He considers it a “very good approach” to motivate vaccination in a positive way – “at what level and in what form, the experts should think about it,” says Nehammer. “But one thing is also clear: it can then not only affect those who are newly vaccinated, but of course also applies to everyone who was willing to be vaccinated.”
In any case, Nehammer is sticking to the mandatory vaccination from February. With the reference of his party colleague Karoline Edtstadler to the necessary effectiveness of the vaccines, the government has by no means opened a back door, emphasizes Nehammer: “Compulsory vaccination is essential.” The vaccination also protects against the new Omikron variant, and further development of vaccines is possible.
He recently made himself a picture at the AKH, explained Nehammer: 90 percent of the patients in the intensive care units are not vaccinated, the other ten percent have no functioning immune system due to previous illnesses. Propaganda against vaccination is therefore “deeply cynical”. For Nehammer, relying on infection is not an option: “This is a path that Austria has always refused to do because it carries the verdict, so to speak, that many people have to die too.”
The federal government has had to listen to a lot of criticism these days because of the New Year’s Eve regulation. If you initially wanted to allow New Year’s Eve parties in pubs, you rowed back five days later and set the curfew at 10 p.m. The Chancellor argues the U-turn with the warnings of the experts. In the “nationwide COVID crisis coordination”, or “Gecko” for short, all measures were once again evaluated in the light of the rapid spread of Omikron in Europe. Omikron has already arrived in this country, Nehammer pointed out that it is already the dominant variant in Vienna.