Trial in Tyrol

Common salt injected instead of corona vaccine

(Bild: Markus Stegmayr, Krone KREATIV)

A fake vaccination campaign during the coronavirus pandemic has now led to a court case in Tyrol. Two pharmacists and two doctors had to explain to the district court in Landeck how this "creative solution" for vaccination opponents came about.

"I noticed uncertainty among my employees regarding the Covid vaccination," the boss of a pharmacy tried to justify himself. In autumn 2021, he came up with the idea for people who didn't actually want to be vaccinated. "There was a list in the pharmacy," he explained during his interrogation. On it was either "Egal" as a code word for a "vaccination" consisting of a saline solution or "Pfizer". There was no question in the judge's mind that a very large proportion of the "vaccinees" preferred the "Egal" case. In the end, over a hundred people were allegedly provided with fake vaccinations and fake certificates.

The trial was heard at the district court in Landeck.

(Bild: Stegmayr Markus/Markus Stegmayr)

In addition to his employee, who had drawn up the syringes at the vaccination appointment, an uninitiated doctor - who had virtually blindly trusted the pharmacist - also sat in court. She did not want to testify on Monday. "Her nerves are shattered," said the defense lawyer for the woman who finally entered the fake vaccinations into the ELBA digital medical record.

Doctor spoke of "wild times" 
 The fourth defendant was another doctor who knew about the content of the campaign and even introduced some of his patients to it. "From today's perspective, it was wrong, but back then it was just a wild time," he argued. From his point of view, it was not intended that it would become so big. "But patients of mine, friends and family members of the pharmacy employees and others also came," he emphasized.

Judge saw pharmacist boss as "mastermind" 
 One thing was clear to the judge after the trial. "You were the mastermind," he said to the first defendant in his sentencing remarks. He had organized the two vaccination campaigns, set up the content and arranged the involvement of the actors. Such a "creative solution", as established by the first defendant at the time, should "simply not exist", he concluded.

One conviction, three diversions
The man was sentenced - not legally binding - to a fine of 12,000 euros. His employee and the two doctors got off with diversions: the proceedings against them were dropped for 900, 3400 and 14,650 euros.