A.On February 1st, a compulsory Covid vaccination is to be introduced in Austria. This is what the federal government, states and parts of the opposition decided in December, and two bills from the government and coalition that have not yet been passed in parliament provide for this. The closer the date gets, the more doubts arise, and not only among the notorious critics of vaccination and corona measures. The government has not made any clear statements on this recently; hints allow speculation. On this Thursday, the federal government and governors want to discuss how things should continue in view of the Omikron wave, which is also building strongly in Austria.
Statements by the epidemiologist Gerald Gartlehner from the Danube University Krems, who was occasionally called in as an advisor to the government, caused a sensation on ORF television. He spoke out in favor of reassessing the question of compulsory vaccination in the light of the omicron wave. It is to be expected that the high numbers of infections will result in an unprecedented level of immunity in the population. Gartlehner indicated the possibility of making vaccination compulsory, but analyzing the effect of the Omikron wave before enforcing the planned sanctions (which has so far been planned from mid-March).