Leave Austria NOW

Austrian politicians now plan compulsory vaccination for everyone starting on Feb 1, 2022: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/19/austria-plans-compulsory-covid-vaccination-for-all

Those refusing to be vaccinated are likely to face administrative fines, which can be converted into a prison sentence if the fine cannot be recovered.

In other words, if you refuse to get the shot and refuse to pay the fines, you will be put in a metal cage.

The government said it was preparing the legal groundwork for a general vaccine mandate […].

Meaning vaccine mandates aren’t legal yet, so they’ll just change the law.

The article quotes Austrian chancellor Schallenberg:

“For a long time the consensus in this country was that we don’t want a vaccine mandate,” Schallenberg said after a meeting with the Alpine republic’s heads of state. “In spite of months of persuasion, we have not managed to convince enough people to be vaccinated”.

There were no “months of persuasion”. There were months of coercion. He may consider that ‘light’ coercion (it isn’t) compared to what’s to come but that doesn’t make it persuasion. He’s also trying to blame the citizens for not doing what’s ‘best’ for them and plaintively portraying himself and other Austrian politicians as having been ‘patient’ with the commoners, which is a manipulative move.

Tightening vaccine pass controls and testing requirements had started to make a difference but it “hasn’t convinced enough”, said Schallenberg […].

That’s evidence of Schallenberg not knowing what persuasion is. It should come as no surprise that subjecting people to medical bureaucracy and forcing them to close their businesses isn’t convincing. It’s coercive. Schallenberg thinks getting people to do something through coercion is the same as having convinced them.

The former chancellor Kurz, who resigned amid a corruption inquiry in mid-October, had assured the public in July that “for everyone who is vaccinated, the pandemic is now over”.

Liar.

“No one wants a lockdown, it is a crude instrument,” said Austria’s Green health minister, Wolfgang Mückstein, on Friday. “But it is the most effective instrument that we have available”.

No it isn’t. There have been lots of statistics in the US showing time and time again that states with lockdowns often have higher infection rates than those without.

[T]he planned general vaccine mandate drew heavy criticism from the opposition benches in parliament. “From this day Austria is a dictatorship,” said Herbert Kickl of the far-right Freedom party, which has advocated scientifically unproven alternative treatments against coronavirus infections, such as the anti-parasite drug ivermectin.

I’m not familiar with the Freedom party, but I doubt it’s ‘far-right’. My guess is the Guardian is intimidating readers into rejecting the Freedom party. I know that the narrative in Germany since the start of the pandemic has been that anyone not approving of the German government’s corona measures is far-right. That doesn’t make any sense because many of them are just small-business owners, say, who do not wish to be forcefully closed down and go bankrupt. The same narrative may be at play in Austria.

Regarding something being “scientifically unproven”: As Karl Popper explained, nothing is or can be scientifically proven. The Guardian is epistemologically illiterate.

Unlike other federalised countries like Germany, Austria has a centralised national database of vaccination, which the government could check against those registered as living in the country to determine who has not yet got a jab.

That’s disgusting. There’s no escaping the government if you remain in Austria.

Mandatory vaccination is not unprecedented in Austria. In 1948 the postwar government made vaccination against smallpox compulsory by law. In 1980 the World Health Organization declared smallpox the first disease to have been defeated through vaccination.

Meaning: immoral things have been done before so it’s okay to do them again, and those efforts were successful then so they will be successful now. That’s not how morals work.

To all Austrians: I urge you to LEAVE NOW. Your government is actively employing violence against you and planning to employ more. Your country is turning into a medical dictatorship. You have freedom of movement within the EU so go to a country where you’ll be treated better, like Sweden or Denmark (from what I hear). DO NOT remain in Austria. Even if you get the vaccine, this will not be the end of it, as there have been growing concerns that the vaccines do not remain effective for very long. You’d be forced, at the threat of violence, to sign up for a medical subscription. Again, LEAVE NOW.