“Von Trapped” – Austria echoes its past, becoming first in EU to compel vaccinations

“Austria is now a dictatorship,” says Opposition leader

Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2021

The EU Commission, European Court of Human Rights, UN Human Rights Council – all silent

Events are now moving fast in Austria, a member country of the EU since 1995. On Monday 15 November the country introduced what amounts to two classes of citizenship.

The unvaccinated were suddenly subject to a lockdown, meaning they could only leave their homes for certain limited reasons. Their civil liberties were entirely different to those of the vaccinated class of the citizenry.

Yesterday (Fri 19 Nov), only four days later, the new Austrian Chancellor Herr Alexander Schallenberg gave a press conference where he announced not only a full lockdown for all citizens starting this coming Monday, but also a new law to force all Austrians to accept vaccinations by the end of January or face fines and possibly imprisonment.

Details are being worked out.

Yesterday the Austrian opposition leader, Herbert Kickl, from the right of centre FPO party was scathing on the government's new plans, saying:

"As of today Austria is a dictatorship."

Herbert Kickl, Leader of FPO Austria, 19 Nov 2021

Why the sudden Austrian blitzkrieg on Covid?

The Austrian take-up of vaccinations is only slightly less than that in the United Kingdom. In the UK 67.6% of the population is fully vaccinated. In Austria the figure is 63.9%.

Despite this, the rate of Austrian Covid detections has rocketed in recent weeks. Below we show the trajectory of confirmed positive tests per million since the start of the summer for Austria, the UK, and the major EU countries.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

7-day rolling average of new Covid infections since the summer

Positive tests per million, 01 June – 18 Nov 2021

  • Austria: 1,395
  • France: 201
  • Germany: 536
  • Italy: 138
  • United Kingdom: 581

The above figures are for 18 Nov 2021. The chart below shows the trend since the summer.

© Brexit Facts4EU.Org - click to enlarge

Positive Covid tests are one thing, deaths are quite another

Readers will now be aware that the UK has always tested far more people than our EU counterparts. At times this has resulted in unfavourable comparisons being made of the incidence of Covid in the United Kingdom compared to EU countries. In essence, the more you test, the more you find.

In this cold Covid world we now seem to live in, it might be said that positive test results are at the start of the spectrum, but deaths from Covid are the true measure of the significance of this epidemic. Unfortunately even this metric does not tell readers what they really want to know.

Many months ago the UK authorities revealed that many thousands of deaths were being attributed to Covid when in fact they were due to other causes. They were included in the Covid death figures because the patient had at some point in the past tested positive for Covid. These were recorded as Covid deaths when they patently were not. Facts4EU.Org reported on this at the time.

Nevertheless, below we show the deaths per million attributed in some way to Covid for the EU and the UK, since the summer.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary

7-day rolling daily average of 'Covid deaths' since the summer

Daily deaths per million, 01 June – 18 Nov 2021

  • Austria: 4.8 per million
  • France: 0.7
  • Germany: 2.3
  • Italy: 1.0
  • United Kingdom: 2.2

The above figures are from 18 Nov 2021. The chart below shows the trend since the summer.

© Brexit Facts4EU.Org - click to enlarge

Observations

Covid is complex, freedoms are still freedoms

Readers have differing views about Covid-19, vaccinations, and many other health-related issues. Regardless of these particular views, there can be no doubt that Covid-19 measures adopted by various governments in what are seen as free societies have gone far beyond what would be considered acceptable in normal times.

The issue of whether individual liberties have been curtailed is not really anything which can be debated. These are incontestable facts. What can be debated is whether these liberties should have been curtailed, and what evidence is available to debate questions such as these.

This issue is now becoming even more complicated, as official scientific evidence has emerged in recent days and weeks that the vaccines being administered become between 40-60% ineffective in preventing transmission of the virus in as little as six months.

And so, a deer, a female deer…

This brings us to Austria, the fictional ancestral home of the von Trapp family featured in ‘The Sound of Music’. Some commentators in recent days have made observations about the compulsory vaccination policies of the pro-Nazi administration, many decades ago.

The reality is rather more complicated and we do not think the comparisons are helpful. This does not stop a very serious debate now taking place about the plans of the Austrian government to create what is effectively a two-class society. In many ways this brings the questions about civil liberties and individual freedoms within Europe to a head.

The EU Commission jumps all over countries like Poland and Hungary, but stays silent on Austria

For years the EU Commission has been pursuing the right-of-centre governments of Poland and Hungary over their alleged transgressions of various legal norms.

Whilst these are important issues, they pale into insignificance compared to an EU government proposing to make one-third of its population into what will effectively be second-class citizens. This is now what the Austrian government is proposing to do in just 10 weeks’ time.

Judging from what we are reading from other governments in the EU, such as Germany, we fully expect that this experiment will be copied in other EU countries.

And what do those who dominate the various Human Rights Courts have to say?

These days courts such as the ECJ, the ECHR and others seem to be so politicised that they will not rule against a fundamental curtailment of individual liberties and human rights if this is being imposed by a government of which it approves.

This seems to apply in even greater measure if that government is following policies which the EU and UN establishments endorse, as in the case of Covid-19.

On the streets of Vienna today a large demonstration is expected. We doubt this will appear on the BBC. It’s time we can all see adult conversations about this issue in the broadcast media but we don’t see this happening any time soon.

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[ Sources: Johns Hopkins Univ / OWID ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Sat 20 Nov 2021

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