Covid in Austria: Masks are Useless, Leukaemia Patient Must Draw Her Own Blood, and Masks Don't Work (w/evidence)
Further particulars incl. abrogation of oversight, shifting of 'responsibilities' between Brussels, member-states, and manufacturers, and a heart-breaking story of bullying and lack of decency
Oh well, now for something different, albeit also coming from Austria (Covidistan).
Things are changing fast: on 27 July, notorious mandate hawk and virologist Dorothee von Laer (U Innsbruck) went on the national nightly news—and spilled some beans, saying, among other things, the following (transcript of the interview here; my emphases):
It is, in fact, possible that some people, those who never develop symptoms, where the entire course of disease is asymptomatic, they are, factually, not as contagious relative to symptomatic people. But, in the two or three days between an encounter with the virus and the onset of symptoms, that’s when you’re most contagious. And, yes, it could be that, if someone is asymptomatic, that he is asymptomatic but spreads the virus in massive amounts. Also, FFP2 masks naturally afford a certain amount of protection, if everybody is masked up etc. [bietet einen gewissen Schutz natürlich, wenn alle sie tragen und so weiter] But it’s not a very high amount of protection [Aber sie ist kein sehr hoher Schutz.] Thus, if, e.g., nurses [who tested positive] take care of vulnerable patients while wearing a FFP2 mask, based on medical-scientific grounds, I’d consider that irresponsible [nicht für verantwortbar]
This ran during the main nightly newscast on 27 July. But that’s not all of—Dr. von Laer then doubled down on the above statement by pointing to §178 of the Criminal Code (current version, dated 15 March 2022), which envisions up to three years in jail for those who knowingly, and purposefully, endanger other people with a contagious disease. Dr. von Laer mentions that this paragraph would also include Influenza (which neither said §178 nor any other section of the Criminal Code notes). Needless to say, she wasn’t called out on that one, but added the below statement:
It is illegal to do anything that leads to the infection of anyone with one of these illnesses subject to mandatory reporting.
For a full and current—as of January 2020—listing of all such illnesses that must be reported, see here; you might with to note that Influenza is on that list, but not just any form of influenza, no, specifically ‘Influenza A/H5N1 or any other bird flu virus’ (p. 1).
What a difference a few words make.
Yet, consider the consequences of such cowardice: now, Dr. von Laer acknowledges that masks don’t really work very well, and they’d only do so as long as everyone wears them.
Why, pray tell, did we—and are—harassing our children mandating masks in school or summer camp?
As Hospital Refuses Her Entry, Leukemia Patient Forced to Draw Her Own Blood in th Parking Lot
Where this all leads to—is this, as reported only by (right-of-centre) ‘alternative media‘ outlet unzensuriert.at: a leukemia patient, one Ms. Konstanina Rösch, was scheduled to get some bloodwork done at the Vienna General Hospital (AKH Wien) on 27 July 2022. According to the website and her lawyer, Ms. Rösch has a mask exemption, yet she was rudely denied entry and, after 15 minutes, was able to draw her own blood in the parking lot.
Here’s the statement published by her lawyer, one Roman Schiessler, a self-declared specialist in civil liberties and medical liability law (source as above, my emphases):
My client had an appointment at the haematology outpatient clinic for further diagnostics due to her leukaemia with Prof. Dr. Paul Knöbl for a blood sample. Dr. Rösch was prevented from entering the outpatient clinic by ‘staff’ despite the fact that she already had a mask exemption certificate from two doctors, and [preventing her entering] was done using physical force.
During the course of this unacceptable, inhuman, and illegal incident, she was filmed with private mobile phones, insulted (‘she must be taking drugs, LSD, or something because otherwise you can’t be that stupid’, ‘she lives in her own world’, etc.) and, as already mentioned, prevented from entering by means of physical attacks by at least 5 people.
These individuals did not identify themselves; when asked about their superior, legitimisation documents, or the like, they replied: ‘there is no such thing’.
One of these people also told my client that, even if she had a so-called mask exemption, he would not let her in today because ‘she was conducting herself in such a stupid way’. A call to [Prof.] Knöbl at the outpatient clinic was answered by him as follows: I’m not going to get involved.
As reported by unzensuriert, Ms. Rösch left the hospital grounds, but Prof. Knöbl called her about 15 minutes later, asking if she’d draw her own blood, provided she’d come to the rear entrance.
His client, according to Schiessler, agreed to this proposal nolens volens, ‘since, as already mentioned, she is considerably ill and the prognosis without immediate initiation of therapy must be described as infaust [very bad]’. The blood sample was then taken by my client in the open air on the Vienna General Hospital grounds and subsequently handed over to Prof. Knöbl, also in the open air. According to lawyer Schiessler, there was also video evidence of this.
Apparently, Ms. Rösch is taking legal action. Let’s hope that those bullies and other staff at the Vienna General Hospital are receiving some pushback.
Back to Masks, Once Again (they are useless)
Remember when claiming that ‘masks harm’ and/or are ‘useless’ used to be considered ‘conspiracy theories’ or the like? Now, there’s not just Dr. von Laer’s nightly statement about it. I can do better by now.
Here’s yet another reply by Health Minister Johannes Rauch (Greens), which he was forced to offer thanks to another enquiry (which Mr. Rauch’s party colleagues wish to end, if such enquiries come from the opposition, that is) by Freedom Party MP Gerald Hauser. You can find the full reply here; all translations and emphases are mine.
In questions 5-8, Mr. Rauch was asked how dangerous (FFP2) masks are above 25° and 30° Celsius, specifically requesting information about impacts on people with and without pre-existing conditions.
While Mr. Rauch acknowledged that there are ‘light reactions (e.g., itchiness, rashes, dry mouth and bad breath, as well as headaches, temporary shortness of breath, and the occasional dizziness)’, he held that these are ‘temporary limited’ and ‘generally, there are no persistent or irreversible damages to one’s health’. In all, Mr. Rauch considers the ‘potential complaints’ as ‘light’ for the majority of people, and thus, we may infer, acceptable to him.
Mr. Rauch also holds that, despite all the known knowns, ‘healthy people without pre-existing conditions’ would not ‘experience any health-related consequences’.
For people with pre-existing conditions for whom wearing a mask—at any given ambient temperature—could pose health risks, the law provides for the possibility of a mask exemption. The extent to which the wearing of masks affects people with pre-existing conditions depends on the type and extent of the pre-existing condition, and the extent of the pre-existing condition and must be assessed by the attending physician.
Moving on to Microplastics (Q9), Mr. Rauch points to an earlier reply to one of Mr. Hauser’s enquiries (which you can find here), which merely stated that authorities rely on the self-declaration by the manufacturers, pursuant to EU Regulations 93/42 and 2017/745, which merely hold that (section 10, p. 2),
compliance with the general safety and performance requirements laid down in this Regulation for the device part should be adequately assessed in the context of the marketing authorisation for such medicinal products.
Annex 1, Ch. 1 (3) further holds that
Manufacturers shall establish, implement, document and maintain a risk management system (p. 94)
Read: it’s something authorities will ‘outsource’ to the manufacturers, which (in Ch. 1 (5), also on p. 94) means that
the manufacturer shall: (a) reduce as far as possible the risks related to the ergonomic features of the device and the environment in which the device is intended to be used (design for patient safety)
So, there you have it: a EU member-state cabinet official responds to a parliamentary oversight enquiry by throwing such ordinances around, which confer that ‘obligation’ in rather weak language (‘shall’) to the manufacturer.
In other words: there’s no-one in charge, and everyone claims to have done everything in the right and proper way.
Also, apart from the EU-level OSHA, there’s a bunch of domestic (national) regulations that would apply, such as (e.g., in Austria),
Maximum of three hours of continuous wearing of masks, including a mandatory break of at least 10 minutes.
With specific regard to FFP2 masks (which, as the above statements by Dr. von Laer show, don’t really work very well), the Austrian OSHA equivalent holds that
When wearing a FFP2 mask…without filtration system continuously for 75 minutes, a break of at least 30 minutes must be taken (in the case of light physical activity, the wearing time may be exceeded by 50% [i.e., 32.5 minutes, which brings the combined total to slightly less than 2 hours]
Why not just state this, Mr. Rauch?
There’s so much more BS in his replies, which I shall spare you here, but I’d like to conclude on one more point: do mask mandates actually work? (I personally don’t think so, hence I’ve not been wearing such a face-diaper for, well, since spring 2020.)
Vienna is Different
Remember, the federal capital—a bustling city of about 2m inhabitants—is quite different from the rest of Austro-Covidistan: while all other eight states abolished mask requirements on public transport two months ago (as of 1 June), Vienna’s social-democratic-led government didn’t, citing…well, basically saying that Vienna is a big city. Period.
Now, two months into this charade, the data is in, and it doesn’t look convincing for the pro-masking crowd, as compiled by the good people over at @FactSheet Austria (and re-posted by online outlet tkp.at):
Yes, you got that right: ‘despite’ FFP2 mask mandates on public transport, the Covid-19 incidence in Vienna is much higher than in the rest of the country (‘control group’).
Same with respect to ICUs:
Nuff’ said, eh.
The only story about Covid in Austria we get from German MSM is the tragic suicide of Dr. Lisa-Maria Kellermayr.
I cannot begin to tell you how disgusted I am with the entire medical profession. I never had a particularly high opinion of those people anyway, but after two years (and counting!) of this crap, I've lost what little regard I had for them.
BTW, I've been trying to find a general practitioner to register with (mostly because I need a signature from one of these "priests" for some formality). I just got rejected because I'm uninjected. True story. Wrote to some clinic in mid-May, and they told me they were accepting new patients, but that the waiting period was 4-6 weeks. Yesterday (after a 12 week wait), they finally invited me to register, but only if I was injected. After I wrote to them that I was uninjected, they suddenly (i.e. less than 24 hours after inviting me to register) told me that they weren't taking new patients. Right. Luckily for me, I don't have any serious health problems (as far as I know), so no drawing my own blood and such crap.