Zamość, the vaccination point and the health resort were set on fire. Minister Adam Niedzielski: there has been an act of terror

Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki during the Monday briefing devoted to increasing safety on Polish roads, said that “that night (from Sunday to Monday – ed.) there was a very bandit act in Zamość, where the perpetrator set fire to the State Sanitary and Epidemiological Station and attacked, set fire to a vaccination point”.

In the afternoon of the same day, Health Minister Adam Niedzielski spoke at a meeting with journalists in Zamość.

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“I really don’t have words,” said the Minister of Health. – There was an act of terror. An act of terror, which is directed not only directly at those who work here or in the district inspection, but it is an act of terror against the state – he added.

He explained that “the purpose of these attacks is to discourage vaccination, and to discourage vaccination with the forthcoming fourth wave only means one thing: the risk of a lockdown, the risk of introducing additional restrictions and creating social excitement.”

– Whoever did it, but I think that those people who also inspired this perpetrator are surely aware that this is not only an attack on the container behind me, but an attack on the Polish state. You have to tell yourself so. This is an attack on our immunity in the fight against COVID, on what will happen in the fall – said the minister.

He pointed out that “at the beginning we had an outbreak of internet hate in networks, in social media, which are controlled, so to speak, by the anti-vaccine community.” – We were dealing with a fake news campaign, a campaign of slander and lies that were simply broadcast into the air. Dementing them, which is in principle impossible with such an abundance of information, led to absolutely no discussion, but led to more and more slander, more and more escalation, also aggression on the Internet – added Niedzielski.

According to the minister, on July 25, there was another stage of aggression, which took the form of physical violence directed against employees of vaccination centers and people protecting vaccination centers. He thus alluded to events in Grodzisk Mazowiecki.

Niedzielski stressed that as long as he was the minister of health, he would not allow any threats and hate against people involved in the vaccination campaign. – At tomorrow’s Council of Ministers, I will want to discuss the fight against the anti-vaccination environment, because it is a cross-sectional topic that concerns many ministries – he said.

– But I would also like, and this will be done as a matter of urgency, that vaccine workers would be treated like public officials, in the sense that they are subject to special legal protection and that every threat, threat, every act of aggression towards these workers will be punished with with particular austerity – emphasized the head of the Ministry of Health.

He added that on Monday he decided that the person who will help catch the perpetrator of the arson at the sanitary and epidemiological station and the vaccination point in Zamość will receive a prize of PLN 10,000. zloty.

– In cooperation with the police, I will award such a prize and I would like to encourage everyone who has any information about yesterday’s or more recent incidents to pass on information to the police – said Niedzielski.

– We are in a quite comfortable situation, because the entire area is monitored and in this respect it seems that this situation will be much easier to solve – emphasized the minister. The head of the health ministry added that monitoring “is not only on the market near the vaccination point, but also in the sanitary department”.

– Ladies and Gentlemen, this is a characteristic point in time, a geographical point, zero tolerance for such behavior. We will pursue these bandits with all severity and consistency, because that is what we should call it – said the minister.

Referring to the proposal of compulsory vaccinations against COVID-19 for some professional groups, Niedzielski noted that the ideas of compulsory vaccinations are constantly analyzed in terms of various criteria.

– We realize that not only the issue of virus transmission is of key importance here. The socio-economic perception is also important. As we look around ourselves – I am talking about European countries here – we can see that this next wave, which is already taking place in Western Europe, despite the still high intensity of new infections, is no longer characterized by putting such pressure on the healthcare system, and above all is not associated with such a risk of death, he assessed.

Therefore – as Niedzielski stressed – “the selection of measures will certainly be based on vaccinations”. – I can now say with full responsibility that if we deal with any restrictions, they will certainly take into account the regional degree of differentiation in grafting – he announced.

He added that the government is examining ideas that schools that are highly vaccinated, or workplaces where employees are vaccinated, should be exempt areas. – It is not a matter of differentiation, but a matter of stating the obvious fact that vaccination protects, vaccination is an effective protection, above all, against the severe course of COVID-19 – the minister explained.

– We are dealing with an extraordinary act of terror. This is a disturbing phenomenon because the extreme limit of functioning in social life has already been crossed, but also the relationship between society and institutions that guard the safety of this society – said Krzysztof Saczka, Deputy Chief Sanitary Inspector in Zamość on Monday. He also assessed that it was an “extremely unacceptable” act.

Saczka emphasized that the sanitary inspection works and carries out its tasks. “Of course, the pressure on sanitary inspection staff is very worrying,” he added. He declared that, together with Minister Niedzielski, he would make every effort to ensure that the employees of the sanitary inspection felt safe.

– In this wave of hate against vaccines, I also want to mention that these are not innovative vaccines. The technology of vector or mRNA vaccines are technologies known for several dozen or several years in other vaccinations. At the moment, they have only been tuned in a certain fragment to counteract and produce antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, he said.

Therefore – as he said – “this is a misunderstanding, these acts of propaganda used by anti-vaccination circles are unacceptable”. “They mislead the public,” he said.

The press spokesman of the provincial police commander in Lublin, Commander Andrzej Fijołek, said that the fire first appeared at a mobile vaccination point located in the Salt Market in Zamość, and then in the building of the district sanitary and epidemiological station at Peowiaków Street. – According to preliminary findings, the perpetrator broke a glass in the basement and set fire to the interior – said Fijołek.

He added that no one was hurt in the fires.

The police are looking for the perpetrator of the arson. Recordings from municipal monitoring were secured. According to Fijołek, according to the preliminary findings of the police, the perpetrator may be a man who escaped before the arrival of the services, was riding a bicycle. – We appeal to possible witnesses to provide information to the police, it can be done anonymously – the spokesman noted.

A spokeswoman for the Lublin voivode, Agnieszka Strzępka, said that estimation of losses is ongoing. – The interior of the container, i.e. the equipment, suffered the most because of the smoke, and the vaccines in the refrigerator were most likely damaged – she explained.