DISINFO: As a result of anti-COVID policies, Italy and other states wage war against their own people like Nazis
SUMMARY
In Nazi times the handicapped, the mentally ill, minorities, and Jews were singled out as enemies of society. Today the enemies of society are people that do not want to undergo vaccination with experimental anti-COVID vaccines, that refuse ruthless and useless quarantines as well as lack of sociability.
There are sinister similarities between the behaviour of German doctors during the Third Reich who implemented the Nazi eugenic programme, which paved the way for extermination camps, and doctors who today are implementing the anti-COVID policies of the Italian and other governments.
RESPONSE
Disinformation about the measures taken to tackle coronavirus pandemic.
The article’s claim that the anti-COVID policies of the Italian and other governments have led to a “war against a part of their own people”, similar to Nazism’s eugenic and genocidal policies, are false.
Italy’s and other governments' anti-COVID policies - including quarantines, social distancing and vaccination - are aimed at protecting the health of their citizens and containing the pandemic caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus that has caused millions of deaths worldwide.
The emergency measures, introduced by Italy and other Western governments to fight the coronavirus pandemic, have not led to the collapse of liberal democracy and the establishment of dictatorships in these countries. Liberal democratic states are entitled to declare a state of emergency in times of grave crisis, such as a natural disaster, civil unrest, armed conflict or an epidemic. During a state of emergency, a government is empowered temporarily to perform strictly proportionate actions or impose policies that it would normally not be permitted to undertake.
The state of emergency introduced in Italy in order to fight the COVID-19 pandemic is in line with the requirements of the Italian constitution (articles 16, 17 and 32). Moreover, Italy’s Green Pass - the European Covid Digital Certificate - does not restrict the freedom of citizens: it is a health declaration certifying non-positive status for the COVID-19 virus.
EU countries are not free to shape their emergency measures as they wish. EU treaties and human rights instruments - such as the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), OSCE commitments and the United Nations human rights treaty system - continue to apply even during crises. See the Statement by President von der Leyen on emergency measures in the Member States.
Furthermore, it is not true, as the article claims, that COVID-19 vaccines are “experimental”. These vaccines have gone through standard safety testing before being rolled out to the public. COVID-19 vaccines are tested, approved, constantly monitored, and developed on the basis of the same legal requirements for pharmaceutical quality, safety and efficacy as other medicines. Like all medicines, COVID-19 vaccines’ effects are first tested in the laboratory, including on animals, then vaccines are tested on human volunteers.
Introducing the Nazi-element is a recurring feature of pro-Kremlin disinformation. Read similar cases claiming that Italy is governed by a Nazi-style dictatorship imposed with COVID-19, that Western campaign against COVID-19 aims to impose control over society and that COVID-19 vaccines are experimental