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Vaccination scandal in Bavaria: table salt instead of vaccine?
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Photo: Daniel Karmann / dpa
Gerhard H. is currently not available.
Anyone who calls the family doctor's practice hears an announcement.
The practice is closed for "health reasons," says a woman's voice.
It sounds harmless.
The 72-year-old general practitioner's branch in the Bavarian town of Wemding in Swabia is the scene of an investigation, the extent of which cannot yet be foreseen.
There is a suspicion in the room that hundreds of people have received a corona vaccination certificate but no injection.
This should also include high-risk patients.
The case became known last Thursday.
On the day the police informed about the search of a family doctor's practice in the Donau-Ries district.
At that time it was still vaguely said that there had been »irregularities« in vaccinations against the coronavirus.
The next day, on Friday, the Donau-Ries district office turned to the public.
In a press release it mentioned the medicine's full name.
There is a suspicion that people vaccinated by the man are not adequately protected.
Since then, the suspected case has expanded.
New allegations kept coming to light, and rumors about the doctor became known.
The responsible authorities finally turned to the public in a press conference on Tuesday.
Hundreds of vaccinations, the authorities said, must now be checked.
What exactly burdens the doctor, the investigators leave open, the facts can be roughly divided into two categories according to the current status.
Is the doctor and patient a pact?
There are those patients who may have made a pact with Gerhard H.
So who apparently drove specifically to Wemding to pick up a stamp there without being vaccinated.
That was the initial suspicion, and that is how the case began.
But now the investigators fear that there is also a second group of patients: the gullible.
People who think they have been properly vaccinated.
But they possibly only got table salt.
It is not clear how the cases break down.
Senior Public Prosecutor Andreas Dobler says the investigation is just beginning.
Just this much: there are hundreds of issues.
Apparently, people in the town have been saying for a long time that in Mr. H.'s practice, the spraying may not always take place correctly.
Anonymous references
Sebastian Völkl is himself a family doctor and head of the district association of the Bavarian State Medical Association, which is also responsible for Wemding.
At the end of June there was a letter from a "concerned citizen" in the association's mailbox, as Völkl says.
There was talk of irregularities in a practice.
From »already vaccinations«.
Bring all documents with you, wrote the anonymous sender, and get proof of vaccination, but no vaccines.
Völkl says he forwarded the letter to the police.
But the hint was "vague" that neither doctor nor place of practice had been named.
The tips piled up - and apparently became more specific: they learned of the suspicion in August, says Michael Lechner, head of the responsible criminal police.
There have been several anonymous references to the suspected doctor's practice.
However, this had to be verified first.
On September 29, the police finally searched the 72-year-old's practice and home.
Investigators confiscated documents related to vaccinations.
An initial review showed that several hundred people may be affected, said Lechner.
In addition, interrogations revealed that many a gullible patient of Gerhard H's had apparently had doubts.
Even before the search by the police, several allegedly vaccinated people had themselves tested for antibodies - with negative results.
Lechner did not say why people had doubts.
"There are seriously ill people who think they have been vaccinated," says District Administrator Stefan Rößle.
That is why the name of the doctor was published.
The risk for the public to become infected and become seriously ill should be rated higher than the suspect's right to data protection, according to Rößle.
The next few weeks will show how big the damage is.
More than 130 men and women who had been treated by Gerhard H. had themselves tested for antibodies on Monday.
The results should be available in the next few days.
Other patients are called for tests.
The investigators are silent about possible motives of Gerhard H., even if he has already been questioned, they do not say.
A spokeswoman for the Bavarian State Medical Association told the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" that he was now known as someone who was to be assigned to the "corona deniers".
But he does not belong to the "spearhead" of the movement.
When asked by SPIEGEL, the spokeswoman said that this assessment was essentially based on Google ratings, which suggested this and not on her own findings.
In the anonymous contributions, for example, there is talk of "absurd" theories of the doctor.
In any case, Gerhard H. cannot continue working on his premises for the time being.
His practice was closed until further notice by order of the administration.