Summer, Sun, Fun--and Covid in Central Europe

Meanwhile, sick leave in Austria was never higher and a new Covid wave is making Germans sick as never before

I’ll provide the below articles as a kind of service posting to remind readers that both Austria and Germany had some of the worst Covidian régimes in the West.

While there are many more such pieces, this is the inevitable consequence of the actions of the Austrian and German governments, it would appear.

Translations and emphases mine, as are the bottom lines.

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Sick leave in Austria: Highest Value in 30 Years

Via [state broadcaster] ORF.at, 2 July 2024 [source]

The number of sick days among employees rose again in 2023. At an average of 15.4 days, the figure was at the same level as around 30 years ago. People were sick more often, but for shorter periods of time. More young people also suffered from chronic illnesses. Attitudes have apparently changed: sick people tended to stay at home. [what does ‘being sick’ mean in 2024?]

Not only during the pandemic, but also in the long term, the number of days of absence due to sick leave has fallen continuously in recent decades, but the trend has recently reversed. In 2022, employees spent an average of 14.9 calendar days on sick leave, compared to 12.3 calendar days in 2021 - excluding Covid-19 quarantine periods [this is a ‘bombshell’, if there ever was one: it was the gov’t, egged on by ‘the Experts™’, who mandated quarantine, which exacerbated the problem; I doubt that ‘quarantines’ will make it into economic calculations…but the main problem is: add the quarantine, and the number of ‘sick days’ explodes].

For comparison: in 1980, the number of days of absence was 17.4, in 1990 15.2 and in 2000 14.4 days. The sickness absence rate, the ratio of sick days to the volume of work, also rose from 3.4% in 2021 to 4.2% in 2023. The number of insured persons who were sick at least once rose significantly, but the average duration of sick leave was shorter: It reached an all-time low of 9.3 days in 2023.

ÖGK Sees No Cause for Concern

The pandemic in the form of CoV sick days has only been reflected in the data of the WIFO [an economic ‘think tank’] absenteeism report [orig. Fehlzeitenreport] published on Tuesday [2 July 2024, i.e., the proximate cause for this article] on behalf of the umbrella organisation of social insurance institutions, the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber (WKO), and the Chamber of Labour (AK) since August 2022 [so, ‘despite’ all the fearmongering, the ‘Pandemic™’ is not a numbers thing prior to summer 2022: go figure what the reason was (it quite certainly wasn’t Omicron)]; i.e., most of the effects of the mandates were never quantified: I’m leaning more and more on ‘incompetence’ plus gross negligence here rather than ‘premeditation’, if only because that kind of stupidity is quite common in bureaucratic-sclerotic régimes in the West]. Previously, CoV absences were not recorded due to isolation in accordance with the Pandemic Act [here’s a hint as to where the premeditation part is located: the gov’t].

ÖGK Chairman Andreas Huss, Chairman of the Conference of Social Insurance Institutions, saw no cause for concern in the number of days of absence alone. ‘Alarmism is definitely not warranted,’ he summarised. The fact that people take sick leave too quickly cannot be deduced from the figures, he said, adding that he could not agree with the demand that the first day of sick leave should be unpaid [hear no evil, see no evil].

Respiratory Diseases on the Rise

As before the pandemic, respiratory diseases increased, not least due to influenza-like illnesses. According to the report, two-fifths of all sick leave in 2023 was due to respiratory diseases. Musculoskeletal disorders accounted for 11% of sick leave and 18.5% of sick days. In both areas, preventive measures such as flu vaccinations and targeted training could reduce absenteeism, the report held [I doubt this about the flu shots].

At 5.4 days, respiratory illnesses caused rather short absences, while mental illnesses caused longer absences: the average length of sick leave here was 37 days. This also applied to young people: while sick leave for infectious diseases lasted an average of 3.7 days for 15 to 29-year-olds, it was 23.6 days for mental illnesses [keep the mental illness aspect in mind, it’ll become important below].

Young People Are Sick More Often

According to Huss, higher sickness absence rates among young people entering the labour market were also due to the fact that they were less able to work independently [I don’t understand the ‘argument’ here; I think it means because young people entering the labour force are employees rather than self-employed]. According to the report, young people under the age of 20 were sick comparatively often, after which their susceptibility to illness fell [all I’m saying here is 3+ years in schools all over Austria with indoor masking requirements and 3X PCR testing obligations every week]. From the age of 45, the average number of sick days rose again, according to the report. Older workers were sick less frequently, but often for longer.

People Tend to Stay at Home When Ill

Since the pandemic, people have become more aware of not going to work [and here’s the mental shift] if they are ill so as not to infect anyone else [the consequence of shifting the blame for being sick onto the ill], said Rolf Gleißner, Head of the Social and Health Policy Department at the Chamber of Commerce. This, in turn, is a major burden for companies. According to the figures, the direct and indirect business and economic costs of absenteeism will amount to 5.3 billion euros or 1.2% of GDP in 2022 [remember, this excludes the cost of mandatory quarantines].

Although there are no figures for this year on the correlation between sick leave and working from home, Wolfgang Panhölzl from the Vienna Chamber of Labour assumes that people are working from home more often instead of taking sick leave when they are ill. For him, the high number of chronic illnesses among boys (18% in the 15 to 19 age group) is ‘alarming’. The Chamber of Labour also pointed out that around a fifth of young adults start their working life overweight or obese…[well, that is the group of people who were most affected by the Covidian régime in Austrian schools: just sayin’…]

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Summer, Sun, Corona? A Wave of Colds is Rolling Through North Germany

By Daniela Remus and Daniel Sprenger, NDR, 19 July 2024 [source]

More people than ever in summer currently have a cold [imagine that] and are calling in sick, and coronavirus tests are sometimes out of stock: The wave of colds is also rolling through the north, and GP practices are very busy.

‘We have an incredible number of patients with infections at the moment,’ says Katharina Apelt-Glitz, a GP with her own practice in Schenefeld, Schleswig-Holstein. She can’t even manage to see all the patients who need acute appointments during her normal consultation hours:

I’m really glad that it’s still possible to take a sick note over the phone [here’s the incentive—a phone call plus coughing—and I’ll explain the outcome].

Many of them are suffering greatly: ‘They are really ill. They have a cough, sore throat, fever, massive fatigue.’ Her patients have ‘normal’ colds, but increasingly also corona.

However, most people no longer take tests [why should they?]. ‘When I then say: “Let’s do a test”, then people are really surprised and say, “It can’t be corona, corona is over”.’ Although the end of the pandemic has been announced politically, people have not been sufficiently informed about the fact that coronavirus is still present everywhere and that you can fall ill with it at any time of year [see the bottom lines for a reading suggestion]. Even now in summer: ‘We have a Covid wave, that’s clear’, says Apelt-Glitz.

Never Before Have There Been so Many Respiratory Infections in Summer as This Year

Nationwide data confirms this assessment. An unusually high number of people are currently ill for the time of year. They are suffering from cold symptoms, have a cold, cough and fever—and often for weeks on end. According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), since the Infection Monitoring Portal was established in 2011, never before have so many people reported being ill in summer as this year [i.e., no data prior to 2011; cf. the ‘hottest summer in 125,000 years’]. According to the RKI weekly report, a good five million people nationwide are currently affected by an acute respiratory illness [Germany has some 83.4m inhabitants, i.e., 6% are currently ill].

After weeks of rising numbers, the total number of cases did not increase last week for the first time—possibly due to the school holidays in some federal states [please leave the kids the alone]. Most of the illnesses are caused by the so-called rhinoviruses, better known as classic cold pathogens. According to the latest RKI weekly report, they account for around 21% of cases. Because the immune system had no contact with the pathogens for a long time during the pandemic as a result of masking, many sufferers have a cough, cold and fever for much longer than in other summers [whatever the merits of that argument, below, the good GP cited above recommends…masking—you cannot make this shit up].

Covid Accounts for 17% of Infections

The number of coronavirus infections has also been on the rise for a good four weeks, as the RKI’s reporting figures and wastewater monitoring show. They currently account for around 17% of reported cases of illness. In the previous week, the figure was 12% [we’re all going to die].

Rise in the Number of Infections in Hamburg and Lower Saxony, Too

The number of acute respiratory diseases is also rising in Hamburg. ‘We are noticing that our infection consultations are fuller again,’ says Jana Husemann, Chairwoman of the Hamburg GP Association [note that if you’re using a comparative (‘fuller’), you’d also have to state ‘compared to when or what’, and if you’re not doing that, you’re not a serious person]. ‘We are also noticing this through sick leave in the practice teams due to colds.’ Corona tests were sold out in some pharmacies in the Hanseatic city, says pharmacist Dorothee Dartsch: ‘We then reordered.’ There are now enough of them again [I cannot remember when I last thought about a Covid ‘test™’, let alone used such a thing; I recall, vaguely, throwing them away, unused, prior to moving to the countryside in spring 2022] .

In Lower Saxony, more Covid-19 cases have also been detected in laboratories again in recent weeks. According to the state health authority, the seven-day incidence has risen from almost 0 to 4.8 [remember, we’re all going to die]. During the coronavirus pandemic, the incidence was an important indicator for assessing the incidence of infection. As testing for the virus is now comparatively rare, the actual figure is probably much higher.

Omicron Sub-Variant KP.3 is on the Rise

Researchers explain the observed increase in corona infections with the sub-variant of the virus that is currently on the move in Germany. It is called KP.3 and already accounts for more than half of new infections. Although it is probably slightly more contagious than the previous variants, it is not particularly dangerous. The number of severe cases of the disease has not yet risen, nor have hospital admissions increased [what is all the fuss about, then?].

According to GP Apelt-Glitz, this is mainly due to the fact that most people have been vaccinated at least twice [of course it is, eh?]:

Even if you don't refresh your vaccination protection regularly, basic immunisation with two to three vaccinations and usually several infections is enough to protect you from a severe course and death.

[I call BS on this one; to my knowledge, I ‘tested’ positive for ‘Covid’ once in Jan. 2022, even though I never wore a face-diaper (other than, say, on planes) or cared much about ‘the Pandemic™’; while I consider it possible I may have ‘had’ whatever ‘infection’ (felt a bit ‘funny’ and had no taste on the tip of my tongue, much like after tasting hot beverages) in March or April 2020, I’d also add that I had my last cold in spring 2019]

‘Avoid any infection’: Doctor Continues to Recommend Masking

One problem, however, is that it is so easy to get infected. In her practice, the air filters were therefore still running and the staff wore masks [talk about pathologic mental illnesses, as in the above piece from ORF]. However, this is no longer mandatory in hospitals and other healthcare facilities.

I find it scandalous that with such high incidences, which can only be recorded using wastewater data and RKI reporting data [sic], masks are no longer mandatory in healthcare facilities [speak for yourself].

From her point of view, people should therefore continue to take care to protect themselves in closed rooms with many people: ‘This is completely out of touch,’ criticises Apelt-Glitz.

Corona will never simply be a respiratory illness like a flu-like infection, for example. ‘It's a multi-organ disease, a vascular inflammation with a risk of cardiovascular complications, and a lasting immune change that makes it easier to get other infections,’ says the GP. Hence the motto: avoid any infection if possible.

Booster Vaccination Recommended in Autumn

The vaccines adapted to the new FLiRT variants should be available from September. ‘I recommend a booster vaccination, especially for older people and people with previous illnesses or whose last vaccination or infection was some time ago,’ says Apelt-Glitz [I’m not a MD, mind you, but I recommend staying away from these injectable products, esp. if you’re ‘unvaccinated’].

The risk of Long Covid in unvaccinated people is up to 10% [of what?], while it drops to less than five per cent in vaccinated people. ‘Nevertheless, this is of course still high’, says Apelt-Glitz. In addition, every new coronavirus infection brings with it a risk of Long Covid and also weakens the immune system. Regardless of whether it is winter or summer.

There is a persistent myth that coronavirus is seasonal and intensifies in the winter months. We always have waves every four months. This no longer has anything to do with the season. [But…if it’s a respiratory virus, why might that be?]

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Bottom Lines: A Cultural Revolution

It looks ever more clear these days—wherever ‘Covid’ came from (my money is on US-funded GoF ‘research’ carried out by ‘contractors’ elsewhere) and whatever the WHO-declared, so-called ‘Pandemic™’ may or may not be, the effects are obvious by now.

‘Covid’ is, in fact, a Cultural Revolution.

Governments everywhere, following ‘recommendations’ from ‘the Science™’, mandates the artificial division of society into distinct classes of people (unvaccinated, partially/fully vaccinated, vaxxed and boosted, ‘up-to-date’), much like in Mao’s China with the up to ten identities that were designated to create divisions.

Then there’s the entire ‘complex’ of interrelated social pressures to outsource ‘control’ and ensure ‘compliance’ to non-state actors, be they police checking medical documents (‘Covid passports’), restaurant staff checking photo ID (plus ‘Covid passports’), and gov’t mandating all of this. None of this should—could—be legal, if constitutional rights mean anything.

‘The Pandemic™’ was warped the medical professionals’ minds and rendered them insane; just re-read the good GP from Northern Germany: she noticed that masking made people more susceptible to respiratory infections, but she also recommends masking to prevent respiratory infections. Tell me this isn’t insanity?

Finally, there’s a whole laundry list of ‘supplemental’ measures, ranging from air filtration systems (which don’t prevent the spread of airborne, respiratory pathogens) to the sustained recommendation to get another modRNA injection in autumn. Remember when two of these jabs were considered ‘fully vaccinated’? Now we’re talking ‘regular’ modRNA ‘updates’ every couple of months, essentially, because ‘Covid’ no longer (sic) cares about ‘respiratory seasons’.

Essentially, we’re observing, in real-time, the transition of ‘the Pandemic™’ into a year-in, year-out régime of affirmation of gov’t-recommended, quarterly ‘booster updates’. Those who do so will get a sticker, may feel ‘smug’ for a few days (before falling ill yet again), and tell everyone around them that they’re ‘following the Science™ to the letter’. It’s a perfect tool for coercive value-signalling.

Don’t be that person; be yourself. And stay TF away from these modRNA jabs.

And, Finally, Two Reading Suggestions:

Robert Jay Lifton, Thought Reform And The Psychology Of Totalism, who wrote about the Cultural Revolution in Mao’s China. Please consider reading this one, which is available, e.g., at the Internet Archive. Here’s an excerpt from the book jacket:

Now, after twenty-eight years, my own sense of this book has changed. I see it as less a specific record of Maoist China and more an exploration of what might be the most dangerous direction of the twentieth-century mind—the quest for absolute or ‘totalistic’ belief systems. Indeed, that quest has produced nothing short of a worldwide epidemic of political and religious fundamentalism—of movements characterized by literalized embrace of sacred texts as containing absolute truth for all persons, and a mandate for militant, often violent, measures taken against designated enemies of that truth or mere unbelievers. The epidemic includes fundamentalist versions of existing religions and political movements as well as newly emerging groups that may combine disparate ideological elements. These latter groups are often referred to as cults, now a somewhat pejorative designation, so that some observers prefer the term new religions. But I think we can speak of cults as groups with certain characteristics: first, a charismatic leader, who tends increasingly to become the object of worship in place of more general spiritual principles that are advocated; second, patterns of ‘thought reform’ akin to those described in this volume, and especially in Chapter 22; and third, a tendency toward manipulation from above with considerable exploitation (economic, sexual, or other) of ordinary supplicants or recruits who bring their idealism from below.

And, for reading pleasure (that is, if you’re into fiction), I recommend Dino Buzzati’s The Tartar Steppe (1940), which you can also obtain via the Internet Archive. Here’s a brief description (from Wikipedia; emphases mine):

The novel tells the story of a young officer, Giovanni Drogo, and his life spent guarding the Bastiani Fortress, an old, unmaintained border fortress. The work was influenced by the 1904 poem ‘Waiting for the Barbarians’ by Constantine P. Cavafy…

The plot of the novel is Drogo’s lifelong wait for a great war in which his life and the existence of the fort can prove its usefulness. The human need for giving life meaning and the soldier’s desire for glory are themes in the novel. Drogo is posted to the remote outpost overlooking a desolate Tartar desert; he spends his career waiting for the barbarian horde rumored to live beyond the desert. Without noticing, Drogo finds that in his watch over the fort he has let years and decades pass and that, while his old friends in the city have had children, married, and lived full lives, he has come away with nothing except solidarity with his fellow soldiers in their long, patient vigil. When the attack by the Tartars finally arrives, Drogo gets ill and the new chieftain of the fortress dismisses him. Drogo, on his way back home, dies lonely in an inn.

Now, imagine the Branch Covidians, living anxiously for years, masking up indoors, using hand sanitiser every 10 minutes, receiving a modRNA shot every quarter, and generally feeling anxious as hell.

Everyone else, in particular ‘the unvaccinated’, have long since moved on.

When the attack by the Coronavirus finally arrives, the Branch Covidian gets ill and, on his or her way back to sanity and reality, suffers and dies lonely in a ‘care facility’.

It’s summer 2024. Those who, like that good GP in the above-related piece, haven’t returned to reality, quite likely never will.

We have to let go (of them), it would seem.