Covid in Austria: Lies, Social Media, and the Internet
W/o evidence, the City of Vienna pioneered one of the harshest mandate régimes in the West--its official report remains under wraps but they did nothing wrong
The big letters on the image read: ‘We in Vienna…have always been staunch [orig. glühende] antifascists’ (note that the * indicates ‘gendered’ lingo).
At this point in time, I’ll just link to two (of the many, many, many more) examples of what the ‘Social Democratic’ (sic) ruling party in the Vienna has subjected the city’s inhabitants to:
Oh, epimetheus, you might wish to add, this was a ‘public health emergency’, isn’t it?
Well, if the public health side of things weren’t a smoke screen, why would the City of Vienna keep its own ‘lessons learned’ report under wraps? Huhum, nothing to see here, isn’t it?
Here’s what state broadcaster ORF ‘reported’ about this issue last night (translation and emphases mine):
Title on the report: ‘Vienna’s Way through the Pandemic: A Retrospective’. Note that the report is dated May 2023 (!)—and that it is still not made public.
The public review of the stricter coronavirus measures in Vienna is a long time coming. Mayor Michael Ludwig (SPÖ) had actually announced it for the previous year. ‘Wien heute’ now has an unpublished final coronavirus report from the city. There is no criticism in it.
The city's coronavirus measures were stricter than those in the other federal states. Mayor Ludwig described the approach during the pandemic as the ‘Viennese way’ [orig. Wiener Weg]. This included a temporary mask requirement outdoors, a much longer mask requirement on public transport, and stricter access rules for hospitals and care homes.
Last year, Mayor Michael Ludwig then announced a review of Vienna's coronavirus measures by the summer [of 2023]. But then the issue went quiet and nothing was presented. ‘Wien heute’ now has an unpublished 50-page final report from the city from May 2023. It was prepared by the city's health service (MA 15).
‘750 to 850 deaths could be avoided’
In addition to vaccination and testing, the review focuses on the first three coronavirus phases. The key figures for Vienna were compared with those from the other federal states. The main findings: Vienna managed to keep the number of deaths significantly lower in the first wave [irrelevant, because the entire country was in lockdown]. Vienna was also able to keep the number of infections and deaths significantly lower than the rest of Austria during the Delta variant [I could, theoretically, see a ‘positive’ argument for the measures in autumn 2021, but…] In the Omicron waves, Vienna then had similar figures to the other federal states [remember that the City of Vienna kept outdoor and public transport FFP-2 mask mandates until spring 2023 (!), and the review now officially says they were useless—imagine that].
According to the report, ‘750 to 850 deaths’ were avoided thanks to the ‘Viennese way’ [call my cynical, but I’m thoroughly underwhelmed]. And the national economy was spared sick leave costs of up to 47m euros. The avoided costs for Long Covid were stated as ‘14-17m euros’ [this is speculative because it presumes that, in absence of the strict mandates, there would have been more Long Covid cases].
[Health and Human Services Sec.] Hacker Sees no Problem
It is striking that there is not a critical word in the report by the city's health service [surprise]. Individual measures, such as the outdoor mask mandates, were not examined. The additional burden caused by the stricter rules for the Viennese population was also not analysed [guess what happens if you don’t wish to ask certain question—you don’t ‘see’ any problems].
Caption: ‘Hacker does not wish to “produce mountains of paperwork”, noting that the external review has been carried out'‘.
Mayor Ludwig did not want to give an interview on request and referred to City Councillor for Health Peter Hacker (SPÖ). ‘Of course we didn't do everything right, you can't expect that in such an unbelievable, unique situation. But we did a lot of things right’, said Hacker in the ‘Wien heute’ interview [speak for yourself].
And: ‘I think we have more than dealt with the external evaluation through several Court of Audit reports. And I don't see why we should still be self-critical. Why shouldn't the health authority reflect on itself?’ said Hacker. Furthermore, his desire to ‘have tonnes of paper produced’ at the expense of taxpayers was limited [hear no evil, see no evil].
Experts [sic] not Involved
Ludwig had announced last year that he would also involve the experts from his advisory team at the time in the evaluation. This did not happen. The statistician Erich Neuwirth was ‘not involved’, as he says. He would have found it useful, because ‘more people see more’ [of course, but the whole point was not asking or seeing certain aspects].
Epidemiologist Hans-Peter Hutter from the Medical University of Vienna also thinks ‘that we could certainly have provided some input or could still do so. What the City didn't realise was that bringing in input from outside is certainly not a bad idea’. However, Hutter also pointed out that evaluating individual measures is very time-consuming.
Hear no Evil, See no Evil
We may thus summarise: external contributions were neither sought nor would they be looking at ‘individual measures’ because—it’s time-consuming, expensive, and one might find things one doesn’t wish to see.
As regards the ‘external’ contributions by the Court of Audit (Rechnungshof), these are revelatory comments by those who are responsible (Mayor Ludwig, Sec. Hacker) for this shit-show. I’ve written about the Court of Audit’s reports, and they are—devastating in terms of arguments.
Remember, the ‘pandemic handling’, too, was a trainwreck to the tune of 47.7b (!) euros:
How does an ‘elected’ politician say that, in Sec. Hacker’s words, that ‘we have more than dealt with the external evaluation through several Court of Audit reports. And I don't see why we should still be self-critical’ when these Court of Audit reports put the price tag for this shit-show at more than 50 billion (!) euros?
Of course Mr. Ludwig and Mr. Hacker don’t want anyone to see the report, and I find it telling that this includes all ‘their experts™’ (shills), too. Are they not reliable enough?
To sum this up in one sentence—the Social Democratic Party of Vienna is ‘always antifascist’, except when their own totalitarian ‘pandemic™’ régime is concerned, because in that case, there’s literally nothing to see here.
Never have we been governed by greater assholes.
Never has legacy journalism failed us more.
There is but one more thing to point to (source, if needed):
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.
Same thing happening here in America 🇺🇸…
Sing it, brother!