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Lisa-Maria Kellermayr: The death of a doctor. And what we should learn from it

2022-08-09T11:50:11.217Z


Before her death, the Austrian vaccinator Lisa-Maria Kellermayr criticized the lack of help from the authorities and the police. Investigations are finally getting under way – but top politicians still show no insight.


Last weekend, doctor Lisa-Maria Kellermayr was buried in her home town in Upper Austria.

It was a farewell in the smallest circle.

But even this very intimate commemoration and farewell could not take place in peace.

A media accompaniment through the boulevard, which once again exceeded the limits of decency, could not be prevented.

And in Vienna, the memorial at St. Stephen's Cathedral, which had been erected during a large silent rally, was destroyed by a presumably irritated woman - and later repaired.

The death of the 36-year-old doctor, who had dedicatedly built up her practice and then publicly advocated vaccination against Corona, causes sadness, excitement and discussions about the failure of the police and authorities in Austria.

Kellermayr was found dead in her practice in the Vöcklabruck district at the end of July.

The preliminary autopsy results confirmed a suicide.

Among other things, Kellermayr had reported on her website from months of intimidation to death threats “from the Covid measures and anti-vaccination scene” – and finally closed her practice, citing this.

Kellermayr did not receive the support she had hoped for from the professional representation of doctors and the authorities.

She was stuck paying for the private security service she had hired;

the police advised her not to make herself so important and to seek less publicity.

The doctor wrote on Twitter at the end of June that working conditions “like the ones we have experienced over the past few months” cannot be expected of anyone.

(Listen to the Inside Austria podcast episode here.)

Only now, after Kellermayr's death, did the investigations get going, a public prosecutor's office felt responsible and networked with the German authorities.

Hackers and IT professionals had already found several senders of particularly disgusting death threats in Germany months ago, and only now have the authorities become active.

Last week there was a house search on a 59-year-old suspect in Bavaria.

This official failure is now being discussed intensively in Austria, but the official bodies have so far shown no insight.

It took Chancellor Karl Nehammer a week to find regretful words about the doctor's death, but he does not question the behavior of the authorities.

And Interior Minister Gerhard Karner addressed all police officers in an internal letter, assuring them that they had done everything right and condemning the "reflexive criticism" of the police.

An evaluation of the processes, a discussion of possible errors, a self-critical examination of the procedure - none of that exists.

Lisa-Maria Kellermayr is by no means the only person who exposed herself to vaccination issues in Austria and was then hunted down by opponents of vaccination and a right-wing mob.

Other doctors, scientists, politicians and journalists have also been victims of the hate that is directed at them on the Internet and that haunts them in their everyday lives.

The speed with which hate speech spreads online, the force of the disparagement and insults, the relentlessness with which one another is beaten up here causes many people to withdraw from Twitter or Facebook and also to avoid online media forums.

This in turn means that the field there is left to those radical forces who see their goal in destruction - starting with communication, ultimately they have the destruction of the social order in mind.

In Austria, the establishment of a separate, specialized public prosecutor's office dedicated exclusively to hate crime is now being discussed.

Just discussing it can help increase understanding of the relevance of what's happening on the Internet.

And if it causes a few people in front of their screen or smartphone to think for a second about what they are typing, then a lot would be gained.

Social Media Moment of the Week:

Marco Pogo is a doctor, musician and chairman of the Beer Party and now wants to run in the presidential elections in Austria.

This earned him accusations on social media channels that he was endangering democracy.

By the way, Marco Pogo is an artificial character.

If he can collect the 6,000 statements of support needed to run for office, Dominik Wlazny's name will appear on the ballot.

Stories we recommend you today:

  • Hate on the Internet: A competent law enforcement agency would also have a preventive effect.

  • Joko and Klaas dedicate their show to the deceased doctor Kellermayr: The entertainers thank Kellermayr in the Pro7 show "Who steals the show from me?" for their loyalty and commitment.

  • The Ministry of the Interior has so far kept a low profile.

    Now Minister of the Interior Gerhard Karner has issued a circular in favor of pursuing hate messages and defending police work.

Many thanks and greetings from Vienna

Yours sincerely, Michael Völker, Head of Domestic Department, DER STANDARD

And once again a note on our own behalf: You can order this briefing as a newsletter to your e-mail inbox here.

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2022-08-09

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