It is estimated that global vaccinations against the corona virus have prevented up to 20 million corona deaths. For a long time nobody wanted to hear anything about vaccination side effects. The concern that people would not be vaccinated was too great. In the meantime, even Federal Minister of Health Karl Lauterbach says he wants to have the side effects of the vaccination examined more closely in order to better help those affected.
Audio [SR 3, Lisa Krauser, 21.03.2023, Länge: 03:09 Min.]
Corona vaccine damage: The rocky path for those affected
SR reporter Lisa Krauser visited the Saarland self-help group for people with corona vaccination damage and spoke in detail with two members of the group.
Headache and fatigue for a year
29-year-old Viktor has had a difficult year. Since January 2022 he has been suffering from headaches, difficulty concentrating, constant tiredness and muscle pain. The symptoms appeared shortly after his third corona vaccination, he says. “Life as before no longer exists,” says Viktor. Every day he asks himself when there will finally be a remedy for these symptoms.
Until recently, no one believed that they could be related to vaccination. Neither do doctors. For a whole year, his symptoms were blamed on psychosomatics.
Doctors Odyssey
Most of the people in the self-help group for people with corona vaccine damage feel the same way as Viktor. You speak of a doctors’ odyssey and social ostracism.
The self-help group
Post-vac syndrome – side effects / vaccination damage after the corona vaccination
Contact: kirsch@bodenstaendig.de or via KISS Tel.: 0681 9602130
The group has existed since November 2022 and meets once a week at the contact and information center for self-help in Saarbrücken – partly in person, partly online. 57-year-old Bernhard heads the group.
He also had a wide variety of symptoms after the vaccination in December 2021, he says. Since that time he has had constant headaches. He also suffers from muscle pain. “It feels like sore muscles, but it never goes away.” And that’s not all the symptoms. He also suffers from hair loss, tingling in the extremities, high blood pressure, an irregular heartbeat and also has some kind of inflammation in the body all the time.
For a long time Bernhard also felt that he was not taken seriously – and even stigmatized. In the meantime he has found a doctor who takes him seriously and assumes a connection with the corona vaccination.
He has also submitted an application for official recognition to the Saarland State Office for Social Affairs – which has not yet been processed.
The requirement: points of contact and recognition of the damage caused by vaccination
Bernhard demands that he and other affected people be helped faster than before. “There is an urgent need to set up contact points in every federal state for those who have been vaccinated, as well as for long-Covid patients,” he says. In addition, the vaccination damage would have to be recognized and not dragged out for years so that at least the medication would be paid for.
The Saarland Ministry of Social Affairs has now received over 100 applications for vaccination damage recognition. According to the Ministry – as of January – three “damages” have been recognized.
There is still a lack of treatment options
The rocky road to recognition is a big problem, says Viktor. The other: the lack of treatment options. At the moment there is only one outpatient clinic for people with vaccination damage in Germany – at the University Hospital in Marburg. Thousands of patients are on the waiting list. Viktor also tried to get a place there – in vain.
The wish: A life without symptoms again
Viktor and Bernhard only got vaccinated because of social and professional pressure – they say. Others in the now almost 15-strong self-help group were not initially skeptical about the vaccination and some continue to think it makes sense. What unites them: their suffering, the disappointment with how society has dealt with their suffering and the hope that they will finally get help soon. Because they all want their former life back without symptoms.
A topic in the “region at noon” on March 21, 2023 on SR 3 Saarlandwelle
