Anti-Covid vaccination for all, now a reality in Austria

It’s official: Austrians over the age of 18 must now be vaccinated against Covid-19 or risk a heavy fine, an unprecedented measure in the European Union.

The law, adopted on January 20 by Parliament, entered into force on Saturday, the culmination of a process started in November in the face of the meteoric spread of the pandemic.

The government has decided to opt for the hard way despite the criticism, standing out from its European partners.

“No other country in Europe is following us on the compulsory vaccine”, denounces Manuel Krautgartner, who has engaged in politics against health rules in Linz (north).

In neighboring Germany, a similar project, championed by the new Social Democratic Chancellor Olaf Scholz, began to be debated on January 26 in the Bundestag. But it has fallen behind amid divisions within the political class.

– Checks mid-March –

Despite this drastic measure, the vaccination rate has hardly taken off in Austria, still falling below the levels observed in France or Spain – around 70% of the population.

In a vaccination center in Vienna, which has taken up residence since the end of November in the premises of an Art Deco swimming pool to combine business with pleasure, several dozen people are waiting.

The humanitarian association Arbeiter Samariter Bund, responsible for supervising the operations, has noted a tremor in recent days. “We recorded a small increase of around 9% compared to last week,” manager Michael Hausmann told AFP.

Among the 7,000 injections administered on average daily in Vienna, only 10% are first-timers, he specifies.

Erika Viskancove, a 33-year-old accountant, came to receive her third dose. “I sincerely believe that the law is the best way” to defeat the pandemic, she confides, another calling on other countries to follow the Austrian example.

Melanie, who did not wish to give her last name, did not choose the injection out of conviction.

“I didn’t want to stay locked up at home”, explains this 23-year-old waitress met by AFP in this same place a few days ago, while in Austria, the non-vaccinated are excluded from restaurants, sports venues and cultural. From now on they will also be subject to fines, which she considers “unhealthy”.

All adult residents are affected by the text of the law, with the exception of pregnant women, those who contracted the virus less than 180 days ago and finally those who can be exempted for medical reasons.

The checks, however, will not begin until mid-March: sanctions may then be applied, for an amount varying from 600 to 3,600 euros, but they will be lifted if the offender complies within two weeks.

– Exception in the world –

A “soft” method which may not be “very effective”, reacts Gerhard Kammer, a 65-year-old technician.

Himself favorable to the law which “protects us all as a community”, he thinks that “a certain number, even a large part” of the anti-vax “will pay and not be vaccinated”.

If more than 60% of Austrians support the government decision according to a recent survey, large sections of the population remain firmly opposed to it.

For several weeks after the announcement of the project, tens of thousands of people took to the streets to castigate a measure described as radical and draconian.

Critics have also emerged on the meaning of this law in the face of the lesser severity of the Omicron variant and the explosion in the number of cases.

But for the Minister of Health Wolfgang Mückstein, it is necessary to prepare “to fight against the new variants” which could appear in the months to come.

The vaccination pass is required in an increasing number of countries for certain professions or activities, but anti-Covid vaccination for all remains an exception.

It has thus been decreed in Ecuador, Indonesia and even in two authoritarian states in Central Asia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

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