Yahoo Finance German intelligence agency warns mandatory vaccinations will bolster anti-vaxxers
German intelligence agencies fear greater radicalisation of antivaxxers if countries push ahead with vaccine mandates.
The Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), the German intelligence agency charged with monitoring threats on democratic order, has warned that any efforts to make vaccination mandatory will result in increased radicalisation among the anti-vaccination community.
Thomas Strobl, Chairman of Germany’s state interior ministers, said on Saturday that the BfV had warned “compulsory vaccinations will reinforce the aggressive attitude” of those who oppose vaccination.
The German parliament will vote on making vaccinations mandatory for healthcare and nursing home workers later this month, while Olaf Scholz, the incoming chancellor, will hold a conscience vote on mandatory vaccinations for the entire population early in the new year.
The European vaccine pass framework, seen as a central component of keeping infection rates down and encouraging vaccination, has also been undermined by a trade in fake and forged vaccination certificates.
While vaccine certificates control entry to restaurants, bars, events and allow travel in dozens of European countries, the increasingly lucrative trade has allowed anti-vaxxers to circumvent the system.
EU Parliament Vice-President Nicola Beer told Germany’s Tageschau the problem was particularly significant in Germany, where vaccination rates are low and anti-vaccination movements are strong.
“A look at the numbers in some German regions shows that we have hundreds of examples of counterfeiting - all the alarm lights must be on,” she said.
“The (Covid) situation is so acute across Europe that we simply cannot allow some to sneak proof of vaccination with three clicks on the Internet and buy it."
Despite jail terms and fines for those found forging or using forged certificates, fake vaccination passes are available online for as little as €50 (£43), with some operators offering buy-in-bulk discounts.
One Munich pharmacist was accused of forging and selling more than 1,000 fake vaccination passes a day, doing so at night when the pharmacy was closed.
Sweden, which launched its vaccine pass only comparatively recently, has also failed to weed out forged certificates.
A day after the Swedish government's new vaccine pass verification app was launched on Wednesday, the Swedish journalist Emanuel Karlsten revealed that it still counted as valid a hoax EU Covid certificate for "Adolf Hitler", with the date of birth marked "1900".
The hoax Hitler certificates, which have been circulating on the internet since at least October, have already been blocked by the Italian, Swiss and French verification apps.
Mats Snäll, who was the project manager on the Swedish government's app, acknowledged that the validity of the Hitler certificate was valid was "a problem for credibility and security".
But he said that as organisers of events requiring a vaccine pass were also advised to check participants' identity cards, he did not think it would be a problem in practice.
