Austria abolishes compulsory Covid vaccination: “Conditions have changed”
Austria was the first country in the European Union to introduce compulsory vaccination against Covid-19, amid protests and controversies and with an application that was never actually effective. Thursday, today, the government of Vienna says goodbye to this measure. Now there are "other conditions" compared to last November and compulsory vaccination, which at the time was decided by a large majority, "created deep rifts in society", as Health Minister Johannes Rauch said Thursday. So end of the obligation.
Between late summer and autumn 2021, the Vienna government reacted somewhat slowly to the covid, despite the spread of the Delta variant . Then an escalation of drastic and ineffective measures: for example the so-called “cutlet lockdown” for the unvaccinated, ie the ban on going to restaurants for the unvaccinated, then a complete lockdown for the unvaccinated, then a lockdown for everyone. As compensation for the last step, a conference of government and state leaders in Tyrol decided to introduce general vaccination. This was intended to appease the vaccinated citizens, who had actually been promised that they would not take more drastic measures. The decision to make vaccinations mandatory has attracted a lot of attention across Europe, with Austria seen by some as a pioneer, but also countless and sensational protests.
The law, which entered into force in February 2022 and was supposed to apply until the end of 2024, has never been applied. The delicate fines provided for those who refuse vaccination (up to 1800 euros per year in cases of relapse) have never been imposed. First there was a transition period, then the execution was suspended and finally the entire law was shelved. A vaccination commission made up of doctors and lawyers came to the conclusion that proportionality would not currently be given, even if, unfortunately, the page remained open to a possible future "Focus" in the autumn. In short, withdrawing from mistakes is complex.
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The article Austria abolishes compulsory vaccination Covid: "Conditions have changed" comes from ScenariEconomici.it .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/laustria-abolisce-la-vaccinazione-obbligatoria-covid-le-condizioni-sono-cambiate/ on Thu, 23 Jun 2022 16:16:28 +0000.