Dubai Telegraph - First Covid vaccine side-effect claims land in German courts

EUR -
AED 3.896782
AFN 71.970942
ALL 98.005181
AMD 410.245014
ANG 1.910392
AOA 969.150107
ARS 1058.535585
AUD 1.625105
AWG 1.911243
AZN 1.804916
BAM 1.952226
BBD 2.140282
BDT 126.668083
BGN 1.954125
BHD 0.39988
BIF 3130.34894
BMD 1.060918
BND 1.418709
BOB 7.350404
BRL 6.098794
BSD 1.060009
BTN 89.509273
BWP 14.421276
BYN 3.468912
BYR 20793.984215
BZD 2.136589
CAD 1.480871
CDF 3043.772641
CHF 0.937002
CLF 0.037907
CLP 1045.969635
CNY 7.661842
COP 4706.760764
CRC 542.432423
CUC 1.060918
CUP 28.114315
CVE 110.062449
CZK 25.385671
DJF 188.763289
DKK 7.459582
DOP 63.876059
DZD 141.570939
EGP 52.207642
ETB 131.000325
FJD 2.400856
GBP 0.832847
GEL 2.906642
GHS 17.277204
GMD 75.853327
GNF 9135.746941
GTQ 8.190926
GYD 221.749817
HKD 8.252734
HNL 26.751282
HTG 139.425239
HUF 411.004238
IDR 16737.512871
ILS 3.989583
INR 89.539798
IQD 1388.583814
IRR 44669.934186
ISK 147.520817
JMD 168.439542
JOD 0.752299
JPY 164.527633
KES 137.06364
KGS 91.448653
KHR 4295.439124
KMF 488.419938
KRW 1493.349953
KWD 0.326234
KYD 0.883299
KZT 526.01683
LAK 23242.540542
LBP 94922.679318
LKR 309.967089
LRD 199.802298
LSL 19.152137
LTL 3.132613
LVL 0.641738
LYD 5.135839
MAD 10.515649
MDL 18.974154
MGA 4955.161109
MKD 61.501816
MMK 3445.818857
MOP 8.49301
MRU 42.123861
MUR 50.064526
MVR 16.402021
MWK 1837.721918
MXN 21.861851
MYR 4.72746
MZN 67.819132
NAD 19.151596
NGN 1778.681478
NIO 39.010598
NOK 11.769899
NPR 143.222523
NZD 1.790898
OMR 0.408483
PAB 1.059939
PEN 4.005911
PGK 4.258364
PHP 62.296049
PKR 294.599601
PLN 4.351472
PYG 8282.226373
QAR 3.864488
RON 4.975918
RSD 116.986352
RUB 103.700317
RWF 1454.705134
SAR 3.986063
SBD 8.859994
SCR 14.916358
SDG 638.142533
SEK 11.580918
SGD 1.420892
SLE 24.18896
SOS 605.819355
SRD 37.381452
STD 21958.851549
SVC 9.275193
SZL 19.142853
THB 36.855747
TJS 11.267165
TMT 3.713211
TND 3.332367
TOP 2.48477
TRY 36.47689
TTD 7.203151
TWD 34.468683
TZS 2825.997726
UAH 43.903187
UGX 3894.795581
USD 1.060918
UYU 44.68818
UZS 13571.98253
VES 47.606636
VND 26894.260197
XAF 654.789004
XCD 2.867183
XDR 0.798576
XOF 654.789004
XPF 119.331742
YER 264.990671
ZAR 19.19911
ZMK 9549.525686
ZMW 28.858523
ZWL 341.615022
  • RBGPF

    59.3400

    59.34

    +100%

  • RYCEF

    -0.0500

    7.11

    -0.7%

  • SCS

    0.0200

    13.67

    +0.15%

  • CMSC

    -0.1800

    24.54

    -0.73%

  • NGG

    -1.2400

    62.9

    -1.97%

  • RIO

    -1.4000

    61.2

    -2.29%

  • BTI

    0.0900

    35.24

    +0.26%

  • AZN

    0.4000

    65.19

    +0.61%

  • BP

    -0.7600

    28.16

    -2.7%

  • GSK

    -0.8300

    35.52

    -2.34%

  • RELX

    -1.2100

    46.59

    -2.6%

  • BCC

    -2.0100

    141.13

    -1.42%

  • CMSD

    -0.2100

    24.75

    -0.85%

  • VOD

    -0.8500

    8.47

    -10.04%

  • BCE

    -0.1600

    27.69

    -0.58%

  • JRI

    -0.3000

    13.22

    -2.27%

First Covid vaccine side-effect claims land in German courts

First Covid vaccine side-effect claims land in German courts

Vaccine-maker BioNTech faced Monday its first legal claim in its home country of Germany over adverse effects allegedly suffered by some users of its Covid vaccines, more than two years after one of the world's fastest and most extensive inoculation campaigns.

Text size:

In the face of the deadly pandemic that emerged in early 2020, which prompted border closures and lockdowns that trapped millions of people in their homes, the arrival of Covid vaccines had been widely hailed as a life-saver.

But the jabs, which had been developed at breakneck speed and granted early approval for usage, are now the focus of legal procedures in several countries including France and Britain where plaintiffs argue that the vaccines harmed their health.

In Germany, a court in Hamburg was prepared to hear a case from Monday against BioNTech, which, together with US giant Pfizer, produced the first mRNA vaccine Comirnaty.

The hearing was delayed however after the claimant's lawyers put in a last-minute challenge of the judge's impartiality, and asking instead for a panel of judges to rule on the case.

In her claim, the plaintiff reported suffering effects including "pain in the upper body, swelling of the extremities, exhaustion, fatigue and sleeping disorders" after receiving the vaccine, the court said.

She is seeking 150,000 euros ($162,000) in damages and recognition that the "defendant is bound to provide material damages", the court added.

Her lawyer Thomas Ulbrich, who is also representing another 250 people in similar cases, said his clients were "all healthy" before suffering from symptoms, allegedly following their jabs.

He believes that the medical files he has on hand offer a link between the vaccines and the symptoms experienced by his clients.

- 'Rocky and long road' -

BioNTech's mRNA vaccine, a scientific breakthrough, had been granted conditional marketing authorisation as early as December 21, 2020, by the EU regulatory authority EMA.

Similar authorisation for Moderna, another mRNA vaccine maker, swiftly followed.

With fears of catching the disease running high, the vaccines were pre-ordered by governments even during their development phases, and deployment swiftly followed once regulatory authorities gave their approval.

But the new generation of inoculations also sparked a wave of vaccine sceptics questioning the safety of the jabs.

Out of 192 million jabs given in Germany, the country's medicines regulator, the Paul Ehrlich Institute, said 338,857 suspected cases of side effects were reported, including 54,879 severe reactions.

Among the worst cases, "the symptoms are very different, they vary from stroke to thrombosis to cardiac diseases", said another German lawyer, Joachim Caesar-Preller, who represents 140 clients making similar claims.

He is seeking up to one million euros in damages per case -- plus interest -- but concedes that a "rocky and long road" lies ahead in the legal battles.

- 'Not an isolated case' -

A key point for the courts is whether the side effects of the medication, when used correctly, surpass "a justifiable level according to the findings of medical science".

In other words, the effects have to be sufficiently serious to be taken into account, said Anatol Dutta, a professor at Munich University.

A claimant identified only as Kathrin K., 45, believes her symptoms are severe enough.

She said she lost a lot of weight after taking the vaccine and had to undergo several intestinal operations.

"I hate it when people tell me that I'm an isolated case," she said. "I'm not."

To address the question of causality, the courts would likely have to obtain expert advice.

Besides the legal avenue, claimants can also turn to the state for compensation for the loss of income.

More than 8,000 such applications had been made as of April, and so far about five percent have been successful, according to German media.

BioNTech told AFP that the number of liability claims made to the company is very small when compared to the number of doses it has delivered worldwide, and that each claim had to be examined individually.

"Justified liability claims would of course be met by BioNTech," it said, adding however that "no causal relationship between (the) health impairments presented and vaccination with Comirnaty has been proven" in the cases it had reviewed so far.

Another lawyer, Anja Dornhoff, advises her clients to establish a chronology and to get medical practitioners to document the development of their symptoms.

"I hope that people with post-vaccination syndromes can be taken seriously," she said.

H.Pradhan--DT