DThe four plaintiffs’ hopes were realized early on. After a short hearing, the medical liability chamber of the Düsseldorf district court rejected the claims of a man and three women for damages and compensation for pain and suffering against vaccine manufacturers Biontech and Moderna. The Moderna case ended in a default judgment because the plaintiff’s lawyers did not file any submissions, according to the chamber’s legal explanations – from the lawyers’ point of view, there was still too little information about the vaccine production process.
In the Biontech case, the court ruled Thursday afternoon that the plaintiffs failed to adequately establish that their respective health problems, including exhaustion, severe concentration problems, autoimmune reactions, vision loss, breathing and lung problems or symptoms of myocarditis, were caused by the vaccines . They also failed to adequately substantiate their argument that Biontech provided inaccurate or inadequate information about the side effects of its messenger RNA vaccine.
The Chamber did not find the eligibility requirements under the Medicines Act met because the plaintiffs failed to substantiate their claim that the vaccines had a negative balance of benefit and risk. Rather, the opposite follows from the fact that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has approved the vaccine. The EMA review found a positive balance of benefit and risk on several occasions. The court saw no basis for a “factual and legal review” of the EMA procedure. The plaintiff’s lawyer filed an appeal with the Higher Regional Court.
In March, the Paul Ehrlich Institute (PEI) published a final report on the dangers of the corona vaccine. Of the more than 192 million Covid-19 vaccinations carried out in Germany, harm was suspected in less than one case per 100,000 vaccinations. If those affected complain, they face the problem that the possible health conditions listed by PEI may have causes other than Covid vaccination. Similar proceedings are currently pending in several German courts. As in Düsseldorf, in some cases the claims have already been rejected at first instance, for example by the regional courts in Kleve, Mainz, Rottweil and Bayreuth.
Source: Frantfurter Allgemeine
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