Damper for government: compulsory vaccination in Austria is delayed until April

Just one day after the Austrian government affirmed that it would hold on to compulsory vaccination from February, the plans took a huge blow on Friday on the technical-administrative side.

According to the responsible company ELGA, “for the technical implementation of the mandatory vaccination via the national vaccination register, you will need at least until April 1, 2022”.

In order to set vaccination incentives until then, a reward system with vouchers is proposed, which ELGA can distribute through pharmacies for complete vaccinations.

The opposition FPÖ, which rejects the compulsory vaccination anyway, spoke of a "bankruptcy declaration" by the government and demanded "a resignation".

Stephan Löwenstein

Political correspondent based in Vienna.

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According to the resolutions of the government provided by the ÖVP and the Greens and the federal states, the obligation to have a Covid vaccination should actually come into force on February 1, from March 15, severe fines of up to 3600 euros will be imposed for non-compliance. The law has not yet been passed, it is available for public review, where experts and anyone can raise objections and suggestions. In this context, ELGA submitted its opinion because it was not consulted during the preparation of the draft. ELGA is a publicly owned, not-for-profit GmbH.

Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) and Health Minister Wolfgang Mückstein (Greens) countered recent doubts about the compulsory vaccination on Thursday that they would definitely come.

However, Nehammer already pointed out that the opinions and expertise of the constitutional service would also be taken into account in the parliamentary process.

“But: From our point of view, compulsory vaccination is indispensable.” It is initially unclear whether ELGA's serious doubts had already been communicated internally.

Scientist expresses doubts

The delay could fundamentally call into question the meaning of the compulsory vaccination. According to forecasts, the so-called omicron wave of the pandemic is likely to have subsided in April. At the beginning of this week, the epidemiologist Gerald Gartlehner from the Danube University Krems made people sit up and take notice that a large part of the population would then be immunized - either through the vaccination or through an infection. He had proposed to wait until then to enforce the compulsory vaccination by means of administrative fines and then to reassess the project. Nehammer, on the other hand, referred to the high level of protection that Omikron's vaccination offers against serious illnesses (90 percent). This will ensure the functioning of the health system.

The ELGA has objections not only to the schedule, but also to several specific provisions.

According to the draft, only public or contract doctors from certain specialties should be allowed to certify exemptions from the obligation to vaccinate.

This could "not be implemented" by ELGA.

The same applies to the planned expansion of a central index file to include certain groups of foreigners.

After all, the rules for compliance with the mandatory vaccination in the draft are "inconsistent" with the current Covid regulation, which concerns the interval between the individual vaccination doses.

60,000 comments submitted

In total, more than 60,000 opinions were submitted on Parliament's website, an unusually high number. However, it appears to be mainly due to the fact that fundamental opponents of vaccination have used and submitted text modules for objections. But there are also statements from clubs and professional associations. For example, a non-governmental organization that focuses on data protection is cited with the criticism that the planned implementation of the mandatory vaccination should introduce a kind of “computer search to impose administrative penalties” and reverse the presumption of innocence.

On January 17th, the draft is to be discussed in the health committee.

For a goodbye before February, special meetings would be necessary.

In addition, the abundance of submissions, which must be viewed individually, threatens to paralyze the parliamentary process.

This is likely to be intended by those who oppose the vaccination.

For example, FPÖ boss Herbert Kickl had expressly asked to send in possible submissions on the government draft in addition to an initiative request from the coalition.