Covid in Austria: 'Flurona' is Officially a Thing, and While the Health Minister didn’t Impose Mask Mandates, 'the Experts' (and Media) are Playing with Fire
Welcome to another edition of 'Experts say'--it's a family-friendly, all-inclusive new party game, also playable remotely…
I didn’t want to write (again) about the inanities of life under the oppressive Covid régime in Austro-Covidistan, but when I saw a news item in (where else) Der Standard, I felt almost compelled to do so.
Two more small items before we get going, though: on the one hand, Health Minister Johannes Rauch (Greens) appears to be the only politician there whose brains haven’t been addled by his sudden rise to cabinet-level officialdom. He has resisted the combined pressure emanating from ‘the experts’ and their ‘fellow travellers’ in legacy media and resisted the imposition of (FFP2/KN95) mask mandates for everyone (so far). I consider this a huge win for sanity, even though I’m at a loss at explaining this in—other than the shocking insularity and pettiness of what passes for Austrian politics; yet, I’d argue that the only thing that’s even worse for such useless impositions is—having them ignored en masse, hence the non-return of blanket measures.
On the other hand, however, is the matter at-hand, which is the amplification of the gaslighting by way of Fear! The! Flu!, do as we tell you (don’t you dare thinking yourself), and get you flu shot. So, this year, we get the lame re-run of Covid fearporn (which doesn’t work that well), accompanied by the revenants of ‘masks protect’ (they don’t, not against respiratory viruses) and the ramping up of mass vaccination campaigns (case in point: see this news item by the state broadcaster ORF Vienna that advertises registration for the flu shot). While Austro-Covidistan isn’t any different than, say, all other ‘advanced’ countries in this regard use the term ‘twindemic’, apparently (with Norway being seemingly a kind of outlier in this regard as this kind of gaslighting is not that prevalent here).
Be that as it may, here’s the piece from Der Standard (apologies for this one, but it’s too insane not to share; emphases and short comments in squared parentheses mine):
Dangers of Flurona Infections this Winter
Experts warn of a double infection with the coronavirus and influenza. Which Covid-19 variant will dominate next, though, remains still unclear
Experts have been warning of an impending influenza wave in Europe for weeks. There are several reasons for this: on the one hand, there was already a strong wave of real [is there also a ‘fake’ one?] influenza in Australia, and on the other hand, measures against the Covid-19 pandemic in the past two seasons caused the influenza waves to disappear altogether or to decrease considerably. With fewer hygiene measures in place this year, a stronger wave is therefore to be expected this year.
[Sidenote on Oz: as is so often the case in legacy media, there’s no need to cite sources or the like; by way of public service, here are the monitoring bulletins of the ‘Australian Influenza Surveillance Report’ (AISR), which appear very two weeks; in case you’re wondering just how bad (or worse) this year’s flu wave has been in Oz, here’s the latest report covering the fortnight ending 9 Oct. 2022; let me quote from the ‘Key Messages’:
‘It is important to note that due to the COVID-19 epidemic in Australia, data reported from the various influenza surveillance systems may not represent an accurate reflection of influenza activity.’
That a downer, so, how bad was it, shall we ask, then, but in a non-comparative way?
‘Influenza-like-illness (ILI) activity in the community is low after activity peaked in June 2022.
Nationally, notifications of laboratory-confirmed influenza have continued to decrease in the past fortnight and remain lower than average for this time of year compared to previous years.’
Case closed, I suppose? Not so fast.]
But it is not only the potential wave of influenza that worries the experts; they also fear double infections. In other words: when the influenza wave meets a corona wave [like, you know, bees and flowers, or something like this], a person can get infected with both viruses at the same time. ‘This double infection has been given the artificial name Flurona’, explains virologist [known Covid Hawk and intellectual bed-wetter] Monika Redlberger-Fritz from Med-Uni Vienna at a press conference on Monday.
A coming wave of influenza cannot be stopped completely, but the risk of infection could be significantly reduced by vaccinations and hygiene measures, such as wearing FFP2 masks. This is important because it is not yet known what the effects of double infections will be. A dual infection would possibly double the risk for a necessary stay in intensive care and ventilation compared to a single infection [nice hedge you’ve got there], explains Redlberger-Fritz: ‘So we should prevent everything from happening at the same time.’ And we should do this through vaccinations and hygiene measures such as wearing FFP2 masks. [How much shilling for Big Pharma and useless measures is possible in one paragraph?]
First Influenza Cases [notice something?] Appear Much Earlier
Experts not only fear that the influenza wave could be particularly large this year, but there are already signals that it has arrived in Europe somewhat earlier than usual. ‘Normally, the first cases of influenza that aren’t associated with returning travellers do not appear until the end of November or December, but now they have appeared earlier’, says Redlberger-Fritz. Compared to previous years, one must therefore expect a delayed flu wave to start in four to six weeks. Accordingly, now is a good time for the flu vaccination.
The virologist stressed the importance of wearing a mask [without citing any evidence whatsoever] not only because of the danger of a double infection. Currently, many people have a severe cold [I noticed, but strangely, I haven’t had a cold since at least 2019…], but reassure those around them with the words: ‘I’m Corona-tested and negative’, the virologist reported. ‘But I don't want to have any of their diseases, no matter what they are called.’ Sick people should act responsibly and not infect others. This could be prevented by vaccination and wearing masks: ‘The FFP2 mask must therefore become socially acceptable’, Redlberger-Fritz demanded.
[There is so much that’s wrong here, it’s hard to pick anything, hence I’ll start with this: whatever happened to common sense? I mean, it’s one thing to act stupidly, individually or collectively, but with ‘experts’ such as Dr. Redlberger-Fritz, it is a wonder that nothing has gone badly wrong—just imagine if someone like her is, say, into nuclear physics or the like…personally, the most insulting aspect is the ‘sick people should…not infect others’: it is apparently becoming socially acceptable among these Covid Hawks to blame sick people for their health status; I wonder how much longer I’ll be able to keep up with these ever-changing insanities, esp. as Dr. Redlberger-Fritz is suffering from a severe case of ‘logorrhoea’, which is a severe disease where people can’t stop talking BS—and I fear her imbecilities are infecting others to do stupid things; perhaps the good doctor could be asked to self-isolate at home for, say, 5 weeks? One last rant-like comment as to the last sentence: beware the public health warriors demanding, in no uncertain terms, that something ‘must therefore become socially acceptable’. I think that it’s fine for you to weak a face diaper, but what you, Dr. Redlberger-Fritz, are asking for is: absolution, as in: people shouldn’t think you’re an idiot for being among the few people wearing a mask in public. Why don’t you just go away?]
New Corona Variants
And even though the Corona numbers have been decreasing over the past few days, the actual infection numbers are probably still three times higher than the tests show [oh, what a nice hedge you have, too; again, no need to cite any data to underwrite your casual dismissal, right?], according to wastewater analyses, says Rudolf Schmitzberger of the Austrian Medical Association: ‘It would therefore be grossly negligent to further reduce mask-wearing and testing.’ [sure, throw in some legalese to scare people and thus prevent from ever asking for something like, you know, data; line break mine]
Experts consider these measures, in addition to vaccinations, ‘essential to get us through the next few months in good shape’. Schmitzberger appealed to the Minister of Health to improve the ‘lax hygiene measures’ through regulations: ‘For example, in public transport and at events, an Austria-wide FFP2 mask obligation should be considered again.’ [again, no data or anything; I wonder if this ‘fear’ of the experts is actually pathological as far as their loathing of common sense goes…]
Currently, several Omicron sub-variants are circulating in Austria, yet BA.5 is still predominant. Even though it seems that some mutations such as BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 are already on the rise, it is not clear whether these variants or one of them will actually prevail. Redlberger-Fritz explains: ‘Even if a corona variant spreads locally, that doesn’t mean it will also become dominant.’ The only thing that is clear is that ‘a new variant will become dominant. When and which one it will be, we can’t say yet.’ At the moment, it is important to continue to observe the mutation process.
Bottom Lines
Isn’t that shitshow masquerading as a clown car amazing? When I saw it yesterday, I had to share this, if only to point out that the main danger from these insane statements is something else.
Just imagine, if you’d like, the following scenario:
The modRNA jabs have been (more or less) given standard authorisation by the European Medicines Agency on 10 Oct. 2022.
Now, imagine if, next year, a modRNA multivalent injection that would be marketed that targeted either influenza alone or, God forbid, the flu and Covid in the same vial. Perhaps public healthdom would then move to mandate it, because The Science™ is all for it? (See, e.g., here, here, or here for recent news items about these…)
Sure, call me crazy, but before you do, check out the below piece from February 2022:
What could go wrong…?
We are all about to find out what could go wrong from these various dictates from on high, and we won't like it. And if one doesn't get fighting mad that person is not normal.
The real deadly virus are doctors - you almost got that far this post.
Might I recommend not participating in the medical charade, stop financing the fancy living of the pharma-freak show by eating a half can of cod liver every cloudy day, and a few sea berries everyday - a S Korea showed these kill Cviruses on contact.
I think they meant "FLORIDA".