Vaccination chief Berger angry – after scandal during the interview – “Schawinski should apologize”

In an interview on Radio 1, there was a scandal between the station’s founder Roger Schawinski and Christoph Berger, President of the Federal Vaccination Commission (EKIF) and a prominent face of Swiss pandemic management.

Schawinski had called Berger during his weekly Corona Talk to ask him about the status of the booster campaign. Schawinski insisted on accusing the authorities of dawdling over the Omikron variant. Switzerland is too slow to vaccinate. Berger initially defended the government’s course. It was correct that the elderly and people in the risk group were vaccinated first. But when the conversation turned to vaccination for children, it got heated at first before the doctor unceremoniously hung up the phone. «I don’t argue any further like this! Goodbye! ”Replied the vaccination chief and hung up the phone.

Two days after the incident, both Berger and Schawinski are irreconcilable. “He should apologize to me,” says Berger when asked by the “Tages-Anzeiger”. “Schawinski did not even listen to him on the show, but simply segregated his attacks, which by no means serve to promote acceptance of the vaccine, but rather to incite him. “For him it’s all about quota and spectacle.”

Schawinski counters that Berger did not produce the scandal himself by hanging up the phone, that the whole uproar only arose, the radio maker told the Tages-Anzeiger. “If Berger hadn’t lost his nerve, our conversation would never have been hyped up into a scandal.”

When it came to vaccinating children, Switzerland reacted too slowly, accused Schawinski Berger on the program. The medic first defended himself before switching to the attack. One must be aware that the pandemic cannot be “vaccinated” and that other measures are also important. For Schawinski, this is a “highly dangerous statement”, as he said two days after the interview. “The militant anti-vaccination campaigners who have sent me numerous triumphant emails are happy about that,” said the radio pioneer. Berger feels that Schawinski has “misunderstood” him because he has not listened properly. “I am concerned when my statements remain misunderstood and twisted, instead being aimed at my head in a sensation-seeking way.” Schawinski counters that he hadn’t listened, that he was wrong, that you can listen to it in the podcast.

At the request of 20 minutes, the head of the vaccination commission also commented on the allegations: “We are making all the vaccination recommendations to the best of our knowledge and belief and we take them very seriously. I am very open to criticism and accept it. ” Berger also clarifies why he did not want to continue the conversation: “I do not respond to provocations and criticism, where it is more about entertainment value and clicks than about the matter itself and that went too far for me”.