Covidistan Annals X: New Measures to Paper Over the Régime's decay--visible in unprecedented comments on the draft jab mandate

2022 will be a rather unhappy 'New Year' for Covidistan's putschists: more protests are scheduled, the Constitutional Court will meet soon, and 'support' for Mückstein's medical dictatorship is waning

It’s been a couple of overly ‘slow’ weeks in Covidistan, but fear not, the putschists who pretend to be in charge never tire of putting on a show to, well, try to placate the population.

On Christmas Day, the Committee of Public Safety announced a host of new regulations, mainly focused on further controlling the movement of people. Much like the charade tennis player Novak Djoković finds himself in, government agencies in Covidistan work ceaselessly to make everyone’s life more troublesome.

Take, say, information provided by the Foreign Ministry (headed, again, by short-term chancellor Schallenberg), whose information (see the screen shot below) makes for fun reading (emphasis in the original):

In connection with the coronavirus (COVID-19), a high security risk (security level 4) applies for most countries. In addition, due to the increasing spread of Omicron, restrictions in international air traffic as well as changes or tightening of entry regulations in individual countries announced at short notice must be expected. Travel that is not necessary is therefore strongly advised against.

Covidistan is heavily dependent on the tourism industry, yet, it’s also an expensive place to go on vacation (not as expensive as neighbouring Switzerland, but still…), but on 25 Dec. 2021, ‘Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, and the UK are similarly considered areas with a high prevalence of [Omicron]’ (emphasis in the original). You see, all four are countries whose well-to-do citizens liked to come to Covidistan for their winter holidays.

From 20 Dec. 2021 onwards, the ‘2G-plus’ rule applies for entry, i.e., one must be ‘jabbed or recovered plus a [negative] PCR test’, otherwise all travellers must pre-register and quarantine upon arrival.

By 25 Dec. 2021, these limitations were somewhat amended for those who elected to get jabbed-and-boosted (3 doses of one of the mRNA prophylactic gene therapies, or 2 doses of J&J’s product), but one still has to produce an additional negative PCR test to avoid quarantine.

(Side-note: even my fully jabbed-and-boosted parents, who stayed with us over the holidays, while more or less completely oblivious to any of the above, were getting very uncomfortable when they were almost treated as any other ‘unclean’ person upon arrival at Vienna Int’l Airport earlier this week.)

Needless to say, facts and clear-eyed thinking be damned in 2022 as well (see here for a late-Dec. update), hence with Omicron ‘cases’ exploding these days, the Committee of Public Safety met yet again yesterday to discuss new counter-measures.

Masks Outdoor, Shorter Isolation, More Draconian Controls

The above-picture, borrowed from this recent piece in Der Standard, illustrates perfectly the full-blown insanity reigning supreme in Covidistan these days: a man wearing an FFP2 mask (KN-95) strolls across an empty public space. The image becomes even more telling (weirder), once we take a look at the ‘reasoning’ behind these measures.

We do learn that there were many new ‘cases’ in Covidistan: 5,500 on Tuesday, almost 10,000 on Wednesday, with another big jump expected on Thursday. All of this, according to that piece, ‘is due to Omicron, now dominant in the country’.

As a reaction, here’s what the Committee of Public Safety decreed (my emphases):

FFP2 masks must be worn outdoor, if a minimum distance of 2m can’t be kept. Chancellor Nehammer: ‘Whenever I meet people, I must wear a mask, whether on the sidewalk, in a public space, or in a pedestrian zone.’ Health Minister Mückstein argued that this is necessary because Omicron is so infectious; there are exceptions for close relatives (family members) and children, but states may impose harsher restrictions.

In entirely Kafkaesque fashion (sorry Franz Kafka), from 8 Jan. 2022 onwards, new rules pertaining to self-isolation upon contact with an infected person apply: no more quarantine for fully jabbed-and-boosted people or when everyone in that hypothetical meeting was wearing a FFP2 mask. ‘This also applies to children who cannot yet get boosted. All close contacts can end the quarantine with a PCR test on the fifth day.’ Still, reality—at least some parts—arrived even in Covidistan, as ‘close contacts in critical infrastructure can continue to work with a daily PCR test and wearing an FFP2 mask.’ Until tomorrow, those who contracted Omicron had to quarantine for 14 days.

The third rail in these changes will be a marked increase in ‘your papers, please’ controls and checks across the country. Nehammer: ‘We shall increase the pressure markedly.’ This applies, most prominently, to businesses who must check the vaccination status of patrons from Tuesday, 11 Jan. 2022, onwards. Nehammer again: ‘If businesses do not comply with the regulations, we shall close them down.’ In case of a serious or repeat violations, temporary entry bans (Betretungsverbote) may be imposed from 3 Feb. onwards; likewise, fees and penalties are increased from that day onwards as well.

Finally, home officiating is ‘further encouraged’ while the validity of the ‘Covid Passport’ is shortened to six (!) months, down from the previously valid period of nine months, for fully jabbed individuals. ‘Covid Passports’ remain valid for nine months, provided you get yourself a ‘booster’ jab.

What do these things imply?

Well, first and foremost, it’s a cry for help. The Committee of Public Safety has arrived at the cul-de-sac, and there are only a few more meters before the clown car masquerading as government will reach the end of the road.

While this was apparent to anyone who thinks for him- or herself from the outset, it’s now dawning ‘even’ on legacy media, as this piece in Der Standard, of all places, dating from 27 Dec. 2021, illustrates. Entitled, ‘Government Ministers Shift Responsibility’, Gabriela Scherndl argued that this—frankly unacceptable—lack of leadership is best illustrated by the fact that the Committee of Public Safety rarely communicates themselves; instead, a Chief Medial Officer (Ms. Reich, the powerful deputy assistant health minister) and a Maj. General (Striedinger) have become the public faces of these measures.

Still, small-scale protests continued throughout the Christmas break, with another round of demonstrations announced by various groups for the upcoming weekend. Still, Nehammer and Mückstein continue to insist on the necessity of mandatory Covid ‘vaccinations’, although that has become an increasingly questionable argument in recent days.

While still supported by most of the main systemic opposition party (the Social Democrats-in-name-only), the Committee’s vaxx mandate has come under fire this week. Immunologist Gerald Gartlehner, MD (CV here) went on state TV late on Tuesday, claiming that Omicron will result in transmission, or immunisation, ‘unlike anything we’ve experienced so far’, hence it would be ‘rather likely to become necessary to re-evaluate’ the planned vaxx mandate.

Constitutional law professor Karl Stöger (U Vienna, CV here) seconded only hours later, as per ORF (my emphases):

The legal case for compulsory vaccination is based on the assumption that vaccination greatly reduces the risk of severe disease and thus contributes to relieving the burden on hospitals and the healthcare system in general. Yet, if many people who are currently still unvaccinated become immunised via Omicron infection, this argument could fall away, at least for the moment, which would entail consequences for the legal justification of compulsory vaccination…

‘This could change things from a legal perspective. If the high infectivity of Omicron creates high levels of immunity equivalency in the in the population that may even be superior to that of vaccination’, according to Stöger who is also advising the government in all matters Covid-19.

Apparently, the constitutional lawyer Stöger understands that natural immunity is superior to vaccine-induced immunity. He should perhaps talk to tinpot-health dictator Mückstein, MD about this.

Another constitutional law professor, Peter Bußjäger (U Innsbruck, CV here), also voiced comparable legal concerns:

One could only judge whether compulsory vaccination was necessary once the medical effects of Omicron were known: ‘Compulsory vaccination presupposes that there is a threat of a disease with correspondingly serious consequences that may also affect a larger number of people.’ The public interest that justifies this encroachment on civil liberties ‘must be correspondingly serious’. And this is the case ‘if we otherwise have to fear that we will not be able to maintain medical care to the usual extent’.

So, here’s the weird point: the constitutional lawyers argue that it might be possible to promulgate the mandatory jabbing law but defer its implementation ‘until we know more’. While it sounds idiotic, it’s also quite traditional in pre-Covidistan politicking. Both legal scholars are seconded by an outpouring of support by other key players who more or less hold that Omicron is, in fact, a game-changer.

Covidistan at a Crossroads

As illustrated by the above quotes from Nehammer and Mückstein, the Committee of Public Safety has bet the farm—its existence—on mandatory vaccinations as the one and only way out of Covid-19-the-social-construct.

Hence, despite the clearly authoritarian, if not outright totalitarian, impulses of wannabe tinpot-health dictator Mückstein, the Committee of Public Safety is throwing everything and the kitchen sink at Omicron. While more and more concerns are voiced publicly—and the incidence of these dissenting voices on state media and generally gov’t-friendly legacy media such as Der Standard is a good indicator—Mückstein’s draft legislation has (as of 7 Jan. 2022) generated the entirely unprecedented number of 86,501 comments (as per the parliamentary website):

This means that about 1% of Covidistan’s entire resident population of c. 8.9m people has commented. In terms of voting rights, Covidistan’s electorate numbers 6.4m, according to official figures. Hence, assuming that one comment equals one voter, a full 1.4% of the electorate has commented on the draft piece. (For comparison, 1.4% of the US electorate would be some 3.6m comments.)

It is hard to see how this level of dissent can simply be shrugged off without a (huge) political price to be paid.

There’s so much dissent and outright opposition, partially due to a third of Covidistan’s population’s continued refusal to get jabbed, but in part also because those who claim governmental authority are ‘outsourcing’ their ex officio responsibilities to others, such as Ms. Reich and Maj. Gen. Striedinger, as well as the business community and police.

The writing is on the wall for the Covidistan putschists

Here’s what I think will come next (for comparisons, check my assessment from early Dec. 2021): for purely political reasons, some kind of jab mandate will come, perhaps somewhat delayed, but mainly to save face.

It will continue to contain some of the more egregious clauses, but given that the Constitutional (Supreme) Court hasn’t weighed in on the more recent iterations of the Committee’s activities, nothing of substance will be implemented or enforced (yet).

Nehammer, Mückstein, and the rest of the wrecking crew masquerading as legitimate authority know that this is a political albatross that will only gain weight around their necks. I expect the Committee to drop some ‘deadweight’ sometime in spring, if only to be able to continue to muddle through.

Somewhere in-between all of these issues stands this year’s large, federal election: in mid-November, presidential elections must be held. As of today, it’s unclear whether the incumbent, Green Party member van der Bellen will seek a second term. If he does, it’ll reinforce the Committee’s need to ‘hang together’ (I’d rather see them do so separately, figuratively speaking).

Ludicrously enough, the politically quite unimportant figurehead-of-state is now the lynchpin in this farcical vaudeville show: if van der Bellen doesn’t seek a second term, the Committee will (potentially) lose the glue that keeps them together. It is hard to see continue presidential support for a partially Green government if no Green politician occupies the presidency.

If this happens, all bets are off, but I suspect new parliamentary elections will become unavoidable: the Freedom Party came within a couple of thousands of vote to defeating van der Bellen in 2016—and now it’s a quite different political environment.

In short: the decision about the immediate future of the Covidistan régime is in the hands of a borderline senile, tobacco-and-pot-smoking president.

Here’s hoping Mr. van der Bellen will do the country one last (and his first) favour and elect not to seek a second term.