Covid in Austria: Moving beyond the Reality Horizon, Gov't Introduces the Intersectional Dimension of Covid-19

You may now go to work after testing positive, if you 'don't feel sick', but you may go to a restaurant and a pool (with a mask), but aren't permitted to eat or drink (and much more)

Yesterday, I tried to provide a brief update on all matters Covid-19. Today, as the Committee of Public Safety has met, it’s time to see what the régime has worked so hard to accomplish to ‘keep us all safe’. I’m a bit time-constrained these days, hence I shall do two things here: thankfully, before I went to bed, I saw a good piece over at tkp—the weblog for science and politics, a forum, or platform for independent journalists. If you read German, it’s a worthy addition to your reading digest.

In the first (larger) part of this post, you’ll find the translation of a piece by Thomas Oysmüller. Entitled ‘Rauch Scores a Win vs. Zero Covid Faction, Ends Quarantine’, it quite accurately describes and partially comments on yesterday’s decisions, and I simply translated it for you (with my emphases added).

Secondly, I shall, however briefly, comment on these events, too.

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Rauch Scores a Win vs. Zero Covid Faction, Ends Quarantine

From 1 August, those who test positive are no longer mandated to self-isolate in Austria. The Health Minister is thus moving closer to Scandinavia, Switzerland and other countries. Despite massive resistance.

Four months after Switzerland, Austria abandons the quarantine obligation for people who test positive for Sars-Cov-2. Despite massive resistance from several parliamentary groups, the government and Health Minister Johannes Rauch managed to get their way. A small step back to pre-pandemic normality, a big step against the Zero Covid ideology.

Defeat for ZeroCovid in Austria

As expected, the end of the quarantine requirement is replaced by other restrictions. This is done with all kinds of complicated masking rules and a ‘engagement restriction’ [Verkehrsbeschränkungen], which will probably be very difficult to implement in reality. A blanket reintroduction of compulsory masks, for example in supermarkets, as demanded by parts of the Corona Commission, is not among these restrictions, however. Still, if someone tests positive, they must wear a mask when going to work. Of course, there is still sick leave in Austria, which is often forgotten in the debate.

[This is one of the few instances in the past 2+ years that someone, really: anyone, actually mentions that little factoid: yes, no-one who’s sick must show up for work; you’d need a GP’s or your family physician’s confirmation for staying off the job for more than three days, but then again, doing so would probably indicate that ‘Covid-19’ is something ‘normal’, as opposed to something ‘new-normal’]

For days, Health Minister Johannes Rauch has been facing a fierce campaign against his plans. Parts of the SPÖ, above all the Mayor of Vienna, signatories and supporters of the ZeroCovid Open Letter from January 2021 and ‘experts’ from the various committees, all accused Rauch of partly homicidal and social Darwinist policies.

These calls came even from his wife, SPÖ leader of Vorarlberg, who criticised her husband in a written statement on Monday. She became notorious among anti-mandate protesters last winter when, heavily masked [with a FFP2 mask, no less], she accused demonstrators in Bregenz [the state capital of Vorarlberg] of ‘running with fascists’. A few days earlier, the Nationalrat [Austria’s House of Commons, i.e., the very powerful lowr chamber] had passed the Injection Mandate Act and on the same day, the weeks-long house arrest for people without vaccination had expired. Now the end of the quanrantine obligation was ‘certainly a wrong decision’, said the wife of the health minister. Some Twitter users—the ZeroCovid faction is particularly strong on the short message platform--now even moved the Green Johannes Rauch close to right-wing extremism.

Kafka Replaces Quarantine

The regulation, which is currently popping up across the media landscape, has not yet been publicly posted. Yet, from what we’ve learned, it has a quite few places that even Kafka would have been quite happy with. E.g., restaurants and bars are open to those who have tested positive, but only with a mask. Therefore, the consumption of food and drink [for those who test positive] is expressly forbidden.

However, it is obvious that the new regulation is almost impossible to enforce. No business owner will [or: can] know which of his guests has just handed in a positive test. Even swimming pools may be visited with a positive test, but only with a mask [I suppose showering is optional now]. These ‘engagement restrictions’ end after ten days, but after five days one can ‘test oneself free’ [freitesten] as usual.

The Ministry of Health also knows that the new rules are hardly controllable. The Rauch Ministry says that it is relying on personal responsibility and ‘common sense’ [apparently for everything other than writing such ordinances]. Rauch hopes that Austrians will now test more because they will no longer be put in quarantine. Still, Austria is the world champion in testing by a wide margin, but Minister Rauch does not say it out loud.

No Leeway for Vienna

Switzerland is not the only country where the quarantine requirement has been abolished for some time. Other countries include Denmark, Slovenia, Croatia, Liechtenstein, the Netherlands, Spain, and Poland. In the Scandinavian countries, all Corona restrictions have been lifted for months. Italy, France, and Germany have so far continued to adhere to the compulsory state measure.

[for comparisons, courtesy of OWID, here’s the stats on ‘cases’:

Gee, look at how well the harsh mandates are working. Or not. Oh, dear.]

The new regulation comes into force on 1 August and applies nationwide. Ludwig’s federal capital thus has no legal leeway to continue the restrictive ‘Viennese way’.

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Bottom Lines

It’s about damn time—shout-out, again, to Thomas Oysmüller and the independent journalists over at tkp—that someone brought up that we’ve had the tools to kinda deal with a non-too lethal respiratory pathogen all the time: sick leave. It’s a little bit like the Good Witch Glinda explaining to Dorothy that she ‘always had the power’ to do so (courtesy of Frank Baum’s 1900 children’s novel, and Victor Flemings awesome 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz).

I’m sorry to interrupt Mr. Oysmüller’s piece like that, yet, when I translated it, it’s still amazing how insultingly stupid the Committee of Public Safety treats the people.

A full listing of current ‘rules’ can be found over at state broadcaster ORF’s website.

Yet, Mr. Oysmüller was way too nice to the régime, for, as the above-linked ORF piece shows, there’s so much real-world inanity here. From August onwards, if you test positive, you may not enter certain ‘vulnerable settings’, incl. hospitals, retirement homes, kindergartens, and primary schools, that is, unless you work there (as always, my emphases):

Those who work [in these settings], may enter even if the test positive.

Labour Minister Martin Kocher (ÖVP) explained that the Quarantine Rules are, basically, replaced by the Regulation to Protect Vulnerable Groups [Risikogruppenverordnung], which is intended

To protect those most at-risk, in particular at-work. This affects people who may be at risk of severe disease despite vaccination or who couldn’t get vaccinated [presumably because their body can’t withstand the miracle juice]…

‘No-one must show up for work, jf you’re sick’, [Kocher added]. No-one will place ‘police at every corner’ [flächendeckend Polizisten aufstellen] to check the health status of the people.

Of course, Mr. Rauch was a guest on the national nightly newscast ZIB2 (by state broadcaster ORF), which airs every workday at 10 p.m., and the above ORF piece describes this as follows:

In an interview on ZIB2 [if you can stomach it, it’s also in the linked piece], Rauch defended the decision to end the quarantine. He also faced his wife’s criticism, Vorarlberg SPÖ chairwoman Gabriele Sprickler-Falschlunger (‘I love my wife, she has a different opinion, and that’s a good thing’). He did not want to get into details of the practical implementation of the regulation, for example in shared offices. He also did not feel responsible for the question of caring for symptom-free kindergarten children who had tested positive.

Note that in the above-mentioned interview, the first question Mr. Rauch was asked was: ‘if I’m Covid positive, would you feel uncomfortable being here with me, ven if I’d be wearing a mask?’ Here’s his answer:

If you’d be wearing a mask, then, of course, I wouldn’t. The mask is the best protective equipment [Schutzinstrument] available, and that’s a good thing.

Imagine, how ‘wonderful’ the rest of the interview went… (/sarcasm)

Back to the ORF piece:

Chief Medical Officer Katharina Reich commented on the situation in the hospitals. The current Covid 19 data shows that ‘the situation has changed with Omicron’. Currently, about half of the Covid hospitalisations are actually due to Covid as main cause, while the other half are hospitalised for other main causes and, while tested for Covid-19 during their stay, their diagnosis is incidental.

Look at that: only half of those who require hospitalisation—a decidedly ‘serious’ course of disease—who test positive are actually there because of Covid-19. The other half is there for any other reason.

I’ll spare you the rest of the piece, but I shall add that Mr. Rauch, much like Mr. Oysmüller pointed it out, this is a tiny step in the right direction. Of course, the Covid Hawks are livid, and these past weeks also show where they are congregating: while the ÖVP, albeit for purely political-tactical reasons (elections are coming), has moved ever farther away from containment policies, the most vociferous Zero Covid proponents are found a) on Twitter and b) are currently congregating mainly among the SPÖ, Austro-Covidian’s version of New Labour, led, in particular, by the almost all-powerful Vienna State Party.

Many ‘experts’ who warned and cried wolf (and yelled ‘Fire!’ in the crowded theater that is Covidistan) are equally livid, calling out the ‘false decision’ [Trugschluss], in the words of virologist and Covid Hawk Wolfgang Bergthaler.

One nugget of wisdom and reflection actually made it into the state broadcaster’s piece, and it’s carefully tucked away in the last paragraph, reproduced below. NEOS is the acronym for the smallest parliamentary party, whose positions may be described as ‘socially progressive’ but ‘libertarian-leaning’, to use US parlance; NEOS currently governs Vienna together with the SPÖ, i.e., they have a documented and extra-sordid history of collaboration with, and support for, the country’s harshest and most heavy-handed mandates.

Yet, here, too, there are indications of possible change:

‘One must not forget that Austria had the strictest and most expensive mandates for a long time, but without gaining any advantage in the fight against the pandemic, which is proven by a comparison with our Western European neighbours’, said the deputy NEOS parliamentary party chair Gerald Loacker. However, he still saw many questions unresolved in terms of labour law and complained of dilettantism.

Well, ‘nuff said, I suppose, but I shall add one last absurdity: as reported in that ORF piece (the below is a translation of the lede), this is what these new rules actually come down to:

Those who test positive can leave their homes with some restrictions, if they do not feel ill.

See: Covid-19 is the perfect tool of intersectional oppression and self-containment: as long as you don’t ‘feel ill’ while testing positive for Sars-Cov-2, nothing else matters.

As long as you claim to ‘feel ill’ while testing positive while being totally asymptomatic, no need to show up for work or anything.

Perhaps Mr. Oysmüller has been unfair to Kafka?

Last word: according to a recent poll (as per another ORF piece), and despite all of the above, 41% are in favour of another round of Covid shots in autumn, with 32% coming out against so, and the rest (27%) undecided.

Somehow, a famous quote, if wrongly attributed to Einstein (if memory serves), comes to mind.