Austria introduces mandatory vaccination for its citizens

[droughtmeat]

So they really did it. Parliament passed the vax mandate.

CDC studies show boosters work against omicron – DW – 01/20/2022

Three shots of the BioNTech-Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were the best protection against severe illness, the CDC found. Meanwhile, Germany reported another record high in daily infection rates. DW has the latest.

www.dw.com

 

[budoslavic]

So they really did it. Parliament passed the vax mandate.

Yep, looks like they really did pass it.

 

[Nomadiccat]

So they really did it. Parliament passed the vax mandate.

CDC studies show boosters work against omicron – DW – 01/20/2022

Three shots of the BioNTech-Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were the best protection against severe illness, the CDC found. Meanwhile, Germany reported another record high in daily infection rates. DW has the latest.

www.dw.com

Not only they passed it, it was passed via 137 to 33 vote, 4:1...pretty sad state of society and not a lot hope for those who're resisting, this looks like 4 wolves wanting to eat one deer situation and voting for this.

 

[Samseau]

Yikes, if I was an Austrian trapped right now I'd make a serious prayer to God and take a massive leap of faith. Wow, insane country the people there have lost their minds.

 

[Zagor]

Well if I was an Austrian citizen, I would emigrate instantly. They’re in the EU and can freely move to any EU country.

 

[Mercury]

True, they need hope in very dire times. The Catholic Church in Austria has a vaccination mandate as far as I am aware. The non vaxxed Church members (especially men) feel betrayed and are leaving the church in large numbers.

Compared to when? I was in Regensburg with one of the best bishops in Europe and there was many times we were the youngest people in the Mass(we are in our 40s). The average age I'd peg closer to 65.

Cardinal Schönborn on the other hand is an absolute disaster with his theology not far from "Father" James Martin. I never went to mass in Austria but typically places like this the parishioners have already abandoned the church en masse.

https://www.ncronline.org/news/vati...n-god-will-not-deny-same-sex-couples-blessing

 

[lonewolf1968]

I don't understand how is this even posible? My banana republic has a bill of rights where there is a right of liberty, and a right of conscientious objection, they don't have it easy to mandate their vax here, why do they even allow this in a first world country? Whats wrong

 

[Viktor Zeegelaar]

Not only they passed it, it was passed via 137 to 33 vote, 4:1...pretty sad state of society and not a lot hope for those who're resisting, this looks like 4 wolves wanting to eat one deer situation and voting for this.

Don't have any hope in politics. There are remnants looking for the truth, but they're a tiny group.

I don't understand how is this even posible? My banana republic has a bill of rights where there is a right of liberty, and a right of conscientious objection, they don't have it easy to mandate their vax here, why do they even allow this in a first world country? Whats wrong

What's wrong is that 1/3rd didn't take the jab. So they had to put the pressure on. In other countries that's 10-15 percent.

 

[Stadtaffe]

It ocurred to me today an unavoidable correlation about Austria being the only country in Europe, perhaps in the world to take such a step of not just pressuring and coercing this fake vaccination through threats of unemployment but actually having it as a legal offense with fines. That is correlated with the removal of the most popular elected politicians.

I may have mentioned it before but in 2 steps the existing government was basically dismantled:

• Heinz-Christian Strache as leader of the FPÖ, a hard-right party as they like to call it in these times quit after he was framed by an attractive woman posing as the daughter of a newspaper owner, saying he would manipulate the press. He was popular and the party had the third biggest percentage of seats in government in recent years. So he quit and that was more or less the end of it. Some more comment on that below.
• Sebastian Kurz of the ÖVP, which as I understand is a bit like the German CDU also quit after some accusations of fraud and bribery. He was celebrated as the youngest European leader when he was voted in.

I watched that 'Ibiza' video of Strache's so you can see what happened. Don't necessarily agree with the public's response to it though. Actually if anyone knows, can they say a bit more of what Kurz did to earn that dismissal? ( @Utopia2013 ) I lived in Germany so never followed the news in Austria that closely..

What other country sequentially destroys the heads of 2 out of 3 most popular parties, the centre right and hard right? The party left untouched of course was the SPÖ, the socialists with the second biggest following.

This is so sick and it surely must have something to do with Austria being the country to go most extreme with the vaccine laws.

I don't get it the way they do these scandals in the German speaking world. Bill Clinton became president although he "didn't inhale" and stayed president although he "did not have sex with that woman". Donald Trump became president despite saying you can simply "Grab ’em by the pussy"

When I was living in Germany in 2011 the minister of defense Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg was a much loved politician in the running to become chancellor. Then it came out that he had plagiarised parts of his PhD thesis and German radio could not talk about anything else for two weeks. I just couldn't understand it.. Of course it's not wonderful, but is it worse than "didn't inhale" or "Grab ’em by the pussy". Strache said "Journalisten sind sowieso die größten Huren auf dem Planeten." and that must to German ears have been very bad.

Anyway obviously some parts of the German / Austrian mentality that is lost upon those of us who didn't grow up there. Just seems like they managed to get themselves into this nasty situation in Austria by letting some of their most popular politicans get removed by scandals.

 

[Stadtaffe]

I just listened to this -

Die unglaubliche Geschichte des Ibiza-Drahtziehers: Teil 1 – Die Falle

Wer ist Julian Hessenthaler – der Mann, der Heinz-Christian Strache in die Falle lockte? Wir erzählen, wie alles anfing, wie es zu dem Video kam und was danach geschah

www.derstandard.at

There are many others in the "Inside Austria" series, will check out part two at some point. Well the good news is, someone went to jail and possibly is still there for luring that elected leader into a trap. Can't tell excactly who was motivated to create such an elaborate trap, although one of Strache's security guards seemed to have had a grudge, but the person who went to jail was Julian Hessenthaler, a private detective. I think it was for filming it. Even a lawyer was recruited to the task of setting the trap then dealing with the video that resulted from it! Was someone paying them or were they doing it out of their own political or personal motivation? The lawyer tried to sell the video for five million Euros to one of the opposition parties. Sounds like tabloid stuff.

Strache excused himself once caught for "acting like a teenager" in Ibiza. Perhaps he just wanted the best for Austria with a hard right leadership and the "means" when he was tempted with it through a very elaborate scheme, of bribing the press, was just what any politican these days does, playing the field as it lies. It feels like it's linked to virtue signalling culture, that a politican is expected to be of such perfect virtue in such a twisted world and certainly punished severely for deviations.

The Ibiza thing was actually their second attempt to draw him into a scandal - the first one failed and they had to cook up something more elaborate to make it work. He had a bad feeling some of the time during the Ibiza meeting, almost caught them out when he questioned the quality of the toenail polish of the fake cousin of a Russian media oligarch, that it does not seem correct for a woman from such a wealthy background. There was also a fake story about bringing a few hundred million half-dirty Euros into Austria as part of their story.

How can the Austrian public buy this? It's like the press and literally an actress, a detective and a lawyer pulled off a stunt! Has this happened in any other country? In the countries where I have lived and followed politics, of course there are scandals in politicans personal lives, various ones with Boris Johnson recently. Yes, there are outright assasinations like Kennedy and the Swedish Olof Palme. ..but to actually stage something - and not a surprise birthday party with friends hiding in the dark - but a carefully orchestrated trap in an exotic loction where someone was known to holiday and an actress was employed. Can't remember that happening anywhere else, but say if anyone has any examples.

So there's more than one thing which has happened in Austria and nowhere else.

 

[Stadtaffe]

Thankfully, it looks like they were only having a laugh:

Austria to lift most COVID-19 restrictions by March 5

Austria will lift most of its remaining COVID-19 restrictions by March 5, including scrapping an earlier closing time of midnight for bars and restaurants and allowing nightclubs to reopen, Chancellor Karl Nehammer said on Wednesday.

www.reuters.com

The general requirement to enter Austria will be eased from proof of a booster jab to proof of vaccination, recovery or a recent test, Health Minister Wolfgang Mueckstein said.

On the vaccine mandate, a committee of experts on health and constitutional law that is to review its suitability will report to the government before March 15, Nehammer said, suggesting the measure could be done away with before fines are handed out.

 

[fortyfive]

Thankfully, it looks like they were only having a laugh:

Austria to lift most COVID-19 restrictions by March 5

Austria will lift most of its remaining COVID-19 restrictions by March 5, including scrapping an earlier closing time of midnight for bars and restaurants and allowing nightclubs to reopen, Chancellor Karl Nehammer said on Wednesday.

www.reuters.com

Sadly, there is no end in sight. Other EU states from what I have read also are preparing legislative and citizens for another wave and variants in next autumn.

Austria says it is putting its COVID-19 vaccine mandate on ice

Austria is suspending its COVID-19 vaccine mandate, its ministers for health and constitutional affairs said on Wednesday, six days before fines for breaches were due to start being imposed.

www.reuters.com

She and Health Minister Johannes Rauch said the mandate could yet be reintroduced if a new variant made it necessary.

"Today is not the last chapter we are writing on the subject of the vaccine mandate," she said.

 

[Viktor Zeegelaar]

Sadly, there is no end in sight. Other EU states from what I have read also are preparing legislative and citizens for another wave and variants in next autumn.

Austria says it is putting its COVID-19 vaccine mandate on ice

Austria is suspending its COVID-19 vaccine mandate, its ministers for health and constitutional affairs said on Wednesday, six days before fines for breaches were due to start being imposed.

www.reuters.com

Health and constitutional affairs, they put that together brilliantly.

 

[Garuda]

They're reversing course.