Greek high court overturns vaccine requirement for health workers

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November 25, 2022

Greek high court overturns vaccine requirement for health workers

By Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D.

Updated: November 25, 2022 20:30 CET

In a decision that may signify the end of a 15-month saga for unvaccinated Greek health workers who have been suspended without pay since Sept. 1, 2021 due to their choice not to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, Greece’s Council of State — the country’s highest administrative court—ruled Thursday, November 24. that the continued vaccine mandate for healthcare workers in Greece was unconstitutional.

Specifically, the decision by the court takes issue with the Greek government’s extension of the vaccine mandate, which came into effect April 1, 2022 and which was slated to remain in effect until Dec. 31, 2022.

The decision paves the way for those workers who were suspended to return to their jobs, although it remains to be seen whether the Greek government will abide by the decision or find some means of challenging or bypassing it.

The Council of State’s decision

In decision 2332/2022, a seven-judge panel of the Council of State voted 6-1 in favor of the National Association of Public Hospital Employees (POEDHN), who had filed the legal proceedings on behalf of the suspended medical workers, finding that the extended vaccine mandate was unconstitutional.

The Council of State’s decision also cancelled hiring proceedings initiated by the Greek Ministry of Health on April 14, 2022, on the basis of law 4825/2021, for new medical staff on fixed-term contracts, presumably to replace the suspended workers.

According to the text of the decision as posted Thursday on the Council of State’s website, mandatory vaccination of some categories of workers is constitutional — but there are limitations to this recognized constitutionality. According to the court, these limits exceeded the “principle of proportionality” in relation to the threat posed:

“As has previously been accepted by the Council of State through a series of decisions, the measures that are implemented for the protection of public health against the coronavirus COVID-19, including mandatory vaccination for some categories of workers … may indeed constitute a serious intervention in the practice of fundamental human rights, such as the free development of one’s personality, the freedom of movement and one’s privacy, but it is nevertheless considered to be a constitutional intervention if, among other things, these measures are enforced strictly for the necessary period of time and, in any event, until solutions for responding to the pandemic have been developed. “The severity and duration of these measures, due to their temporary nature, must be reexamined periodically by the competent state authorities on the basis of the ongoing epidemiological data and credible scientific findings.”

The Council of State, in its decision, stated that the Greek state did not do this in the case of the suspended medical workers:

“In this specific case, when the decisions in question were publicized (March 31, 2022 and April 14, 2022), a time period of over eight months had gone by from the time the vaccine mandate was implemented for medical workers.

“This is a duration of time that, due to the nature of this measure and its consequences, clearly exceeds a reasonable length, without a reexamination of the measure on the basis of up-to-date scientific and epidemiological data, the value, effectiveness and the consequences of the coronavirus vaccines, or the ongoing pandemic trends, having occurred.”

The extension imposed by the Greek Ministry of Health was therefore unconstitutional according to the same principles, said the Council of State:

“It is not apparent upon which specific scientific data the decision to shift the date of reexamination to Dec. 31, 2022 was made — in other words, a period of time that once again exceeds that which is reasonable, when considering that it was nine months after law 4917/2022 [which extended the mandate] was passed.”

The Council of State not only found that no reexamination of the mandate occurred, but that the data would have shown that the data that was available at the time would not have justified it:

“No evidence [in the documentation provided to the court by the Greek Ministry of Health] indicates that such a formative assessment and evaluation occurred … in any case, the evidence provided to the court does not justify the extension of the vaccine mandates.”

As reported by Greek news portal newsbomb.gr on Thursday, the Council of State decision means that, once the final decision is published by the court, the suspended medical workers will have the opportunity to be reinstated to their positions if they apply to do so.

Reactions from medical workers, legal experts following Council of State decision

Speaking to newsbomb.gr after the Council of State issued its ruling, Mihalis Giannakos, president of POEDHM, called upon the Greek Minister of Health Thanos Plevris to immediately implement the decision. He said:

“This is a total victory for POEDHN and its moderate stance in favor of vaccination but against the continued suspensions which had no health benefit after restrictions were lifted.”

“Based on this decision, my colleagues must immediately return to their jobs and must receive at least 50% of their wages from April 14, 2022 onwards.

“The Council of State rose to the occasion. We call upon the Minister of Health to immediately put forth an order for the implementation of this decision.”

The Association of Healthcare Professionals for Democracy and Freedom (SYDE), one of the main organizations which coordinated the actions of the suspended medical workers since September 2001, issued a press release following the Council of State’s decision, drawing a connection between the suspension of the unvaccinated health workers and broader challenges faced by Greece’s National Health System, including efforts on the part of the current government to privatize it:

“The decision by the Council of State ends, for now, the saga of the health workers who have been suspended for 15 months. It was issued at the same time that [legislation] is being submitted to parliament in relation to hospitals and the employment status of the medical staff. This law contains all the preconditions for the permanent abolition of the public and social nature of the National Health System.

“This legislation which will be submitted next week … which is co-signed by almost all of the government ministers, constitutes hard evidence that nothing that occurred over the last two years in the context of ‘managing’ the pandemic was intended to protect and preserve public health.”

SYDE’s statement questioned the epidemiological data which the Greek Ministry of Health claimed to be basing its policy decisions above, implying that it was meant to conceal a large number of deaths which occurred in Greek public hospitals — a result, according to SYDE, of the ongoing “collapse” of the Greek National Health System:

“We want to make clear that whatever decision is taken regarding the future of the medical workers who refuse to submit to the ‘science’ of the Health Ministry, will not be useful for [efforts to] disorient or manipulate us or the citizens with a goal of crushing our employment rights and the rights of citizens to health care.

“The Health Ministry must, at last, show us any data which proves the benefits of the measure to suspend [the unvaccinated medical workers].

“The epidemiological data [claimed by the authorities] for the past two years … had as a goal the cover-up of other evidence, which pertains to the explosive growth of deaths, from all causes, WITHIN [emphasis original] a National Health System which is collapsing, as a result of the intentional policy of dissolving the health system. The ‘benefits’ claimed by those who have orchestrated this collapse are now becoming clear, confirming the deception hidden behind the ‘public health’ measures.”

Speaking to Children’s Health Defense Europe, Maria Bana, a member of the SYDE board of directors and a member of the “Medical Workers Against Mandates” movement, said:

“This was a very important decision. We were hoping for such a decision but were not expecting it. We had no idea what would happen. The decision talks about the unconstitutionality of the extension of the suspension … and not the unconstitutionality of the [vaccine] mandate from the beginning, and speaks of the incomplete epidemiological data, that the required data was not presented, violating the principle of proportionality … in other words, you can impose such a mandate, but you cannot do so indefinitely.

“We are waiting for the Council of State’s decision to be published and in our hands, to review the legal basis for the decision so that we can determine how we will proceed.”

According to Bania, she and the other suspended medical workers have been informed that the full Council of State decision will be published next week, a turnaround time “which is extraordinarily brief, considering that it [usually] takes over two months” for Council of State decisions to be officially published.

Bania pointed out that the formal publication of Council of State’s decision in the first legal challenge filed by the suspended medical workers took nine months.

Athens-based attorney Maria Tsipra, who successfully represented POEDHN in the Council of State proceedings, also provided remarks to CHD Europe following the court’s decision. She said:

“Decision 2332/2022 by the Council of State arrives to bring an end to the limbo endured by hundreds of medical workers, who for over one year have been suspended without pay due to their refusal to get vaccinated.

“It bears noting that the Council of State, via a previous decision by its full panel of judges, had given the Ministry of Health the opportunity to reexamine the suspension measure, as has been the case in many other European countries as the pandemic has subsided. Unfortunately though, no action has been taken up until now. We wait upon the government to immediately implement the decision, calling back the medical workers to return to their jobs and to repopulate the ranks of the public health [system], which is so sorely needed.”

Another Athens-based attorney, Vasilis Papanikolaou, who had previously represented 32 of the 38 medical workers who were arrested in July 2022 for protesting outside the residence of Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, posted his reaction to the decision on his Facebook page, writing in part:

“A major victory for the suspended medical workers! The Council of State ruled unconstitutional the March 31, 2022 extension of the vaccine mandates and suspensions. The Mitsotakis-Plevris government, and more broadly, New Democracy [Greece’s ruling political party] and PASOK [an opposition political party], who voted for this extension, have been exposed.

“The issuance of this decision immediately requires [the Ministry of Health] to comply and to reinstate, from tomorrow, the [medical workers} and to provide them with their wages that were illegally withheld, at least from April 1, 2022 to the present.”

Lampros Tsapalis, a paramedic who, last week, had launched a hunger strike with two other suspended medical workers outside the Council of State headquarters in central Athens, made some revelatory statements to CHD Europe regarding events which occurred leading up to the issuance of the court’s decision. Speaking to CHD Europe today, he said:

“Today, the hunger strikers, following the announcement by the Council of State cancelling the suspensions which had held 7,000 families hostage for 15 months, visited the Council of State once more and asked that [the decision] be published immediately. The answer we received is that this will occur on Monday.

“Yesterday, they had a meeting with the Health Minister with a very intense dialogue, being that [the Health Minister] adamantly stuck to his views and, indeed, was talking about [a further extension of the suspensions] to the end of March, even though he knew how the Council of State was going to rule.”

Tsapalis credited the continued efforts of the suspended health workers for bringing about this decision on the part of the Council of State:

“A crucial factor in all of this were the constant visits of the strikers, via three-member groups, to the court, exerting pressure on a near-daily basis with countless updates about how thousands of families were in danger.

“A characteristic example are the comments by high-ranking judges who, speaking in a human told, told us that there was no evidence indicating the necessity for this measure [the suspensions] to continue.”

Greek government may seek to bypass the Council of State’s decision, while others argue that the ruling is ‘too little, too late’

What remains unclear is how the Greek government, and particularly the Greek Ministry of Health, will formally react to the Council of State’s ruling and what actions will be taken once the decision is formally published as soon as next week.

One perspective holds that the Council of State’s decision relieves the Greek government from having to take the initiative and make a decision on this issue, which has become a political “hot potato.”

Withdrawing the suspensions that the government has adamantly stuck to for 15 months might have been viewed as an admission of defeat for the government, especially in light of recent statements by Plevris that the suspensions were “one of the most correct decisions” taken by the current government since coming to office in 2019.

Notably, Plevris had previously been elected under the aegis of the far-right LAOS (Popular Orthodox Rally) political party and is not a doctor.

On the other hand, others feel that the Greek government and the Ministry of Health will seek to bypass the decision based on technicalities or a “creative” interpretation of what the ruling states.

A first indication of the government’s thought process came in the form of a laconic press release issued by the Greek Ministry of Health on Thursday, soon after the Council of State’s decision was announced. The statement read:

“The decision to suspend the unvaccinated medical workers had, as its goal, the protection of the citizens’ health and had initially been ruled constitutional by the Council of State.

“With its newest 2332/22 decision … the Council of State raises questions of unconstitutionality with regard to the extension of this measure [the suspensions]. We await the publication of the decision to review it in full. We assure the citizens that all the necessary measures will be taken to not place public health in danger as a result of the implementation of this decision.”

In a report published Thursday in Kathimerini, regarded as Greece’s newspaper of record, unnamed judicial officials were quoted as saying Health Ministry authorities may “review” the suspensions of the unvaccinated medical workers and simply by doing so, may fulfill the prerequisites set forth by the Council of State’s recent decision.

However, Kathimerini adds that any response on the part of the authorities must come immediately once the Council of State’s decision is formally published.

It is unclear, however, if the statements attributed to these “unnamed judicial officials” actually represent the nature of the court’s full decision which is to be published, especially in light of the statements made by the Council of State in its announcement that, based on the evidence it reviewed, the extension of the medical workers’ suspensions would not have been justified.

Notably, as previously reported by CHD Europe, a number of medical workers who had received the initial series of COVID-19 vaccines but have not been “boosted,” have not been suspended, nor have new mandates to that effect been issued. Most other COVID-19 restrictions in Greece, including employee vaccination requirements, have not been renewed.

The Greek division of the World Freedom Alliance, in a statement released Friday to CHD Europe, said the Council of State’s decision is “too little, too late” and gives the Greek government considerable wiggle room to bypass the decision, while upholding the broader “constitutionality” of vaccine mandates. They wrote, in part:

“The World Freedom Alliance calls upon the Greek government to immediately implement the Council of State’s decision, [which is] ‘too little, too late’.

“While the full text of the decision is not yet available, some initial conclusions are clear. The Council of State’s decision came very late and, in essence, it is lacking, as it did not declare the vaccine mandate measure illegal and unconstitutional, only its extension.

“This decision indirectly validates the inexcusable position that if a [medical] formulation, a medical act, is declared ‘safe and effective’ then it can be mandated. The World Freedom Alliance maintains that the freedom of personal choice cannot be subject to any emergency declaration or any ‘review’, nor the principle of informed consent bypassed.”

Even though WFA Greece described the Council of State decision as lacking, it nevertheless calls upon the Greek government to implement it via the reinstatement of the suspended medical workers to their jobs. Specifically, the statement reads:

“Even though this decision fulfills only a minimal portion of the demands of the medical workers and freedom fighters, based on the decision, the suspension of the medical workers is now illegal, and as such, we DEMAND their IMMEDIATE return UNCONDITIONALLY to be set into motion, for a moral recognition of this decision [on the part of the Greek government] to be announced, and for the state to issue full financial reimbursements for the period of time that the exhausting, inhuman and illogical suspensions were in place [emphasis original].”

WFA Greece also described the Council of State’s decision as political in nature, providing a lifejacket of sorts to an embattled Greek government and political system in the leadup to forthcoming parliamentary elections, which will be held no later than July 2023. According to the WFA’s statement:

“We consider the Council of State’s decision to be wholly inadequate, addressing political concerns via serving to maintain the position of the ‘democratic axis’ in power in the upcoming elections, strengthening an increasing political polarization.”

A similar view was expressed by Tsapalis, who expressed mistrust in the Council of State’s decision and stated that the three suspended medical workers who are on hunger strike will continue their action. He told CHD Europe:

“The decision is clearly political. That is why the hunger strikers declare that they will continue their fight until the first suspended medical worker is reinstated and returns to the hospital for work.”

Bania told CHD Europe that many rumors are circulating about how the Greek government will formally respond to the Council of State’s decision, including sidestepping it entirely. She said:

“There are many scenarios which have already begun to circulate, that this decision was political, that it may even be bypassed.

“What can we say? The only thing we have not yet seen here in Greece is tanks on the streets.”

As a result of this possibility, Bania called upon Greece’s opposition political parties to step up, even at this late stage:

“We will continue to fight. We will exert pressure with whatever means we have. But we are not many and our people are exhausted.

“I think that the next steps must be taken by the politicians, the opposition, as [the suspensions] are a clear political usurpation … I think that now is the time for the political world to take a clear stance against this.”

Tsipra told CHD Europe what the next legal steps might be in the event that the Greek government attempts to find ways around enforcing the Council of State’s decision. She said:

“We will begin [legal] proceedings immediately. My hope is that [the suspended workers] will be reinstated soon.

“In the event that the government does not comply, it will have to face the [legal] clams of these workers for the non-execution of the decision.”

Fears that the Greek government will not enforce a high court decision are not unfounded.

One such example was provided by Tsipra in her statements to CHD Europe, regarding the government’s previous non-enforcement of a prior Council of State decision requiring the formation of a ministerial committee that would review and reexamine the suspensions of the unvaccinated medical workers.

In another example which directly pertains to the public’s access to the airwaves and to information via a system of broadcasters operating under a set of legal and regulatory standards, a series of Council of State decisions in 2010 and 2011 found that the perpetual “temporary legality” of Greece’s mostly unlicensed and therefore not fully regulated radio and television stations was unconstitutional,” and that the continued operation of Greece’s regulatory body for broadcasting with members whose legally specified terms had expired, was also in violation of the constitution.

Nevertheless, the regulatory body continued to operate for years afterwards with a slate of members whose terms had expired, while nearly all of Greece’s radio and television radio stations remain unlicensed today, still operating under various forms of “temporary legality” with no end in sight.

However, as previously reported by The Defender, this did not stop the current Greek government from providing 40 million euro (at the time equivalent to $43.6 million) in subsidies to Greek media outlets, including broadcasters, to air public health measures related to COVID-19.

Many in Greece felt this was a means, on the part of the government, to ensure positive coverage of its highly restrictive COVID-related measures. The Greek government has elicited criticism for its attempts to block freedom of information requests and court orders to release the criteria upon which it based its allocation of these subsidies.

Confirming the sentiment that Greek media outlets, having received these subsidies, avoid critical coverage of the government’s COVID-19 policies, the news of the Council of State’s decision on Thursday entered the news cycle but, within the space of a few hours, had all but disappeared.

Newsbomb.gr, for instance, which is one of Greece’s most widely read news portals, featured the Council of State’s decision as its top story at 4:30 pm Thursday afternoon. By 10 pm though, the story was nowhere to be found on its front page, replaced by stories about Greek and international celebrities and yoga “dos and don’t’s.”

Despite challenges that may still lie ahead for the suspended medical workers and their supporters though, the Council of State’s decision is nevertheless widely viewed as a significant victory in their ongoing efforts to overturn the Greek government’s vaccine mandate for medical workers.

Papanikolaou, in his Facebook post, praised the suspended medical workers for continuing their fight in the face of adversity, writing:

“Credit for this victory belongs, above all, to those who, for 15 months, withstood hunger, want, terror, slander and blackmail and waged a titanic battle which should be enshrined with gold letters in the history of the Greek labor movement and, more broadly, the movement in favor of freedom and democracy.”

SYDE’s press release concluded with a statement indicating that its fight will continue:

“We will continue to fight for democracy, for dialogue, for the right for the opposing view to not be ‘stifled’. We will continue to stand for the ideals of our scientific field and for freedom, with an unwavering demand for the ABOLITION of the legal MANDATE [emphasis original].

“We will be present in all battles for democracy and freedom. We call for the immediate implementation of the Council of State’s decision, the immediate reinstatement of our colleagues to their jobs, the immediate full reimbursement of everything that was unjustly withheld. “Hands off our lives, hands off the National Health Service

Suspended Greek medical worker commits suicide, amidst acquittals, new calls for freedom

Suspended Greek medical worker commits suicide, amidst acquittals, new calls for freedom

Covid-19 EU Issues Global Agenda Public Health Vaccination Vaccine ID Passport 

By Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D.

A group of 38 unvaccinated Greek medical workers, who have been suspended from their jobs without pay since 2021 as a result of not receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, was acquitted by an Athens court Oct. 19.

The workers had been facing charges of “disobedience” and “disrupting traffic,” following their arrest and overnight detention stemming from a July 7 protest outside the residence of Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. 

This acquittal followed in the footsteps of a freedom rally organized in Athens by the suspended medical workers Sept. 24, which featured speeches by prominent microbiologist Dr. Sucharit Bhakdi, and by Dr. Reiner Füellmich, a German lawyer who has convened the Corona Investigative Committee probing “crimes against humanity” committed in the name of combating COVID-19.

However, the acquittal also came amidst the shadow of a recent suicide committed by one of the suspended medical workers, who was struggling to survive without an income.

As reported by The Defender in April 2022, Greece’s health ministry placed all healthcare workers who did not meet the Sept. 1, 2021 deadline for the mandatory COVID vaccination of medical staff and who did not receive a booster dose by March 31, 2022, on unpaid leave.

Many of the estimated 10,000 healthcare workers who initially did not get vaccinated have, in the intervening period, organized ongoing protests and rallies, calling for their reinstatement. They have also opposed Greece’s COVID-19 restrictions, which were considered the strictest measures in Europe.

While most restrictions in Greece have since been lifted, and most workplaces have re-opened to unvaccinated employees, the suspension of unvaccinated medical workers continues. Likewise, political wrangling over whether, or if, they will be reinstated and under what conditions, continues to play out.

A unanimous acquittal

The acquittal of the 38 suspended medical workers who were arrested for protesting outside the Greek prime minister’s residence July 7 is widely perceived among the activist community in Greece as a significant legal victory.

A three-judge panel of the Criminal Court of Athens unanimously acquitted the 38 workers at their trial on Oct. 19. Notably, during the trial, even the public prosecutor called for their acquittal, telling the court that the Greek state must find some means to reinstate the workers.

Among the witnesses speaking on behalf of the medical workers was the director of one of Athens’ largest public hospitals, the Laiko Hospital, who told the court that there is no good reason to continue the suspension of unvaccinated medical workers and that this policy has posed difficulties for the already struggling public health system.

The workers had been arrested on July 7 after congregating a short distance away from Prime Minister Mitsotakis’ residence in the upscale Lycabettus neighborhood of Athens, while demonstrating against their continued suspension.

Following the arrests, in a statement circulated on Telegram, in which the Greek Medical Freedom Alliance and the World Doctors’ Alliance announced that they stand “on the side of the suspended health care professionals … demanding their release and their return to their jobs.”

Fuellmich, Bhakdi call for freedom at September rally and press conference in Athens

Dr. Reiner Füellmich and Dr. Sucharit Bhakdi delivered a message of liberty and peaceful resistance to a large crowd at Athens’ Freedom Square on Sept. 24, as part of a rally organized by groups representing Greece’s suspended medical workers.

Argyri Kagia, a radiologist at the Metaxa hospital in Athens who is part of the group of unvaccinated health workers who have been suspended since Sept. 1, 2021, told CHD Europe that between 4,000 and 5,000 people attended the Sept. 24 rally.

Dr. Füellmich addressed the crowd first, referring initially to his work with the Corona Investigative Committee, which he co-founded. He said:

“We founded this [committee] in July of 2020 because we did not get any answers from our governments or the mainstream media. Now we know they are not our governments, they are not our mainstream media. They are owned by the World Economic Forum [WEF].

“When we realized that we would not get any answers to those very basic questions, how dangerous is the virus? How reliable is the PCR test? Was it misused in order to create cases that didn’t exist? And how dangerous are the measures? The mask mandates, social distancing and of course, the so-called vaccines. When we didn’t get any answers, we decided we will do it ourselves.”

Tying the origins of the WEF — and its founder, Klaus Schwab — to Charles Darwin’s ideas of “survival of the fittest,” to the early 20^th century foundation of the British Eugenics Society and the American Eugenics Society, and later, to Schwab’s early connections with Henry Kissinger and the CIA, Dr. Füellmich placed the WEF and its “Young Global Leaders” behind the events of the past two-plus years:

“It’s the World Economic Forum that runs the show. They’re using the politicians. They’re using the mainstream media. They have bought them and they are their puppets. They are not our politicians, not our governments. It’s theirs.

“On the platform of the World Economic Forum, in their annual meetings in Davos, they infiltrated politicians. This is where a thousand global corporations meet every year with politics and people from the media, and also some very important persons. They call it private-public partnership. But in reality, they have taken over. This is a hostile takeover of our public politicians and our public institutions, our agencies, a hostile takeover of these agencies by rich, super rich criminals. And they have taken away as much as they can.”

Dr. Füellmich accused such entities, including politicians whom he described as “puppets” who “know nothing” and “have made up biographies,” of orchestrating not just anything related to COVID-19, but also, numerous other crises:

“There is no pandemic. This is an invention. It’s a ‘plandemic’. Behind all of this is the idea of eugenics … which has now turned into genocide. It is time to tell the truth. It is time to not mince any words anymore. It’s time to call a spade a spade. This is eugenics and it’s turned into genocide.

“So how did this pandemic start and why is it not a pandemic, but a ‘plandemic’? Well, first of all, you have to know this is only part of their toolbox to keep us in panic mode. It’s the ‘plandemic’. It’s the Ukraine crisis. It’s global warming, It’s food shortages, It’s energy shortages.”

According to Dr. Füellmich, another financial crisis was about to strike in late 2019, and this time, “they were in a panic because now they know that many of us understand what is going on and they needed to divert our attention from their stealing your assets, your ports, your airports, your islands to ‘oh, there is a pandemic.’”

Dr. Füellmich said this was accomplished in two ways, “in order to make everyone afraid of everyone”: by inventing the concept of “asymptomatic infections,” which he described as a “blatant lie,” and by skewing the results of PCR tests to the point of complete unreliability. This, said Dr. Füellmich, “is how they created the cases.”

Additionally, Dr. Füellmich went on to explain the cases were used to “declare a public health emergency of international concern” — that is, a pandemic. This was done, he said, “because only on the basis of an international health emergency can you use totally untested drugs on people.”

“The vaccines are not vaccines,” stated Dr. Füellmich. “They’re experimental injections … in order to use untested new drugs on people, and that’s what’s happening right now. This is an experiment. It’s a medical experiment with no one controlling it.”

However, Dr. Füellmich also stated his belief that a better world is possible, telling the audience “we know what’s good for us and what’s bad for us. We don’t need anyone to tell us that. That’s why we should organize in our regions and set up our own system.”

Dr. Füellmich added:

“We must get the truth out. We are now gaining a lot of support, even from those who were deceived, who were manipulated, who got the shots. They’re beginning to ask questions, just like we did right from the start. They will join our forces and they will make us even stronger. So we must continue to speak out.

“What we should also do is we should all of us realize this is not about global power. No global corporation, no global NGO has the power to tell us anything. We should, all of us, disconnect from NATO, the EU, the World Health Organization, all of these.

“We don’t need them. They need us. We should send them straight to hell. Their system is collapsing right before our eyes. It is collapsing. There’s no way it can be saved.”

“We should set up our own system in our region because we know best what is good for us,” continued Dr. Füellmich. “We don’t need anyone from far away to tell us what to do and not to do. We must, all of us, realize we have personal sovereignty … We’re all free. We can do whatever we want.”

This can be done, said Dr. Füellmich, by developing regional, self-sufficient communities with their own health care, even their own judiciary, and that would be interconnected with each other, to “build a much better, a [more] humane world.”

Following Dr. Füellmich, Dr. Bhakdi took the podium and delivered a speech focused more on biology, but also concluding with a similar message of hope.

Dr. Bhakdi also questioned the official narrative regarding the origin of COVID-19, telling the crowd, saying that “it rests on your ignorance of basic biology,” adding that this is a “question of life and death that is controlled by your immune system and the immune system of all animals.”

Without public opposition, said Dr. Bhakdi, this state of affairs will continue:

“The moment you use anything that is gene-based … you are asking for hell and you will get hell. Those people up there who have planned all of this have planned the living hell for all of us. And you belong to the few in Greece who realized this in time to protect yourself and your beloved ones at a sacrifice that is immeasurable.”

Dr. Bhakdi provided an explanation of the inner workings of the human immune system, and the ability of the human body to heal wounds and to regenerate cells — except in two organs: the heart and the brain. He said these are the two organs most adversely impacted by the COVID-19 vaccines.

“The brain and the heart cannot be replaced,” Dr. Bhakdi said, “and this is the source of the tragedy of the vaccine, the vaccine nightmare.”

He continued:

“There are capillary thrombosis and micro vessel vasculitis occurring in many, many parts of the brain of the same patient. This has never been described in the textbooks … and, lo and behold, where they found those lesions, they found the spike protein of this damn virus.

“Is there any disease known in mankind and medicine where you have capillary thrombosis in the brain? … I can tell you, no, there is none because the capillaries are so protected, there will be no clotting in the capillaries.

“Around these vessels, they found these are brain cells dying … Imagine that your brain cells in different parts of the brain are dying. You are losing something forever. Something that was given to you and that can never be returned to you. I do not know how many of you have noticed that people suffering after the vaccine complications are altered in their mind. They are not the same person anymore. We know many.”

The heart is affected in similar fashion, said Dr. Bhakdi:

“We had multifocal encephalitis, necrotizing, and at the same time myocarditis. Now, this does not exist in the medical literature. You never have multifocal encephalitis and myocarditis. Only after vaccination. And in the heart they see the same things. It’s the small vessels of the heart that are spiked and that are killed. And in the heart they see the same thing that happens in the brain.”

This, however, is not stopping entities such as the WHO, continued Dr. Bhakdi:

“The WHO declared four weeks ago that they are going to implement mRNA vaccines for everything. All vaccinations for children, adults and aged patients. And if they are doing this to our children. To your children. It’s the end of mankind. These vaccines must be stopped by the oath of Hippocrates.”

Dr. Bhakdi, ending his speech with a message of hope, called upon the Greek people to unite:

“You don’t know why the great personalities, individuals brought Greece into the history books. You can do something that has never been done before, and that is that the Greek people can reunite themselves and show the world how a divided nation can reunite because of their own greatness.

“I call upon you, and both sides, to stop fighting, stop quarreling, but to come together and show the world how the people themselves can unite a nation. Despite all these terrible people who are trying to divide you and show the world that you have regained your freedom and humanity.”

According to Dr. Kagia, Greek media interest in the rally — and in the press conference given by Drs. Füellmich and Bhakdi one day prior — was limited. She told CHD Europe:

“The number of journalists who attended the press conference was limited. Moreover, no one from any official institutions — such as the offices of the health minister and deputy health minister, the president of the Athens Medical Association, and others who were invited at the request of Bhakdi — were present, as was to be expected.

“Those who were presented were some journalists from ‘alternative media outlets’, primarily online-based.”

One day prior, Dr. Bhakdi, in a press conference at the Athens’ Journalists Union (ESHEA), praised the suspended Greek medical workers for their continued fight:

“In the country where democracy and freedom were born, which is Greece, here is the only association of medical care workers and doctors who have come together to say, ‘let us reach out to our fellow colleagues and our fellow citizens to try to straighten things out.’ And it is my greatest privilege to be able to be with them.

“These doctors are upholding the oath and the honor of people in the country where everything started. That is why I immediately accepted the invitation to come here.”

Dr. Bhakdi said it is up to doctors to help deliver humanity from this “terrible situation”:

“ … None of us here have come to attack anyone. We are not coming to fight. We are coming to unite. We want our colleagues, especially to join us in a true scientific discussion about what could be true and what could be false. Because only if the doctors themselves come together can we hope that the terrible situation can be changed.”

The children of Greece and their high obesity rate — were also addressed by Dr. Bhakdi, who said:

“The poor children, they are suffering. They are being tortured because of the grown-ups. And this alone is so tragic. Of course, the children don’t move anymore. They’re distressed. They’re depressed. And what do children do? They eat more, move less and [sit] in front of their computers. This has been developing over the decades and it has not been stopped.

“And now, of course, the Greek society, the politicians are really enforcing it. So Greece is destroying its own future, the children. Just like … the masks. The masks have driven children to suicide. The masks have driven the children into … psychiatry.”

Dr. Bhakdi added some remarks about the health dangers associated with wearing masks:

“[For] children, it is now known … it [has been] published, that after three minutes of any mask, the concentration of CO₂ is many times higher than what is allowed at the working place of a grown-up Greek. So if that concentration were here, we would all have to leave. It’s poison.

“And this is the same for grown-ups. So everyone who is wearing a mask after three minutes is breathing more CO₂ than is allowed at a working place of a grown-up European civilized citizen.”

The premise that viruses can cause pandemics, and that masks can protect individuals in such situations, was also questioned by Dr. Bhakdi:

“Realize this: no virus, naturally occurring, can ever cause a pandemic, because your immune system is trained to combat virtually all viruses immediately [from] birth. Every child can do it.”

Dr. Bhakdi also addressed the possible origins of COVID-19, including the possibility it emerged as a result of a lab leak, and the involvement of Bill Gates:

“It is known that the Americans and these groups that were teaming up with Wuhan over decades, many years to create a virus, this coronavirus … they tried to make a virus that may turn out to be deadly dangerous. Yes, it came from the lab.”

This, however, failed, according to Dr. Bhakdi:

“But … they overestimated themselves. They thought they could do something. But God, you are not God. And they have failed. That’s why the virus never was a key device.

“Bill Gates has been in this for so many years now. They wanted a vaccine to become necessary. They wanted the vaccine to be gene-based … because these vaccines are very cheap to produce and the profits that they are making are such that the whole world’s fortunes are going to zero at the bottom. So soon you will have nothing and they will have everything.

“ The mistake they made with the mRNA vaccines was that they did not know enough immunology to know that these vaccines are going to kill people.”

“Your immune system deals with any virus anywhere in the world,” said Dr. Bhakdi. “And this you cannot change unless you go around vaccinating yourself. Don’t start treating things that your immune system is taking care of.”

Dr. Bhakdi added:

“Let me tell you something. That is no virus existent today that is going to cause a pandemic because viruses do not kill. The Spanish flu killed because the patients got bacterial superinfection. This cannot happen anymore because there are antibiotics to prevent this. That is why respiratory viruses never kill.

Dr. Füellmich, speaking at the same press conference, told attendees that he was “honored to be here for a very simple reason: because Greece is the cradle of democracy. And if the rule of law doesn’t work, we will not have any democracy.”

“We are already in several court battles which don’t make any sense in Germany anymore,” Dr. Füellmich said. “But it does make a lot of sense to continue with the legal fighting in the American courts of law.”

This fight, Dr. Füellmich said, is, at its root, against “the Anglo-American financial mafia,” which includes “most [or] all of the banks in this entire world, including the central banks, the American Central Bank, the Fed, the German Central bank, the Greek Central [Bank].”

Likening it to a “military experiment,” Dr. Füellmich said that the “plandemic” had been planned for decades, including exercises and projections such as Operation Dark Winter in 2000 and Operation Lock Step in 2010, adding that “the vaccines have been patented for years … the PCR tests have been patented to do this for years.”

“They have gone too far, too quick. They stole too much from us. And that’s why they rushed into this, because they didn’t have any time,” Dr. Füellmich said. “They needed drastic measures quickly … because more and more of us were waking up.”

However, there is “a light at the end of the tunnel” according to Füellmich, who stated:

“There’s light at the end of the tunnel because the people on the other side … they’re stupid. They’re not very smart. 

“You are the ones who are going to change this and who are going to make people better as far as their health is concerned … This cannot be done by virologists or by scientists. It’s the doctors who have to do it.”

The press conference of Drs. Bhakdi and Füellmich took place amidst efforts to “sabotage” it.

In a statement to CHD Europe, Dr. Kagia said that there had been efforts to “sabotage” the press conference, including rumors that were spread that it had been “cancelled,” as well as racist innuendo about its participants that was included in a statement by the National Association of Public Hospital Employees (POEDHN), which indirectly referred to Dr. Bhakdi as “some Indian” (Dr. Bhakdi is a German-Thai citizen of Thai descent).

Rally, acquittal overshadowed by suicide of suspended medical worker

Casting a dark shadow over the September rally, and the subsequent acquittal of the 38 medical workers who had been facing criminal charges, was the news that one of the suspended medical workers committed suicide in late September.

A joint statement that circulated on the World Doctors’ Alliance Telegram channel and that was co-signed by the Greek Medical Freedom Alliance reported the news of a dentist, based in Athens with the initials X.P., who committed suicide on Sept. 29.

According to the statement:

“She was a young professional, had just started her own dental office in Athens, but she was forced to shut it down one year ago, when the unscientific and criminal law in Greece came out to ban every unvaccinated for COVID-19 health care professional from any kind of job anywhere in Greece.

“She suffered of immense financial pressure, as she had loans in order to start her practice, while her family was not as a whole supportive to her, as some of them were pushing her to get the vaccine, bullying at her so badly and constantly for not getting it (as systemic media were encouraging people to do against any unvaccinated 1.5 year now).”

Following the news of the young dentist’s suicide, there was an outpouring of sympathy and support — as well as anger and frustration for the ongoing suspension of the unvaccinated health workers.

Konstantinos Vathiotis, a former law professor at Greece’s Democritus Law School who resigned in early 2021 with sharp criticism towards the Greek government and the “digital cell” it was imposing on society, has become an outspoken opponent of COVID-19 restrictions in Greece and is a supporter of the suspended medical workers.

In a radio interview broadcast on Oct. 6, Vathiotis stated the dentist’s death “was not suicide, but indirect manslaughter” on the part of the Greek state.

And in a statement posted on social media, Sparta-based dentist Dr. Zafeiria Kakaletri, wrote a moving tribute to her late colleague, referring to the myriad of challenges she had been facing prior to ending her life:

“I note that my young colleague was not well-to-do. On the contrary, just like the rest of my colleagues … she had been facing numerous financial difficulties, especially as she was not employed.

“This situation led to her becoming depressed, and from what we’ve learned, she received no support. In particular … one significant family member treated her as if she was crazy for not wanting to get vaccinated even at the cost of her job. This family member constantly bullied her.”

Dr. Kakaletri is also unvaccinated and a participant in the movement against the medical workers’ suspensions.

She also expressed harsh criticism towards the Greek government for its policies. Dr. Kakaletri also criticized the Greek legal and medical associations for their inaction, and the Greek media for ignoring the suicide — and the broader issue of the suspended medical workers.

Calling the above actors “criminal” and describing the “systemic media” as purveyors of “brainwashing and blackmail,” she wrote:

“As you may know, the unvaccinated medical workers in Greece, in a global first … have no right to be employed in any sector. They are, by law, permanently unemployed; sentenced to an inability to survive.

“Where have the bar associations and medical associations of Greece been for the past year?

“The moral perpetrators are these ridiculous figures in Parliament who agreed to the unemployment, impoverishment and starvation of all these medical workers.”

Dr. Kakaletri concluded her statement with an open call to the vaccinated and unvaccinated urging unity, in memory of her colleague. She stated:

“I swear, in the name of my colleague and every victim … of this ongoing crime that is being perpetrated in our country … by the ignorant ‘experts’, arrogant politicians, and the ‘tele-doctors’ who appear on the systemic media, who together have subjugated medical knowledge, that I will not cease participating in legal actions, until justice in their name and against all those responsible, at all levels, has been achieved and they pay, in all legal ways, for this crime.

“Everyone please join us. It does not matter if you have been vaccinated and what your opinion of the vaccine is. Join us to force them to pay for the misery they have perpetrated and their moral responsibility for the suicidal thoughts they have fostered in so many, in our colleagues and others, and for their blackmail they forced on all those who were obliged to get vaccinated to not lose their jobs.

“The systemic media also will not be exempted from these charges.”

Political ping-pong in relation to the issue of the suspended medical workers

With parliamentary elections in Greece scheduled for July 2023—and the ongoing possibility that snap elections may be declared at any time before then—the issue of the suspended medical workers has made its way into the country’s political discourse.

Thanos Plevris, Greece’s health minister who had previously been elected under the aegis of the far-right LAOS (Popular Orthodox Rally) political party and who is not a doctor, stated in a televised interview Oct. 16 that the suspension of the unvaccinated medical workers was “one of the most correct decisions” taken by the current government since it came to power in 2019.

Plevris added that only approximately 2,100 workers remained suspended and out of work, downplaying the impact of their absence on the public health system.

However, Dr. Kagia told CHD Europe the number of suspended health workers in the public health system alone is 7,500, while approximately the same number of private-sector medical workers also remains unemployed.

Dr. Kagia added that some of the suspended health workers have been able to “temporarily” return to their jobs after a positive COVID-19 diagnosis, as their natural immunity is recognized for a six-month period.

In another televised interview on Oct. 3, Plevris said the suspension of the medical workers was “being reevaluated.”

Notably, Dr. Maria Pagoni, the president of EINAP, a union of doctors employed in Athens-area hospitals, stated in a televised appearance on Oct. 5, that the unvaccinated medical workers should be permitted to return to their jobs and that “they have been pressured enough.” 

Dr. Pagoni became widely known in Greece for her frequent media appearances supporting the Greek government’s COVID-19 restrictions. However, on at least one occasion, she marched with unvaccinated medical workers who were rallying against their suspension.

More recently though, Dr. Pagoni nevertheless warned that more “difficulties” were coming, in relation to the spread of COVID-19.

Notably, on Oct. 4, Health Minister Plevris announced that the government was considering rescinding the 150 euro monthly fines that had been levied on unvaccinated persons age 60 and over between January and May 2022, when the measure was “frozen.”

Later in October, the office of the Greek Public Advocate announced that these fines would be waived for several categories of individuals, on behalf of whom complaints had been filed, including those who had sought and received medical exemptions to the vaccine mandate.

According to the Association of Greek Medical Workers in Support of Democracy and Freedom (SYDE), which has been supportive of the suspended medical workers, the Greek government does not want to reinstate them because it is eyeing the privatization of the public health service, which includes the creation of a privately run, mandatory database containing the health data of all citizens.

To this end, media reports earlier this month indicated that the Greek government is ready to allow doctors employed in the public health system to operate their own private practice and/or to also seek employment in private medical clinics.

Dr. Kagia told CHD Europe that “the national health service is collapsing,” adding that “most positions which became vacant following the mass suspension [of unvaccinated medical workers] have not been filled.” Instead, existing staff is being “shared” between hospitals to fill gaps.

As a result, workers who continue to be employed in the public health system are “fully exhausted, [working] at the limits of their physical and mental health,” leading many to resign or to take early retirement “as they could no longer stand the pressure.”

Opposition to such developments resulted in a large-scale rally of public health workers in Athens on Oct. 19, calling for the strengthening of the public health system, in which many suspended medical workers also participated.

The rally culminated in an unscheduled meeting with Deputy Health Minister Mina Gaga, in which suspended medical workers such as Dr. Kakaletri were present.

According to a social media post by Dr. Kakaletri, the suspended health workers who were present at the meeting repeatedly called for the ‘criminal’ legislation pertaining to their suspensions to be rescinded.

Dr. Kakaletri added that she also relayed to Gaga “her sorrow at the [recent] suicide of her suspended colleague,” and the official positions of the World Freedom Alliance Greece, the Greek Medical Freedom Alliance and the World Doctors’ Alliance, on the issue.

Dr. Kagia, in turn, described the suspended health workers’ next steps, telling CHD Europe that they will “continue the battle which they began against the corrupt political system.”

She added that “one year after we were ousted from our jobs, we will continue, with even greater zeal, to collect data, to protest, to unearth and reveal and to proclaim the truth, that the [Greek] state is murdering its citizens, and that only the citizens can stop them.”