Covid in Austria: Temporary Suspension of Most Mandates, incl. Compulsory Injections--Expect a 'Hot Autumn' as Mandates Will Return in Force

Highlights incl. continued technical difficulties = gov't incompetence, media gaslighting, and a bonus feature about the insanity of living in Vienna

Yesterday’s piece was about the widening reluctance of Austrians (at least about 1/3 of them) to undergo an unnecessary and quite dangerous medical procedure. Today, we shall round off this update by looking at some of the ‘other’ things that are currently going on with respect to Covid-19.

Injection Mandate Stayed

We’ll begin, ironically enough, in the Nationalrat, the lower and theoretically very powerful chamber of Austria’s parliament. Last week, MPs convened and discussed the impending re-consideration of the injection mandate, which was stayed two months ago due to rising dissent (mainly because of Omicron) and ‘technical difficulties’ (the outsourced government-owned entity ELGA couldn’t get the envisioned automated fining procedures going).

You may choose to read up on the former issue here; as to the latter ‘problem’, well, that’s a funny one with a much longer ‘history’.

As I’ve explained as early as mid-January 2022, the ‘technical difficulties’ stem from the injection mandate’s prospective ‘automatism’ (see here for its main clauses and here for its promulgation): like in many other European countries, the Interior Ministry (police) runs a centralised resident registration (Zentrales Melderegister; official site here, Ministry of Truth here), which the Committee of Public Safety wanted to ‘connect’ with the epidemiological database, the so-called ‘e-vaccination registry’ (E-Impfpass; see here and here).

The main problem is that there’s a reason we the people have privacy rights as well as patient rights to avoid penalisation for medical reasons. Good one, ain’t it? Now, the problems with the Covid injections are manifold, but the ‘technical difficulties’ alluded to above are actually quite something in terms of all of the above (and then some).

Yes, the injection mandate contains certain sections on these matters (which are actually even more complicated due to the country’s federal structures), but the heart of the matter doesn’t go away: the régime wanted to have an algorithm in place that would, every quarter, go into the centralised resident registry and connect these entries with the e-vaccination registry—and send automatic fines to those who appear in the former but aren’t injected with these darned Covid jabs.

With that said, here’s state broadcaster ORF on last week’s parliamentary debate: it was a ‘heated’ one, following on the heels of the Chancellor’s expert panel on the injection mandate staying the reason for the act once more, at least until 1 June.

‘Technical Difficulties’, Covidistan Style

Why, again, one may ask? Well, as Ms. Scherndl reported on 16 May, ‘experts are divided, technical difficulties persist’:

Does anyone actually still want a general Corona injection mandate? And if so, would it even be feasible by now? After all, there were technical difficulties when the law was actually passed long ago.

Well, Ms. Scherndl, there were—even before that abomination of a law was passed. This was also something Health Minister Johannes Rauch admitted to, albeit very implicitly, in last week’s parliamentary debate (as per the above ORF piece; my emphasis):

In parliament on Thursday [19 May], Rauch did not reveal what the future of compulsory vaccination might look like.

However, he appealed to ‘please take note’ that the Covid injections do not protect against infection with the new variants, but ‘demonstrably protects against ending up in the ICU, falling ill with Long Covid, or becoming seriously ill’. "That is the case, that is now the state of knowledge worldwide’, he said…

As far as the overload of the healthcare system is concerned—which the FPÖ repeatedly denied in the debate—Rauch declared that in future the burden on staff should be afforded greater attention. The assessment of the Covid pandemic must increasingly be measured by how the staff in hospitals, nursing homes, and retirement communities are doing, i.e., ‘whether the work there is still manageable’.

Did you spot the disingenuity? Covid jabs are mandated, but they don’t stop transmission (everyone knows this, hence we must keep the law on the books lest there be accountability), which is quite an admission, given the absurdity of it all.

Furthermore, the notion about pretending to care for healthcare workers (HCW) is disingenuous, to say the least. Problems in the sector were well-established before 2020, they include shitty pay, a lot of overtime, few, if any, career options, and the constant bullshitting by politicians.

On top of it all, HCW suffer under insane quarantine rules (10 days if in contact with someone who’s tested positive for Sars-Cov-2) and consistently refuse to return to work (by refusing to ‘test themselves free’ of quarantine on day 5). Consequently, an in addition to the problems mentioned above, HCW staff was short by about 25% three months ago, and there are no indications the situation got better ever since.

Yet, these matters are virtually absent from Ms. Scherndl’s piece (my emphases):

In the end, the decision is also a political one, and it only formally lies with the Health Minister. In practice, it is the state governors who caused the mood to change in late winter—and none of them is enthusiastic about compulsory injections now, as a couple of phone calls by the Standard shows: ‘We prefer voluntary rather than compulsory vaccination’, says the ÖVP that governs the state of Salzburg. From the SP-governed Burgenland, this: ‘The federal government’s last attempt to make vaccination compulsory has degenerated into a farce’, adding that [Burgenland] has always said that compulsory vaccination in this form makes no sense.

Styria, which is led by the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), is a little more differentiated: they don’t know what will happen, yet it is a good thing to have a legal basis. In SP-led Carinthia—and also in the Ministry of Constitutional Affairs—they want to wait for the experts’ report before talking about political positions.

From the federal point of view, the Freedom Party is naturally against the law. The SPÖ—once united with the coalition government—now says that the implementation is ‘unrealistic’ and that it is the fault of the government, which has gambled away the public’s trust.

Here’s the kicker, i.e., Ms. Scherndl’s ‘conclusion’ (my emphasis):

Even if compulsory vaccination were to be reinstated in June, intentionally or unintentionally, this would not automatically punish everyone who was not vaccinated. This would require a decree by the federal government setting a ‘reminder date’ [Erinnerungsstichtag] and, at the earliest, a ‘vaccination date’ [Impfstichtag] one month later.

The ‘reminder date’ is the moment when the connection of residency and patient data is announced; one is supposedly getting a letter informing the un-injected that they would have one month left before automatic fines would be levied.

Note the barely hidden glee by Ms. Scherndl who uses words such as ‘punish’ to relate to her (?) fellow-citizens who put a premium on bodily autonomy and the like. Furthermore, keep in mind that this can all be done by decree (which, of course, would be Hitler-esquely evil, if only Mr. Putin ruled like this), i.e., secondary legislation.

What Are ‘the Experts’ Saying About This?

Well, that’s a quite different beast, right? Basically, Minister for Constitutional Affairs Karoline Edtstadler (ÖVP), as referred to in that above ORF piece on the parliamentary debate on 19 May, ‘expect[ed] the mandate to be stayed’. Christiane Druml, notorious injection-hawk and chair of the ‘Bioethics [sic] Commission’ wants mandatory injections ‘only’ for HCW, people over 60, and ‘vulnerable individuals of all ages’, for which Ms. Druml found a similarly disgusting supporter in equally notorious Covid Hawk and professor of virology Dorothee von Laer (U Innsbruck).

Yet, when the Committee of Public Safety met earlier this week, many things shifted, albeit in entirely predictable directions.

Mandates ‘temporarily suspended’, Compulsory Injection Stayed

As ‘reported’ in lockstep by Covidistan legacy media, in response to the above matters, the régime decided to throw the populace a couple of crumbs. Entry restrictions were suspended as of 16 May (no more testing or the like required for now), and now also mask mandates will be ‘temporarily suspended’ from next week onwards. In addition, Ms. Edstadler informed the people that the injection mandate would not be implemented. Finally, compulsory PCR testing in schools will also end in June.

Of course, all was done via decree by one person (Mr. Rauch, the Minister of Health), who insisted that the ending of mask mandates wasn’t general. FFP2 (N95) masks will continue to be required in ‘vulnerable settings’, even though the ending of the general mandate came on the heels of ‘very strongly worded complaints by the retail industry’.

In all, the current state of affairs will remain in force until 8 July.

This was followed, expectedly, by howls from among the most hawkish (insane) politicians, experts, and their camp followers in legacy media, even though both industry lobbyists and union leaders were unison in their ‘welcoming’ of these steps.

It’s quite curious to observe the Freedom Party as the only mainstream (controlled, or systemic) opposition to the madness that still grips Covidistan. From the above ORF piece (my emphasis):

The FPÖ decried the government’s loss of reality, for it sells permanent masking and compulsory injections as the normal state of affairs while presenting ‘the end of mask harassment’ as an exception, said party leader Herbert Kickl. The end of the mask mandates comes months too late compared to other countries, said Kickl, who demanded not only the abolition of compulsory injections but also the resignation of the government.

Hear, hear!

Yet, in their replies, the government reportedly said the following (again, my emphases):

Regarding the suspension of compulsory vaccination, Rauch said on Tuesday [17 May] that efforts were still being made to have as many people as possible immunised [sic] by autumn. A corresponding plan for booster injections was being worked on and preparations are being made for the autumn. The experts assumed that this would be necessary in autumn to be well-prepared for winter.

One must learn to live with the pandemic and stop constantly conveying that we are living in a disaster scenario. He also assumed that the obligation to wear masks would apply again in autumn. All available scenarios assume that new protective measures may be necessary in autumn.

I don’t feel like commenting on the highlighted parts, but I’d say this: ‘experts assuming’ things is—an unveiled threat. I’ve been on the record for quite some time now that the lifting of any such measures would be temporary, at best (see here and here), but do take some time to check out the lie by Mr. Rauch as regards the final sentence of the above quote:

Covid in Austria: Experts Call for 'Zero Covid Strategy' (if needed), 'More Surveillance', and 'Better Communication'

Yep, you guessed this correctly: there’s no scenario that doesn’t involve increased surveillance, which you’re here sold as ‘protective measures’. Hey, Mr. Rauch, George Orwell called and is asking for his euphemisms back…

Last point here—more from the government (again, my emphases):

Edtstadler explained that the suspension of compulsory vaccination was due to it currently being considered a disproportionate encroachment on fundamental rights. Here, too, the reason was the good situation regarding the number of infections and the capacity utilisation of the hospitals, according to the experts’ judgement. However, the appeal to get vaccinated remains.

Technically, violations of the injection mandate should have been punished from mid-March, but on the recommendation of the expert commission, the vaccination obligation was suspended until 1 June for the time being. The situation is currently different from when the law was passed, Edtstadler said. Therefore, ‘increasing the pain’ [Scharfstellen] would not be justified at this time.

How nice, and how many lies in two brief paragraphs, eh? If you’ve made it this far, you don’t need me to tell you again about the facts vs. the fictions (lies) embraced by the clearly delusional Ms. Edtstadler.

The Road Ahead

If you can stomach it, here’s more on ‘expert scepticism on the suspension of the mask mandate’. I won’t go through this in detail, but the piece quotes a Health Economist (Thomas Czypionka) who claims that ‘masks are a simple and good way to combat the spread of the (Corona) virus’. You know, it’s spring 2022, what can I say…

Mr. Czypionka is also worried that compliance by the people to re-mask come autumn would be hard to achieve (he actually said ‘wieder an die Masken gewöhnen’, i.e., ‘get [people] used to masks again’).

There’s Ulrich Elling from the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology at the Academy of Sciences (see here) who decried the ‘flip-flopping on masking in public transport’ on national TV.

While most ‘experts’ disagree about style and communication, there’s, again, quite a consensus when it comes to the heart of the matter (my emphasis):

There was agreement among the experts that the vaccination rate must be increased, although not necessarily by means of mandatory vaccination because this is not really helpful in its current form. The severity of the measures to be taken would ultimately also depend on the vaccination rate in the population: the higher the vaccination rate, the more likely it is that measures can be repealed, said Czypionka. With a current rate of less than 70 per cent, we are about ten per cent behind the best countries in Europe.

This is so insane that I won’t say anything about it, other than, perhaps, that we the people aren’t subjects or serfs. You can’t tell any self-respecting sovereign individual to undergo unwanted medical procedures first to ‘regain’ fundamental rights.

I’m going to the barn now: chopping wood is a wonderful activity to get rid of bad sentiments. Also, I shall check my pitchforks, you know, just in case.

Bonus Feature: Vienna is Different

Picture credit: https://media04.meinbezirk.at/article/2017/10/16/8/11183798_XXL.jpg

For many years, the state government of Vienna ran a billboard campaign telling everyone that ‘Vienna is Different’. This is still the case after 2+ years of Covid madness, which was particularly bad for the place I was born in. Hence, as a homage to the morons running the city into a ditch, here’s the reaction by the Vienna government (which has, consistently, out-mandated the federal government because, well, they are, apparently, ‘different’).

All below quotes are from this piece that ORF published on 24 May (my emphases):

The Vienna state government deviates from the federal government’s mask liberation [Maskenbefreiung]. As Mayor Michael Ludwig (SPÖ) announced after a meeting of his crisis management team, FFP2 masks will continue to be mandatory on public transport, in pharmacies, during surgeries, and in hospitals. The city leader pointed out that these were particularly vulnerable settings: ‘We were always on the safe side in Vienna during the entire corona crisis.’ This had also achieved success.

Ludwig stressed that he takes note of the decision of the federal government, but that he wants to continue Vienna’s special path as the pandemic is not over yet, he reiterated. It was uncertain which new mutations would lead to another wave. Masks are a ‘non-invasive means’ to protect against this. Ludwig spoke of a ‘supplement’ to the federal government's measures—which, he assured, had always been supported by the Viennese population.

The state Freedom Party called on Mr. Ludwig to adhere to the federal government’s decisions, reiterating that

as with most relaxations, there is now the real danger that Mayor Ludwig and Health Councillor Hacker will decide on different rules for Vienna and force the Viennese to wear a mask in public transport, supermarkets, and pharmacies in record heat, without there being any sound scientific justification for doing so.

All true, what can be said? Temperatures had reached the 30° C barrier last week.

The rest of the political commentary is even less charitable:

Ludwig did not even convince his governing partner NEOS. They consider Vienna’s next special path disproportionate. Restrictions on personal freedom are always problematic in a democratic constitutional state and should only be applied in exceptional cases, explained Bettina Emmerling, chairwoman of NEOS. The epidemiological situation at the moment allows us to do without restrictive measures as far as possible, as current data on the incidence of infections and hospital occupancy show. They did not agree with Ludwig's decision, but it was directly within his purview to make it.

As explained above, since the régime has shifted the goalposts to ensuring the smooth operation of the healthcare system, whatever may be the only way to react here.

The last word goes to the Freedom Party, which appears a beacon of sanity here:

Not unexpectedly, the FPÖ condemned the special path and used drastic words. They even called Ludwig and health councillor Peter Hacker (SPÖ) ‘insane’ [wahnsinnig]. With a mask, the daily journey to and from work would become an involuntary sauna session in work clothes, said regional party leader Dominik Nepp.

So, here’s a thought to conclude this overly long piece: the situation is as follows—imagine you’re on a commuter train from, say, New Jersey to Manhattan. Imagine you’re on the subway, in an overly steamy car and that it’s mid-July, i.e., hot and humid at 7 a.m. already. As you cross the Hudson River, the PA comes on and an announcement is made:

Attention all passengers! Due to mandatory mask requirements against the deadly disease that is Covid-19, and since we are just crossing the state line from NJ to NY, please comply with the current guidelines and regulations with respect to masks. Thank you, and have a safe trip.