Mandatory vaccination: darkness falls over Austria

To be threatened with bankruptcy for refusing to get vaccinated against a disease you are unthreatened by and have probably survived (in some cases, without knowing you contracted it) is downright inhumane.

A darkness has fallen over Austria, nestling its shadow into the very heart of central Europe. Beginning from today, a new law on the country’s statute book compels all adults to receive the Covid vaccine (unless exempt), while those who fail to comply with the mandate risk being fined €3,600 (£3,000).

Austria is the first country in Europe to strongarm its entire adult population into getting jabbed, with numerous protests having gripped the country since the measure was first announced. The Government’s messaging has also become as toxic as its written law, with Austrian officials branding vaccine sceptics and other tyranny-phobes as part of the ‘far-right’.

I can scarcely imagine the nightmare Austria’s unjabbed, second-class population are desperate to wake up from. To be threatened with financial levies and bankruptcy for a disease you are unthreatened by and have probably survived (in some cases, without knowing you contracted it) is downright inhumane.

I’m now comforted by the fact that the British press are fixated – to the point of obsession – by a birthday cake, Christmas parties, and alcohol-fuelled garden gatherings. In an unforeseen move to save the NHS, Health Secretary Sajid Javid blinked and cancelled the incoming NHS staff vaccine mandate, so go on about what the Prime Minister was up to last year for as long as you like – it reminds me that we’re not Austria.