VIENNA. Over the weekend, the bill for the general compulsory vaccination will be finalized.
While the party executive was meeting and the ÖVP was reorganizing its government team and the party, another expert summit on mandatory vaccination took place in the Federal Chancellery. Constitutional Minister Karoline Edtstadler (ÖVP) and Health Minister Wolfgang Mückstein (Greens) had invited, but were missing from the subsequent statements.
Present were, among others, the President of the Medical Association, Thomas Szekeres, the President of the Disability Council, Michael Svoboda, representatives of the Austrian Students’ Union, Ingrid Korosec, President of the Seniors’ Union, and Franz Lackner, Archbishop of Salzburg and Chairman of the Austrian Bishops’ Conference. The medical association advocated compulsory vaccination weeks ago, Szekeres stayed true to this line and demanded more speed. He spoke out in favor of an immediate compulsory vaccination in the care sector and in the hospitals, but reckons that this will come at the same time as the general compulsory vaccination in February, as there are “lead times”. There has to be a significant increase in vaccinations, with resident doctors playing a major role.
How the compulsory vaccination is legally structured is still open. The draft law is to be finalized over the weekend and will undergo at least a four-week review in the coming week. Administrative penalties are provided for violations. “Penalties are justified, the amount of the penalty should be staggered socially,” said Szekeres.
On Wednesday, FP veteran Andreas Mölzer expressed his approval on the subject of mandatory vaccinations. The party distanced itself from Mölzer’s statements that they were of private opinion, it said. Mölzer followed suit on Friday. He was not in favor of the “mandatory vaccination planned by the government”, but: “I believe, like the majority of scientists, that there is no alternative to vaccination and therefore an obligation to increase the vaccination rate.” Demonstrations are legitimate, but “resistance to legal provisions that have been legally and democratically correct” is “nonsensical”. He advises the FPÖ not to go completely into the area of the “science-skeptical fool’s edge”.
Source From: Nachrichten
