Covid in Austria: Mental Illness Parade

Join me for a wonderfully absurd Grand Tour of Stupidity across Austro-Covidian legacy media parading the most moronic 'experts™'

Oh my, every time I see ‘reports’ like those cited below, I’m thinking: I don’t want to write about this yet again, but then I also consider that these pages might serve as a testament to these absurd times.

Background/preliminaries may be obtained by clicking on this posting from—can you believe it—less than a week ago:

Covid in Austria: Stupid's Just Another Word For…

So, here goes, as always, translation, emphases, and bottom lines mine. Enjoy, if you will.

---

Medical Association Demands Free Covid Tests

Österreich, 12 Dec. 2023 [source]

We are in the middle of a gigantic Corona wave. Currently 41,690 are officially infected (sickness reports from the ÖGK). That’s almost twice as many as exactly a year ago...

In Styria, the Medical Association [Ärztekammer] is now reacting and demands free tests carried out by general practitioners. And: not only Covid tests should be free, but also those for influenza and RSV. Health insurance companies should cover the costs. [where do state-run health insurers get their funding from?]

There are 3-in-1 Tests

Bayer reports that a triple test is already available that can quickly identify the cause of an infection [haven’t found the retail price, but I’m sure it’s reasonably priced…/sarcasm]. This enables family doctors to take reliable samples and determine whether an infection is present in the shortest possible time. Previously, the health insurance company only paid for the corona test for patients who also showed symptoms.

---

I suppose having a runny nose and slightly elevated body temperature are insufficient indicators of a cold or seasonal influenza-like illnesses. In winter.

The Medical Association’s detachment from reality is now (almost) complete: costs don’t matter, and neither do conflicts of interest (‘supported by Big Pharma’).

Let us move on to some better reporting (I’m not kidding).

---

Large Population-Cohort Study from Austria Confirms Cleveland Clinic Study

The more you jab, the higher your risk of infection, according to a new study by Chalupka et al., ‘Effectiveness of a fourth SARS-CoV-2 vaccine dose in previously infected individuals from Austria’, European Journal of Clinical Investigation (2023), via https://doi.org/10.1111/eci.14136. Note that Stanford’s John Ioannidis is a co-author.

From the Abstract:

Introduction: Evidence is limited on the effectiveness of a fourth vaccine dose against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in populations with prior severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections. We estimated the risk of COVID-19 deaths and SARS-CoV-2 infections according to vaccination status in previously infected individuals in Austria [let’s finally get some data on ‘hybrid immunity’]

Methods: This is a nationwide retrospective observational study [big, well-done study]. We calculated age and gender adjusted Cox proportional hazard ratios (HRs) of COVID-19 deaths (primary outcome) and SARS-CoV-2 infections (secondary outcome) from 1 November to 31 December 2022, primarily comparing individuals with four versus three vaccine doses. Relative vaccine effectiveness (rVE) was calculated as (1-HR) X 100.

Results: Among 3,986,312 previously infected individuals, 281,291 (7,1%) had four and 1,545,242 (38.8%) had three vaccinations at baseline. We recorded 69 COVID-19 deaths and 89,056 SARS-CoV-2 infections. rVE [relative vaccine effectiveness] for four versus three vaccine doses was −24% (95% CI: −120 to 30) against COVID-19 deaths, and 17% (95% CI: 14–19) against SARS-CoV-2 infections [that doesn’t look too good…]. This latter effect rapidly diminished over time and infection risk with four vaccinations was higher compared to less vaccinated individuals during extended follow-up until June 2023 [in plain English: half a year later, infection risk even higher, i.e., rVE firmly negative]. Adjusted HR (95% CI) for all-cause mortality for four versus three vaccinations was 0.79 (0.74–0.85).

Discussion: In previously infected individuals, a fourth vaccination was not associated with COVID-19 death risk, but with transiently reduced risk of SARS-CoV-2 infections and reversal of this effect in longer follow-up. All-cause mortality data suggest healthy vaccinee bias.

What Chalupka et al. have determined, in other words, is that it’s a bad idea to receive a Covid jab after infection.

Note, further, that the wording ‘transiently reduced risk of SARS-CoV-2 infections and reversal of this effect in longer follow-up’ means: within 5-6 months (1 Jan. through June 2023), whatever ‘transient risk’ reduction a fourth jab conferred had reversed.

For a thorough discussion of the paper, watch Dr. John Campbell’s take:

And now for the lunacy segment about the study.

Friend-of-these pages Peter F. Mayer of TKP.at discussed the study on 14 Dec. 2023 in the following ways:

Perhaps the most important result can be found in Table 2. Specifically, the unvaccinated had the fewest infections (age and gender adjusted HR 0.66) and no significant difference in mortality compared to the vaccinated groups!

Lo and behold, here’s what Heute reported (ahem) about the same study:

---

New Study-This is What the 4th Covid Shot Really Brings

In addition to the record number of sick reports, the viral load in wastewater is also continuing to rise. A study is now revealing how the Covid jab works against it.

Heute, 14 Dec. 2023 [source]

Many people are now wondering how useful the Covid vaccination and, above all, how useful yet another jab actually is. Stefan Pilz, head of the endocrinology outpatient clinic at the Medical University of Graz, provides the answer [note the absence of Prof. Ioannides].

Study Population: 4m Austrians

For this retrospective study, data from the AGES [Austrian Agency for Health Products and Food Security] and Epidemiological Reporting System (EMS) and the COVID-19 vaccination register were used and evaluated in the period from the end of 2022 to the first half of 2023. In total, data from almost four million people, all of whom had already been infected with SARS-CoV-2, were analysed.

The data was examined with regard to both COVID-19 deaths and (new) infections with the virus and how the risk to people changes over time after vaccination. The central question: ‘How effective was the fourth vaccination for people who were already infected with SARS-CoV-2?’, summarises Stefan Pilz.

Protection Decreased Again

It turned out that the risk of infection with the Sars-Cov-2 virus was significantly lower, especially in the first three months after the fourth vaccination. However, this protection also decreased again within these three months, explain the co-authors Alena Chalupka and Lukas Richter from AGES. The researchers also observed that four to five months after the [fourth] vaccination was administered, the risk of a Covid infection was even slightly increased.

There was no significant effect in terms of COVID-19 mortality, possibly because COVID-19 mortality was already generally at a very low level.

Nevertheless, according to Pilz's team, the vaccination made a major contribution to moving the pandemic into an endemic phase.

New Questions

While the study was able to find many answers, it also raised some questions. Among other things, how to interpret the data from unvaccinated people, who tend to be or have been tested less often, or which factors (vaccination, natural immunities, treatment options, mutations of the virus) have led to a reduction in mortality over time. These questions will now be answered in the course of further studies and analyses.

---

Pulmonary Specialist Dr. Arschang Valipour (Vienna General) Tells the Truth About Vaccinated Who are Hospitalised

Heute, 16 Dec. 2023 [source]

Pulmonary specialist Arshang Valipour, head of the department for internal medicine and pulmonology at the Floridsdorf Clinic, speaks out about the current Corona situation and the situation…

Vaccinated Who are Hospitalised

‘We have been experiencing a significant increase in hospital admissions for three to four weeks—especially people with weakened immune systems or chronic comorbidities [i.e., those ‘vulnerable’ vaxxed to the maxx]’, said Valipour in the Ö1 Mittagsjournal on Thursday [14 Dec. 2023]. Vaccinated people [that would be ‘regular’ individuals] would also currently end up in hospital with a Covid infection, as their injection typically occurred four to six months ago. He expects the number of hospitalisations to continue to rise for the time being despite the wave levelling off.

‘The majority of patients are hospitalised because of respiratory infections or pneumonia, some of which also require oxygen’, says Valipour. Two-thirds have a Covid infection, but this is not primarily caused by respiratory diseases [huhum, if they ‘test positive’ for Covid—a viral infection—but aren’t hospitalised for Covid, where did their Covid come from?]. Here we are talking more about accompanying symptoms or symptoms that are due to another illness. ‘However, there is an improvement here, because almost no people are admitted to the ICU anymore due to Covid infection.’ According to Valipour, this is now only a rarity.

Vaccination Should be Recent

According to Valipour, it is now less about whether someone has been vaccinated or not, but rather how long ago the last vaccination was. Because this has a big impact. Vaccinations only provide protection against infection for a few weeks, but provide relatively good protection against severe course of disease. Here we are talking about three to six months for slightly older people and up to 12 months for younger people [note that the above-related study by Chalupka et al. says something very different]. ‘This means that patients who are now being treated as inpatients have had a vaccination that was usually at least six months ago’, explains the expert.

Staff Shortages in Hospitals

There are currently 100,000 people on sick leave, including of course health workers. The reduction in performance is currently still relatively limited, but it should not continue like this. ‘Emergency care will always be maintained and functioning,’ Valipour told Ö1. What has to be put aside, however, are some surgeries or examinations that may be postponed.

This is How we Should Act

Valipour recommends: ‘If you are sick, you should stay at home. If you still go to work if you have mild cold symptoms, you should get an FFP2 mask. If you haven't had the vaccination yet or one that was a long time ago, you should get a booster. Air filters should also be purchased in schools or at work, as we already know that these can also reduce infections.’

---

I included that last paragraph to showcase the cognitive dissonance between the most recent study (see above) as well as the stuff Dr. Valipour said in the same interview—and his ‘recommendations’ at the end. You couldn’t make up this kind of stupid stuff, but ‘the experts™’ are still at-it.

And now for the most disturbing crap of the month (I suppose)—I give you:

---

Molecular Biologist Ulrich Elling Goes into Overdrive

Today, it seems that Dr. Elling is the go-to ‘expert™’ for inane statements; I don’t know if this is due to no other ‘experts™’ wanting to step into the limelight yet again, but for all I care, it’s probably because Dr. Elling’s comments are so outlandish that no-one except for the hyper-hypochondriac ‘journos’ wishes to go anywhere near these data.

In this final section, I shall quote from Dr. Elling’s recent tour de force across legacy media, and I shall give you his appearance on Vienna State Public Broadcaster ORF Wien ‘Heute’ magazine/interview on 16 Dec. 2023 (source):

More people in Austria are currently infected with the coronavirus than ever before. However, the peak of the wave could now have been reached, says molecular biologist Ulrich Elling. In order to be better prepared for the future, he is calling for vaccination offers in supermarkets.

‘We have a relatively good wastewater monitoring system in Austria’, explained Elling on Saturday [16 Dec. 2023] in the ‘Bei Budgen’ interview series. It now actually looks as if things are starting to improve in some regions: ‘There are still uncertainties because a new variant is just coming in. But it looks like we have at least reached the peak’, he said.

Up to two million infections possible

The current wave will ‘certainly last until Christmas and beyond’. The molecular biologist expects a total of up to two million infections in Austria. ‘We had a very quiet summer, so the immunity in the country went down, so to speak, and now immunity is being replenished as expected due to this huge wave’, said Elling. [seasonality never plays a role in, well, seasonal influenza-like illnesses, eh?]

The now virulent new variant is called ‘JN.1’, and experts also call it ‘Pirola’. According to Elling, it differs ‘very much’ from previous variants. Compared to the original virus, the Omicron variant had over 30 mutations in the so-called spike protein—’Pirola’ now has over 30 mutations on top of that.

Demand for more Accessible Data

In the interview, the molecular biologist demanded, among other things, that information about the infection process should be accessible to the population at a lower threshold—so that they can act independently. Because: ‘Somehow I have the impression that this big corona wave surprised many people.’ [could it be that ‘experts™’ cried wolf way too often? That thought, too, never seems to trouble the ‘expert™’]

However, the wave had been foreseeable for months on the various wastewater dashboards. ‘If only people had seen this coming, they would have been able to vaccinate themselves better. And that would have meant that we as a society would have been better prepared’, said Elling. However, he also stated that a lot has improved since the beginning of the pandemic—initially the data was literally kept under lock and key.

‘The Shots this Year are Particularly Good’

However, this time it was really difficult for many people to get a vaccination against the coronavirus, the expert criticised. The vaccination rate is currently at 4.5%. 20% of the population is 65 or older, i.e., in the group for which a booster vaccination is particularly recommended [see, even 3/4 of the elderly have learned more about immunology this year than Dr. Elling ever will]

‘The vaccination this year is particularly good’, emphasised Elling. He called for vaccinations to be made as easy as possible—and for vaccinations to be offered in supermarkets or similar locations, for example. ‘We have to set a goal for how much vaccination we want to achieve. And then we just have to think about how we get there. And don’t say we vaccinate at family doctors and then we’ll see where we get to.’

In Hospitals, the Main Problem is Staff Shortages

Despite the massive wave, Elling does not expect a similarly critical situation in the hospitals as in the Delta wave. There are currently around 1,100 CoV admissions to normal wards per week [how long is their average stay? Better not to ask lest one would learn, perhaps, 1-2 days?] During the Delta wave there were almost 4,000 daily admissions at peak times. Admissions will ‘still rise, but we will remain well below that’, said Elling. The issue in hospitals is that when there are many infections, a lot of staff are absent.

In the health sector, Elling advocated a mask requirement via house rules, as did the virologist Monika Redlberger-Fritz recently [note these Branch Covidian names—it’s the same morons all over again]. Because: ‘There are vulnerable people who have various illnesses sitting in the waiting room right next to influenza, RSV, and Covid patients.’ That cannot be the goal of the health system. [we’re so beyond any requirement of evidence here that it would be phun if this was a black comedy of sorts, but, alas, these ‘experts™’ are dead serious about this crap]

Elling Recommends to Get Infected as Rarely as Possible

What will happen after this wave? The molecular biologist said that no variants are yet apparent that are expected to cause the next wave. ‘Last year we had one before Christmas and one in late winter. It's quite possible that this will happen again. But it could also be that the wave is now so high that we can basically get through the winter season.’

However, further waves would follow—and on the individual level, it is ‘best for everyone to get infected with Corona as rarely as possible. That simply has to be the goal.’ A second or third infection does not carry a greater Long Covid risk than the first—but the risk accumulates, emphasised Elling.

Please don’t ask me how one makes sense of the last sentence. If everyone has been infected at least once now, why bother/scare people about ‘Long Covid’?

At this point, here’s some choice quotes from Dr. Elling’s interview as reported by Heute on 16 Dec. 2023:

Will the situation in the hospitals become tense again? ‘Systemically, no one expects things to become really critical anymore’, says Elling. All discussions about coercive measures are therefore ‘completely unnecessary’ [they always were unnecessary and not grounded in reality]. They shouldn’t be discussed at-all. Talking about something like [coercive measures] only creates fear...

Finally, what about jabs in grocery stores?

Here Elling talks about his experiences in the USA, where you could get vaccinated against the flu at the supermarket checkout. ‘We can do exactly that with corona vaccinations’, Elling is convinced. ‘In this way we would achieve much higher vaccination rates.’ Unfortunately, there are various stakeholders who are against this in Austria.

The notion that significantly more people would get jabbed once more because of easier access is, I’d argue, a figment of his imagination. Note that a mere 4.5% of those 65 and older got the most recent injection, and there’s probably no other sub-group of the general population that is visiting GPs and specialist doctors more often than seniors. Also costs/benefits of offering jabs at supermarkets don’t trouble the ‘expert™’, after all, it’s not his money to be spent…

---

Bottom Lies

I’ll leave you with another absurdity courtesy of Twitter by the very same Dr. Elling:

Click-able source link.

I call: liar, liar, pants on fire, for you, Dr. Elling, know for a fact that the current jabs (‘against’ the XBB.1.5 ‘variant’) are useless vs. whatever else is circulating. In fact, you knew in early August 2023, yet now in mid-December, you tour legacy media telling everyone to get jabbed, once again, with these useless jabs ‘against’ the XBB.1.5 ‘variant’.

I still maintain that Twitter—or any other social media corporation—shouldn’t cancel bad speech or misinformation, for the best part about ‘History’ is that, eventually, we all get to see who was right and who was wrong.

Also, shame on you, Dr. Elling, for spreading misinformation that potentially kills people who take your word for it and get jabbed once more.

‘Follow the Science™’—into irrelevance, it seems.

Still, I wish to close on something mildly positive here: at some point in the not-too-distant future, Dr. Elling, Prof. Redlberger-Fritz, and their ilk will face the consequences of their actions, and I doubt that these people will like it very much.

#doing one’s own research saves lives