Transports and warehouses in danger ?: Government fears attacks by anti-vaccination agents

Sunday January 24th 2021

Transport and warehouse in danger?
Government fears attacks from vaccination opponents

The vaccination campaign against Covid-19 is slowly rolling in, more and more people now have an appointment. But the federal government fears further problems, which unfortunately cannot be solved with one letter: Opponents and other groups could attack vaccination centers.

The federal government fears massive attempts to disrupt the corona vaccination campaign. There is an "abstract risk" for the headquarters of pharmaceutical companies, but also for vaccination centers, vaccine transports and storage facilities, according to a response from the Federal Ministry of the Interior to a request from the Greens. Domestically, this threat comes from "anti-vaccination opponents, corona skeptics and conspiracy theorists". There is also the risk of espionage and sabotage attempts by foreign secret services.

In its response, the Ministry of the Interior referred to the "great media presence" and the "emotionality inherent in the Corona issue". It is true that the federal government has "no specific knowledge relevant to risk". Nevertheless, they must assume there is a risk of sabotage up to "physical attacks" on staff and vaccine recipients.

One scenario is that anti-vaccination opponents "could try to penetrate the vaccination centers and the storage facilities in order to attract attention on the one hand and to emphasize their protest on the other," writes the ministry in the answer, which was initially reported by the newspapers of the Funke media group.

Secret services could also become active

The Ministry sees a further danger in specific espionage attempts by foreign secret services. According to the letter, "several alleged research attempts with regard to German vaccine manufacturers have already become known". The risk of cyber attacks must be "classified as high". The potential targets for espionage and sabotage by foreign intelligence services are therefore facilities for research, production and approval of vaccines.

The Green Party politician Irene Mihalic, who had addressed the inquiry to the Home Office, told the Funke newspapers that the storming of the US Capitol had shown "how quickly absurd conspiracy narratives can turn into violence". Her party colleague Konstantin von Notz warned that the cyber attack on the European Medicines Agency (EMA) had shown that the risk of IT attacks, espionage and sabotage by foreign intelligence services was "very real".

In its reply, the Ministry of the Interior points out that the federal police are protecting vaccination transports from the German border to the distribution centers in the federal states. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) has sensitized vaccine manufacturers "about the dangers of espionage and sabotage in personal conversations or in corresponding video conferences". The BfV has also sent corresponding information letters via the professional associations to the "relevant players" such as research companies and companies for clinical commissioned studies.