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RKI President Lothar Wieler at a press conference in March 2021

Photo: CHRISTIAN MARQUARDT / POOL / EPA

After a long legal dispute, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) has published the minutes of its Corona crisis team. The right-wing online magazine “Multipolar,” which had sued for this step, published the documents. However, some of these are blacked out, but according to a report by “ZDF today” they could still have “politically explosive power”. "Multipolar" is published, among others, by the author Paul Schreyer, who has published books with conspiracy stories about the September 11th attacks and has called for more understanding of Russian politics.

The documents that have now been published show how the decision was made on March 17, 2020 to change the risk assessment regarding the novel coronavirus from “moderate” to “high”. A day earlier, it was noted in the documents that the new risk assessment had been prepared and should now be “upscaled”. "The risk assessment will be published as soon as (personal name redacted) gives a signal." The RKI makes the key actor unrecognizable.

The magazine “Multipolar” deduces that the announcement to change the risk level was made on the orders of an external actor. According to “ZDF today,” however, the passage suggests that the “RKI carried out the risk assessment itself and, based on this, classified the risk as ‘high’.” Only the publication of the risk assessment depended on the release of the unnamed person. The RKI has not yet commented on the protocols.

On October 30, 2020, the RKI dealt with FFP2 masks and made it clear: "... there is no evidence for the use of FFP2 masks outside of occupational safety, this could also be made available to the public." The public found out nothing about this attitude back then. In winter 2020, a stricter mask requirement already applied, and the FFP2 mask also became mandatory in various federal states.

The crisis team apparently viewed the AstraZeneca vaccine very critically. On January 8, 2021 it was said: "Not a sure-fire success like the others, as the vaccine is less perfect." Just two months later, at the beginning of March, the Standing Vaccination Commission (Stiko) recommended the vaccine for all age groups and referred to new findings from studies.

The published protocols end in April 2021, as the “Multipolar” lawsuit only related to the period up to then. In the current form, numerous passages have been made unrecognizable. The RKI provided a 1,000-page document intended to justify the redactions. The online magazine “Multipolar” wants to go to the Berlin administrative court again on May 6, 2024 in order to obtain a complete insight into the minutes without redactions.

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