Covid in Austria: BA.4/5 on the Rise, thus New 'Protective Measures' are Rolled Out—while the Régime Abrogates Basic Civil Liberties

Nothing new under the sun: media gaslighting, legislative shenanigans, and the silence of Health Minister Rauch is telling--full-blown tyranny will be imposed before too long

Here we go again: with ‘cases’, or ‘infections’ (or whatever, I suppose), on the rise again, more changes are coming. It’s almost summer now, with a heat wave of 30+ degrees Celsius expected over the weekend; add to that inflationary pressures, and you’ll get a situation where the régime can engage in some of the more egregious acts of the past two years (yes, I know, that bar is quite high, but hear me out):

Numbers, Cases, Infection—Which Is It?

So, here’s Der Standard’s known mandate hawk David Krutzler ‘reporting’ that

the higher numbers [Zahlen] are mainly due to Omicron sub-variant BA.4/BA.5. The share of these cases was already 30.9% across Austria last week.

In the coming week, BA.4/BA.5 is expected to become dominant in Austria, according to the [Covid Prognosis] panel. It is to be expected that ‘the growth of new infections will accelerate even further’. The experts point out that the effective reproduction number of this variant was estimated at 1.37, which corresponds to a doubling time of seven days.

I’ve only highlighted three words in this paragraph to show how bad the situation by now: Mr. Krutzler, in his perhaps infinite stupidity, conflates these three indicators, as if they were the same.

They are not, of course, but by way of this seemingly simple sleight of hand, legacy media continues to gaslight the people. The piece continues like this (my emphases):

In addition, an increased proportion of travel-associated cases has also been observed in recent weeks. ‘An influence of recent major events cannot be ruled out either.’ The increase in cases will also be reflected ‘in a significant increase in normal care occupancy’, the experts added. According to the current forecast [by the Covid Prognosis Panel], the number of occupied beds in hospitals could roughly double in the next two weeks from less than 500 recently to almost 1,000.

And here’s the final ‘paragraph’ of that piece, which held that

Currently, the situation in the ICUs is very relaxed: on Wednesday, only 34 intensive care beds were occupied by Covid patients. In this area, the experts of the Covid Prognosis Panel expect an initially stable development before the numbers here will also increase moderately, albeit at a comparatively very low level. There are no signs or expectations of overcrowding or a worsening of the situation in the medium term.

Thus the public is gaslighted: we ‘learn’ of an undetermined ‘increased proportion of travel-associated cases’, which means: don’t travel, serf, lest you bring home the deadly virus that fails to generate dread, disease, and death.

Note, again, the (ab-) use of words, such as ‘proportion’ (which is, of course, left unexplained), ‘cases’, and ‘numbers in the second paragraph.

Note, further, the absurdity of the last paragraph, which juxtaposes the impending doom with a ‘very relaxed situation’ in the ICUs, with ‘no signs or expectations of overcrowding’.

How bad is this, by the way?

Well, see for yourself (I’ve added Norway, for good measure, as all mandates were ended in mid-February because, according to the National Institute of Public Health at the time, mandates ‘do more harm than good’, which I wrote about on 10 Feb. 2022):

With both countries serving, for the purpose of my argument (and perhaps also beyond), as a natural experiment, I propose that we now know what (not) to do: mandates and the like. Or mass vaccination (which Norway also, albeit very quietly, halted last month).

Also, look at Covid ‘cases’ as reported from South Africa, proximate origin (?) of Omicron: the ‘waves’ are laughably small, compared to the wealthy, hyper-vaxxed’n’boosted countries, such as Austria and Norway.

What, we may thus infer, is this all about?

Régime Rewrites the Epidemics (Prevention) Act

This was also reported on in the past couple of days, and here’s state broadcaster ORF (my emphases):

In view of milder courses of Covid-19 due to Omicron, the Nationalrat [Parliament] passed an amendment to the Epidemics Act yesterday with votes from the ÖVP and the Greens. As an alternative to individual-focused and quarantine measures, the Minister of Health may in future impose blanket, or group-based, engagement restrictions [Verkehrsbeschränkungen]. Criticism came from the opposition, namely because of the short notice. The FPÖ also feared that this could result in bans on anti-mandate protests.

It was also decided that the health authorities may in future prioritise and delimit contact tracing during infection peaks. This section would apply if the effort is objectively unmanageable. In addition, the legal basis was created for the Minister of Health to be able to remind people by mail of their booster vaccination against Covid-19.

Vaccination data are to be stored—longer than previously envisaged—at least until the end of June next year. In another resolution, this time with the consent of the ÖVP, the Greens and the SPÖ, various Covid rules that affect administration were extended, which include resolutions of municipal councils and the cabinet-level ministerial meetings via video conference, the use of video technology in administrative procedures, and restriction of the people’s access to public buildings.

In addition, the right to ‘arrive at decisions by circular letter or video conference until the end of 2022, if this is required by “extraordinary events”’, was also re-authorised.

Welcome, to the ‘permanent’ emergency-without-necessity, or justification. We’ve seen this on the EU level in late April and early May when the EU moved to institutionale Covid Passports in the absence of a bespoke emergency:

EU Institutionalises Covid Passports: No More Emergency = Continued Emergency Measures

Now, it’s time to introduce these measures into the member-states, it would appear.

As I’ve explained way back in December, the Injection Mandate is a piece of enabling legislation that empowers a single ministerial appointee—in that case, the Health Minister—to single-handedly determine the state of research, the injectable product and the number of injections, as well as the frequency thereof.

Oh, and forget about privacy, in principle or medical privacy in particular. That ship has sailed, as the re-authorisation of data storage—at the time promised to be ‘temporary’ (which you can read about in the above-linked take-down of the Injection Mandate)—shows.

Tyranny via the Backdoor, Obfuscation for the Masses

Now, these amendments are even worse: last year, ‘unvaccinated’ were considered an ‘epidemiological danger’, and with these seemingly trivial procedural adjustments, the Health Minister is further empowered to impose ‘engagement restrictions’ on individuals, groups, or entire states—and he or she doesn’t have to worry about using the dreaded word ‘lockdown’ again.

These engagement restrictions—and here the ambiguity of the German word ‘Verkehr’, which translates as travel, traffic, engagement, intercourse, and the like—is particularly problematic: it could very well mean that driving, biking, or even walking outdoor may become permissible, if only the Health Minister deems this necessary and issues a bespoke decree (executive order, or Verordnung). This may also apply, as the FPÖ rightly criticises, to the public’s civil right to freedom of assembly.

This amendment was submitted on very short notice, in fact, doing so was once considered crossing parliament for not permitting MPs enough time to vet the proposed text. By now, this kind of executive overreach—which is to say: tyranny—has been normalised.

As a reminder, this isn’t a consequence of Covid-19. This kind of politicking has been used well before Sars-Cov-2 was noted in Wuhan, China, in 2019. If anything, the ‘pandemic’ is used, again, as a smokescreen to obscure the particularly dreadful machinations of the ruling caste.

‘Uncomfortable’ questions, such as the one reproduced below by independent journalist Thomas Oysmüller, are of course ignored by Health Minister Rauch:

Translation: I have been waiting for a response to my question for over a week. The deadline was [last] Friday.

On what scientific basis do you consider recovered as less protected than vaccinated people? And what do you do with the data that say the opposite? Ignore it?

In Mr. Oysmüller’s original question, he pointed to a recent study from Israel (source here) by Goldberg et al., which shows—in Fig. 3—that at 6-8 months, the ‘recovered, unvaccinated cohort’ outperforms its two- and three-dose cohorts’:

No need to go into details of the study (which is worth your time, that is, if you can stand medico-academese, which is even worse—as it’s written badly—than the Humanities and Social Sciences stuff I usually deal with), just look at the ‘no. of confirmed infections/100,000 Person-Days at Risk’ across the 6 to <8 Mo’ categories: it’s less than 20 for ‘unvaccinated’ and those with ‘hybrid immunity’, as opposed to almost 90 (!) for those who took two or three doses.

For a more complete takedown, see:

natural immunity outperforms vaccinated AND vaccinated and recovered

Also, by comparison, my 5yo has a clearer understanding of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’.

Bottom line: Covid is a smokescreen, with more tyranny looming, on which, if you reside in Covidistan, or are planning to travel there in the near future, you can inform yourself here.

Expect more tyranny, not less.

Get ready to resist.