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Corona vaccination in Halberstadt
Photo: Matthias Bein / picture alliance / dpa
According to EU investigators, governments around the world have received a total of 400 million doses of vaccines that do not come directly from the manufacturers.
"We call them ghost vaccines, that is, any more or less obscure offers that have probably already gone to many heads of state and government," says the EU Commission.
The EU anti-fraud agency Olaf and the law enforcement agency Europol have already started investigations.
According to the information, the topic will also be discussed at the video summit of the heads of state and government of the European Union on Thursday.
According to Olaf's estimates, 400 million doses with a value of up to three billion euros were offered, but it is not known exactly whether it is a real vaccine.
It could also be "salt water in small bottles."
The "Bild" newspaper reports that a few days ago a private broker offered numerous governments 100 million doses of the vaccine from the British-Swedish manufacturer Astrazeneca alone by email.
A man who had previously offered corona protective equipment and was known to several German authorities acted as an intermediary.
According to the "Bild" report, a spokesman for the Federal Ministry of Health confirmed that the federal government had also received a number of offers of "different seriousness" from private vaccine brokers in the past few weeks.
Germany, which is tied to the EU procurement mechanism, has not accepted any of these offers.
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