The “pandemic of the unvaccinated” was caused by a computer glitch. That was the conclusion of the Health Minister of Germany Karl Lauterbach, after months of vilifying the unvaccinated in the nation’s second largest city, Hamburg.
In November 2021, news outlets reported on the increasing “incident numbers” in the city – where the figure grew from 111.6 infected people per 100,000 to 160 per 100,000 in a span of few of days. By the end of November, that number shot up from 209.2 to a record of 223.3.
The ostensibly drastic increases have been used to legitimize new COVID policy measures in the city. First, 2G (vaccinated or recovered) status limitation was announced in order to enter shops, restaurants, and clubs. Social contact limitation was mandated for the unvaccinated. After the order, Mayor Peter Tschentscher, claimed to observe an increase in vaccination numbers, and implied it was the only way out of the pandemic.
Now, an investigation from the Sueddeutscher Zeitung and Welt newspapers has found that the numbers in Hamburg’s Social Services departments were drastically skewed and, in most cases, they didn’t even know who was vaccinated and who was not. This, however, did not stop them classifying everyone with an unknown status as unvaccinated. Indeed, by the end of November, a whopping 70 percent of the positive cases had unknown status.
In the second week of November, the Mayor of Hamburg held a press conference and incorrectly claimed that 90 percent of all new infections were amongst the unvaccinated. In addition, he alleged the 7-day infection average for the unvaccinated was at 605 per 100,000 and just 22 in 100,000 for the vaccinated.