Infection numbers recorded too high among unvaccinated people in Bavaria

The infection numbers among unvaccinated people in Bavaria are in all probability lower than the State Office for Health and Food Safety (LGL) has previously indicated. “Welt” and “Süddeutsche Zeitung” reported that over the weekend. The reason is the recording method used by the Bavarian health authority: all infected people whose vaccination status is unknown are counted among the unvaccinated instead of being listed in a separate category.

The chairman of the FDP in the Bavarian state parliament, Martin Hagen, spoke of “manipulation” and described the use of the LGL numbers on Twitter as a “scandal”. He mainly referred to corona statistics from November, according to which the seven-day incidence in Bavaria in unvaccinated people (1,468.9) was more than 13 times higher than in vaccinated people (109.7). Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) tweeted the statistics on November 18.

Hagen feels “duped” by Söder is now calling for an explanation of the situation. The unadulterated figures would also show how vaccinations reduce the risk of corona infection, said the FDP chairman. During the pandemic, transparent action had to be taken to take the wind out of the sails of anti-vaccination campaigners, conspiracy theorists and lateral thinkers.

The method of counting the LGL has been known for a long time and is also explained by the authority on its own website: “Unvaccinated Covid-19 cases are people who had not received a vaccination at the time of infection or for whom no information is available.”

Other federal states, such as Schleswig-Holstein, proceed differently. They count infected people with unclear vaccination status as a separate category. The differences to Bavaria are clear: As reported by the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, the incidence of vaccinated people in the northern federal state at the time of the Söder tweet was 13, for unvaccinated people 48 – three and a half times higher.