living in fear. ——I fear this is where the west is now heading.
I think that’s a pretty sinister statement by the police, especially when considering that they were targetting a sixteen year old girl which had doubtlessly never come in contact with the police before who had shared a smurf video online. They certainly – and intentionally – scared the living daylight out of her and her mother as well. That’s the kind of stuff which gives people nightmares and would entitle them to trauma counselling when they weren’t being considered prospective enemies of the system.
Many thanks for the translation RW.
Immediately? Wow. We’re used to not getting a cop to attend a burglary!
I understand from this that the girl didn’t actually send the ‘incriminating material’. She received it.
What the Hell did the cops do to the sender of the e-mail if that’s what they did to the recipient?
If the e-mail was sent secretly I imagine it was encrypted so that it could not be intercepted? Actually, of course, I don’t imagine that at all; I actually imagine it was just an ordinary e-mail. If my daughter sends my son an e-mail and doesn’t copy in the BBC News is she ‘secretly sending’ him an e-mail? Suppose it’s about their
plot to overthrow the stateMum’s birthday?Probably badly translated. Another school girl send an e-mail to the head about the smurf video and the police ‘investigated’ this e-mail. Doesn’t make much sense, but that’s what the text of the press release says.
Ah, I see. The other girl is the ‘whistle-blower’ (she thinks). Perhaps ‘stirring it’. I do hope this story is discussed widely throughout the school as a warning about the overreach of the state.
“undue social influence” ????? ————It seems that what passes for democracy in the western world these days is strict obedience to leftist ideology and governments job in this “democracy” is to make anything that deviates from that illegitimate and even criminal.—-This is what happens when you give to much power squirming parasite politicians or as someone pointed out “Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely” (Lord Acton) ——-For democracy to survive the parasites must be voted out. If not then we can all live like the North Koreans, which I hear is quite pleasant this time of year even though the populace don’t have two halfpennys to rub together.
The German communist government behave as if AFD might be nazis. But the left are the nazis and acting as if East Germany were still a thing and they were running it. The governing coalition of green-communists are the problem. Vile, leftists expressing standard communist reactions: prevebt speech the party does not like. Lock-up those who speak out against the party, comrades. Destroy any opposition. Indoctrinate the children. Close down anti party activities.
My God, Germany is wrecking Europe for the fourth time in 150 years (1870, 1914, 1939 were the previous disasters). And Marx was a German, so we can blame them for that disgusting aberration of a human
The West is going to he’ll in a handcart…