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Refrigerated container for vaccine storage in Lower Saxony
Photo: Hauke-Christian Dittrich / dpa
The police warn of attacks on vaccination centers and vaccine depots.
As a confidential analysis by the North Rhine-Westphalian State Criminal Police Office (LKA) shows, "the possibility of a terrorist attack on vaccination centers and storage sites from the group of Islamist-motivated perpetrators must be considered at any time."
From the terrorists' perspective, this is supported by the insecurity of the population that such an attack would cause, as well as the great media attention that would be associated with an attack.
In general, the Dusseldorf state security guards found that the vaccination campaign posed an “abstract risk”, including pharmaceutical companies and vaccine transports, because of the “high level of emotion”.
Property damage and bodily harm can be expected.
In addition, it cannot be ruled out that vaccines might be stolen.
In the past few months there had already been attacks on the building of the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin, among other things.
An explosive device also detonated in front of a representative of the Leibniz Association, an association of scientists from different disciplines.
The investigators responsible for right-wing extremism at the Berlin LKA took over the case.
»We see with concern that the number of threats and hostilities is steadily increasing.
This affects politicians, but also other people such as virologists, who are particularly present in the media during the pandemic, "said the head of the Federal Criminal Police Office, Holger Münch, to SPIEGEL some time ago.
“We are registering attacks on journalists more and more frequently.
The emotionalization is great.
We have therefore adapted our protection concepts in close cooperation with the federal states. "
According to the LKA North Rhine-Westphalia, pharmaceutical companies are also at risk of being targeted by espionage attacks.
A hacker attack on the Paul Ehrlich Institute, which is responsible for vaccine approval, had recently become known.
The European Medicines Agency has also been attacked virtually.
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