Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) is sticking to the entry into force of the mandatory vaccination on February 1st. After the review has now ended, major changes are no longer to be expected: In the APA interview, Nehammer – Corona-positive from the home office – only announced a “fine-tuning”. The Chancellor finds the proposal to make PCR tests for unvaccinated persons “interesting”.
Since he was diagnosed with corona infection on Friday, Nehammer has been at home, apart from his family. “Thanks to the vaccination, I am doing very well. I have had a very mild course so far,” reported Nehammer. “I would lose any bet that I would be positive now, I’m so good.” He is “very happy” to have been vaccinated three times. According to experts, with a triple vaccination you have over 70 percent protection for a course without symptoms, Nehammer campaigned for the vaccination.
“I am also fully able to work,” emphasized the Chancellor. He is in constant contact with his cabinet, members of the government and state politicians. For example, on Monday he held a virtual preliminary meeting of the Council of Ministers. In the meantime, he has set up his workplace at the dining table – “because it’s the largest table in our apartment and you can spread out most of the documents”. From Wednesday, the Chancellor will have the opportunity to test on Friday if the test result is negative – “let’s see whether the virus allows it or not”.
The parliamentary assessment of mandatory vaccinations ended on Monday, and tens of thousands of statements were received, some of them identical texts from vaccination opponents. The “serious objections” would now be checked and, if necessary, incorporated. Once again, however, Nehammer made it clear that the project would be implemented: “From my point of view, there is no doubt about the necessity of compulsory vaccination.” It is now necessary in the parliamentary process to “fine-tune” the law. When asked whether, despite objections from ELGA GmbH, the start will hold at the beginning of February, the Chancellor confirmed: “From my point of view: yes.”
ELGA GmbH had announced that the technical implementation would not be possible until April at the earliest. “We shouldn’t bury our heads in the sand from the outset because there are challenges.” Nehammer pointed out that Health Minister Wolfgang Mückstein (Greens) has already introduced the option of making a so-called control offense out of it to begin with. As long as ELGA is not yet ready, the authorities would then carry out controls similar to those in road traffic. How the whole thing could be implemented operationally, Mückstein is now to negotiate with the parliamentary parties. However, it was only about “technical details”, said Nehammer. In the event of non-compliance there should be “of course” fines.
Regarding the debate on mandatory vaccination within the SPÖ, Nehammer said: “What matters to me is what the party leader of the SPÖ communicates,” and Pamela Rendi-Wagner has spoken out clearly in favor of mandatory vaccination. Burgenland’s governor, Hans Peter Doskozil (SPÖ), had instead advocated an indirect compulsory vaccination by making PCR tests for unvaccinated people subject to a charge. As an additional incentive, Nehammer considers the proposal to be “interesting” – “why not?” Check the idea.
In the meantime, Nehammer was also open to vaccination vouchers, but in the end he was again skeptical. He does not want to cancel it entirely, but experts from the “nationwide Covid Crisis Coordination” (Gecko) have checked and found that money alone as an incentive does not work that way. Rather, a bundle of measures is necessary, Nehammer found. And even now there are advantages to being vaccinated, you are allowed to go to a restaurant or a shopping center. In order to show that these are not recommendations, but requirements, the 2G controls would be tightened as of today, for example in retail.
Compliance with the measures is now necessary in order to prevent a new lockdown as well as possible, warned Nehammer. “We now have the joint task of ensuring that we keep the situation in Austria so stable that a massive lockdown will not be necessary again.” Such a “shutdown”, in which almost everything was closed, could “actually only be the last resort”, and that “does not reveal the infection situation at the moment”, especially when one thinks of the many side effects.
Nehammer did not want to define a limit until when the schools would remain open. It is clear, however, that “school closings lead to major psychosocial problems” for children and parents. Nehammer rejected the fact that one did not care about the situation in the kindergartens and simply put up with an infection: “The area is taken very seriously.” There is currently intensive discussion about what can be done in the best possible way. However, he did not give details when asked.
Gecko was recently confronted with calls for more transparency, which Major General Rudolf Striedinger from Gecko-Spitze brusquely rejected: “Please do not expect that after the Gecko meetings we will go public and say what we have advised and what conclusions we came. ” Nehammer praises the “outstanding work” of the gecko, but wants to respond to the criticism: “We are also learning there.” One could not provide information about every single discussion process in the advisory body, he said, because this would be confusing for the public. But now a “reporting system” has been commissioned to explain to the media, for example, which issues are being dealt with. “There’s nothing to hide here.” Work is being carried out to ensure that “the interest in information is sufficiently satisfied”.
Source: Nachrichten
