"Since my vaccination, nothing is the same as it was" The fully qualified lawyer Rolf Merk on his experiences with the vaccination and on the taboo subject of vaccine damage (https://bit.ly/3435IMw). I belong to an invisible minority. Although we are many now. How many? There are no exact figures about us, we are not reliably recorded, although we have to be recorded. We're getting more every day. However, we do not appear in public discourse. We get no attention and no voice. We're being hushed up. We are the people for whom the “pikes” weren't just a “pikes”. We are the people for whom the corona vaccination resulted in massive damage to our health. Since I was vaccinated against Corona, nothing is the same as it was. The problems started a few days after the second vaccination with Biontech: muscle and joint pain, numbness in arms and hands, severe exhaustion and constant headaches. When the symptoms did not subside after four weeks, I consulted a neurologist. "It's an excessive immune response, it will pass, you just have to wait and see," said the neurologist. Shortly thereafter, I suffered an ischemic stroke. And I will be eternally grateful to the paramedics and Limburg hospital that I survived due to their prompt and professional help. 'It's like committing social treason' After I was discharged from the hospital, I went to see many doctors. Because of course I wanted to know what had happened to my body since the vaccination. How all this could have happened. I was convinced that I was an exciting case for medicine, which in the best case would advance science - oh, how naive I was! Not only (almost) no doctor was interested in my story. No, I wasn't even taken seriously. I saw distrust, incomprehension and boredom on the faces of the doctors from whom I had hoped so much. And the reaction of friends and acquaintances was often sobering. As if the vaccination complaints had broken a taboo, questioned something sacred, committed social betrayal. And only then did I understand the sentence of an acquaintance who also suffered serious side effects: First you lose your health and then your dignity. After more than five months, I still have significant symptoms, and my psyche has suffered enormously. But this is not about my destiny. It's about all of us. It's about society finally having to give the vaccine-damaged a face and a voice. We don't need pity, but we don't want to be ignored any longer. And we finally expect honest and transparent reporting. The corona vaccination is not just a “pikes”, as is always so euphemistically portrayed. It is a medical procedure that causes significant health impairments in many people. That is the truth and the truth must be spoken. And quite specifically: There must be contact points for people who are vaccinated. Contact points where care is guaranteed and you can get the medical help you need – or at least where a serious attempt is made to find a diagnosis and a targeted therapy. Government-funded research projects would also be useful to understand why the vaccine causes so much damage in some people. Unfortunately, these demands will probably remain wishful thinking. Because maintaining the narrative that “vaccination is safe” seems more important than showing respect and solidarity to those who have been vaccinated. A solidarity that should be a matter of course in a constitutional and welfare state. Rolf Merk is a qualified lawyer and chairman of the municipal law committee of the city of Mainz. In this function, he also has to decide on the legality of Corona measures by the city of Mainz.