In Germany, a new FOIA is out: A physician won against the German government. He received protocols of the Corona Expert Council. The group recommended tough measures like mandatory vaccinations.

28.06.2023

The protocolls of the Corona Expert Council and the accompanying letter from the Chancellor’s Office were made public and available for free download by Christian Haffner on wednesday, June 28, 2023. The protocolls were given to me for analysis with kind permission on Saturday, 06/17/2023. I would like to sincerely thank Christian Haffner for his trust and his persistent efforts to obtain a central document of German Corona policy, that will answer many open questions. This text is a shorter version of the German article.

It was a long and tough process. On July 30, 2022, the physician Christian Haffner applied for the protocols of the Corona Expert Council under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), as they appeared to him to be of high importance for the political opinion-forming process in the actual Scholz cabinet and the so-called traffic light coalition, consisting of Social Democrats (SPD), the Green Party (Die Grünen) and The liberal party (FDP). The coalition had let vote on the bill of a general vaccination obligation, which was rejected finally on 07 April 2022. Stunned as to how such an anti-democratic proposal could have occurred, and convinced that an answer might be found in the advisory activities of the Corona Expert Council – whose work was carefully kept under wraps – Haffner fought tenaciously for a year to have the documents released.

The FOIA request, which Haffner submitted on July 31, 2022, via the portal FragDenStaat, was rejected for the first time in September 2022. His lawyer filed an appeal – which was again rejected. At the beginning of January 2023, the case ended up in court, which ruled in favor of the plaintiff and demanded that the Federal Chancellery hand over the documents in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act. The Chancellor’s Office, in turn, delayed compliance with the court order through repeated requests.

On June 16, 2023, one year after his request, Haffner finally received the documents – with certain restrictions: The names of the originators of specific proposals in the transcripts were redacted throughout, with the exception of politicians and public officials. Each redaction is carefully justified in the 50-page cover letter. Mostly, it is about the personal safety of the panel’s participants, who would see themselves exposed to various hostilities from the so-called „Reichsbürger and Querdenker scene“ in a politically tense situation. “Querdenker”, (eng. “cross-thinker”) was the common frame in Germany used by politicians and mainstream media to slur and silence oppositional voices during the German Corona regime. Although there does exist “Querdenken” as an organization, most people defamed with the term had no relations whatsoever with the organisation. As the Chancellor’s Office explains in detail in its legal cover letter, the confidentiality interests of those affected therefore outweigh the right to freedom of information because of an alleged risk by said “Querdenker”:

„The above-mentioned selective redactions relate in particular to the names of the members from whom individual contributions originate, information traceable to individual members, the sources of certain information to be protected (in particular if (interim) results from unpublished studies are concerned), the names of certain pharmaceutical companies/drugs if assessments of their efficacy have been made, and in individual cases certain suggestions if they can be attributed to participants and it is to be feared that the attribution could result in a danger to the person concerned.“

„The risk situation for top politicians, state organs and scientists is substantiated by the reporting already presented in the statement of defense. At least individual „corona measures“ implemented or discussed by the federal government are still highly controversial today. The debate in this regard continues to be emotionally and politically highly charged, so that individual Corona topics continue to be classified as „excitement topics“ with mobilization potential that cannot be reliably assessed. Here, political decision-makers or scientific advisors continue to be exposed to attacks from the Reichsbürger and Querdenken scene with regard to their involvement in the federal government’s corona policy. These are not only „verbal outbursts“ on the Internet, but there is a considerable readiness to use violence in parts of this scene, which even requires constant personal protection for individual exposed persons. Granting access to information without blacking out the author of contributions to meetings would, with regard to assessments of Corona-relevant topics, endanger the physical integrity, freedom and life of the members and guests of the Corona Expert Council in such a concrete way that the plaintiff’s informational interests must take a back seat to this. (.) It is to be assumed that the Reich citizen and cross-thinker scene, by taking note of corresponding information, takes individual members, who may have pleaded for particularly drastic measures, as the target of their violence.“

„The described danger applies in particular to this procedure, which is accompanied by the platform fragdenstaat.de, which results in an immediate online placement of the issued documents and corresponding linkability and very broad accessibility.“

„Should there be any doubt about the assessment of a continuing danger situation for members or guests of the Corona Expert Council, it is requested that the court be informed. The defendant will then prove the danger situation by further reporting in the media and social networks.“

Although Christian Haffner had requested the record of all meetings of the Council of Experts, the document handed over to him contains only 25 of 33 meetings, up to and including July 12, 2022. Although the eight meetings not included were in the period after he submitted his request on July 31, 2022, the request clearly referred to all meetings. Haffner’s attorney has already followed up with the Chancellor’s Office in this regard.

The members

The members of the Council of Experts were 19 individuals selected by the federal government who had previously taken a fairly clear position on Corona. The majority of them had appeared on public talk shows. The Council of Experts consisted of 18 professors from various disciplines, one district administrator. The opening speaker and patron was Chancellor Olaf Scholz. Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach, Federal Chancellery Minister Wolfgang Schmidt, a Bundeswehr General, Carsten Breuer, and other, rotating experts attended regularly . The meeting was chaired by Heyo K. Kroemer, Chairman of the Board of Berlin Charité, and the virologist Melanie Brinkmann of the Technical University of Braunschweig, who has become famous through TV appearances. Prominent members of the panel such include virologist Christian Drosten, whose PCR-test the WHO had recommended within an unrealistically short time span worldwide, as well as the “German Fauci” Lothar Wieler, the head of the German Institute of Infectious diseases RKI. Other prominent members include Alena Buyx, a Wellcome-Trust protegé, expert on “gene editing” and head of the “German Ethics Councils”, as well as Thomas Mertens, head of the STIKO, the German Vaccine Safety Commission. The lesser-known members of the panel include physicians, nudging experts, psychologists and infectiologists. Notably, there was not a single epidemiologist in the group.

The meetings of the Council of Experts took place regularly by video conference, with the exception of a face-to-face meeting on May 31, 2022, in the International Conference Room of the Federal Chancellery.

In the following, the key points of the individual meetings of the Expert Council will be summarized and critically commented on. Due to the complexity of the topic, no claim is made to completeness. The aim is to elicit how the recommendations of the Corona Expert Council impacted the political and social climate in Germany during the tough Corona measures winter of 2021/ 2022.

First session: December 14, 2021

The first meeting was opened by Chancellor Olaf Scholz. He thanked the participants for their cooperation. He said the group should operate as an independent advisory body, integrated into a close technical exchange between the Expert Council, the Chancellor’s Office and the Crisis Staff. Federal Minister Karl Lauterbach and Federal Chancellery Minister Wolfgang Schmidt were present at the first meeting and promised their regular participation. Lauterbach emphasized the importance of scientific foundations for political decision-making, but stressed that it was the politicians who made the decisions. Strict confidentiality of the deliberations was agreed upon, as well as uniform communication to the outside world. For the next meeting, the participants were to gather expertise on the new omicron variant, which was scheduled three days later due to the assumed urgency.

Second session: December 17, 2021

In the second session, it was pointed out that there was „no reason for relaxation” in light of Omicron. A modeler presented scenarios on the new variant and concluded Booster vaccinations and contact reduction were „urgently needed to slow the rapid spread”. With regard to children and adolescents, the experts noted that „PCR pooling tests“ at schools would work well. No evidence base for this claim – such as how many infections testing in schools has effectively prevented – was provided.

The rest of the meeting focused on crisis communication. The experts complained that the public was not taking the Omicron variant seriously enough. Fear appeals would go nowhere, and risk communication had become more difficult. „Positive messages for the pandemic-weary society“ were needed, via social media, on radio and on television. The importance of vaccination was again explicitly emphasized. Personalized vaccination invitations and centralized recording of vaccination status in the form of a vaccination registry were suggested.

In retrospect, the lines „positive messages for a pandemic-weary society“ seem completely detached from the reality of life in the German winter of 2021: While the Council of Experts was considering new measures behind closed doors, the unvaccinated were excluded from every social life beyond supermarket, town hall and doctor visits via 2G – (vaccinated & covalescent only) and 3G rules (vaccinated, covalescent and tested only) and were defamed and bullied by the media on a daily basis. Are these the „positive messages“ the Council of Experts was talking about? And if it really cared about „positive messages“ – why didn’t it urge prudence in light of the poisoned social climate?

Third session: December 21, 2021

At the third meeting, „due to reactions in [the] press”, the confidentiality of the group was again appealed to as an „important element.“

„Confidentiality could be a strength of the body.“

In external communications, „restraint should be maintained“ to protect the „confidentiality of professional exchanges.“ Quotations or statements with inferences about the group’s internal formation of opinion should be avoided if possible, but each member was allowed to speak about information related to his or her own professional activities.

The Chancellor’s Office was specified as the „client.“ It was also pointed out that an „appropriate name for the panel is important for its purpose and public perception.“ Members were encouraged to submit name suggestions. It is significant with regard to the desired public perception of the body that the title „Expert Council“ was chosen.

Apparently, there was a consensus among the experts that there would still not be enough publicity for vaccination in Germany in the winter of 2021. The group therefore requested an examination on the part of the Federal Chancellery as to whether advertising for the COVID-19 vaccination could not be expanded. For example, an advertising spot immediately following the daily news program would be conceivable.

Also duration of the convalescent status at the European level was addressed:

„It [was] informed about the development on [the] European level on the duration of the vaccination status. At the EU level, the determination was made to limit the duration to 9 months.“

The statement was made in the presence of RKI chief Lothar Wieler, whose RKI, equivalent to the CDC, had reduced the duration of convalescent status in Germany from six to three months just less than a month later, on Jan. 17, 2021, even though it was already three months below the European benchmark in Germany. Considering the fact that RKI head Lothar Wieler was well informed about the European guideline value of nine months, the German special path seems even more outlandish…

mehr dazu:

https://www.velazquez.press/p/new-foia-in-germany-the-secret-files

Beitrag auf deutscH.

Freigeklagt: Die Geheimakte Corona-Expertenrat

Von Dezember 2021 bis April 2023 tagte der Corona-Expertenrat der Bundesregierung. Der Arzt Christian Haffner hat nun die Sitzungsprotokolle freigeklagt. Eine erste Analyse des brisanten Dokuments…

https://www.velazquez.press/p/freigeklagt-die-geheimakte-corona

New FOIA in Germany: The secret files of the German „Corona Expert Council“