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Minister of Health Rauch: "Compulsory vaccination does not make anyone vaccinate"
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Helmut Fohringer / dpa
It came into force in February and was suspended a month later - now it's finally history: Austria's government has announced the end of general corona vaccination.
Health Minister Johannes Rauch pointed out that the omicron variant of the corona virus, which is now predominant, is spreading quickly, but that there are significantly less severe Covid 19 diseases.
»Living with Covid means that we will present an overall package of measures;
today that consists of abolishing the obligation to vaccinate,” said Rauch.
The obligation to vaccinate was introduced "under different conditions than we have today," said Rauch.
At that time, Delta was the dominant variant and the country's intensive care units were at the limit of their resilience.
"But Omicron has changed the rules," said the Green politician.
With the new variant, the effectiveness of the vaccination against infection has been reduced.
People who are basically willing to be vaccinated are now more difficult to convince of the need for a refresher, said Rauch.
As soon as the obligation to vaccinate was suspended, the government had declared that the measure was not proportionate given the generally milder course of omicron infections.
In the meantime, the government is apparently also convinced that the measure will not significantly increase the number of people vaccinated.
"Compulsory vaccination doesn't get anyone to vaccinate," said Rauch.
The debate in Austria was also followed with great interest in Germany - after all, there was also the possibility of compulsory corona vaccination in this country.
In April, however, a draft law on compulsory corona vaccination from the age of 60, which was supported by many politicians in the traffic light coalition, failed in the German Bundestag.
Minister of Health Lauterbach had recently ruled out making a new attempt at compulsory corona vaccination in Germany.
ulz/dpa/Reuters/AFP