A general corona vaccination will come in 2022. In addition to the FPÖ, the NEOS are surprisingly against it. Why, explained NEOS boss Beate Meinl-Reisinger.
With the start of the lockdown, the Neos had demanded that schools remain open. Many teachers and parents criticize this as disastrous. It is a “weighing of the physical and mental health of the children”, NEOS boss Beate Meinl-Reisinger founded the demand on Monday evening in the ORF “ZiB 2”. Of course, closed schools would quickly suppress the current infection rate, not being allowed to attend classroom classes for two or three weeks, but it would do something psychologically to the children.
For Meinl-Reisinger, the current regulation is optimal: You have the freedom of choice to go to school, but you don’t have to do that. The NEOS in the National Council had also resisted the general lockdown. According to Meinkl-Reisinger, the most important reason for this is that such a shutdown and the restriction of freedom must be justified. “We just as well see that measures are now needed, an emergency stop in Upper Austria and Salzburg,” said the NEOS boss. But to close everything that “we think is excessive”.
The NEOS would have been in favor of contact restrictions, closed nighttime dining and earlier curfew for daytime dining, as well as restrictions on meetings and canceled parties. For those people who had vaccinated themselves in the last few months, had themselves tested regularly and adhered to all the rules, the lockdown was a “slap in the face” for everyone. The politician was convinced that measures other than a complete lockdown would have been sufficient to slow down the infection process.
In the current corona situation, Meinl-Reisinger withdrew the abolition of the free tests, as suggested by NEOS in the past. The NEOS boss sharply criticized the fact that the federal government had done nothing for months to increase vaccination morale. “A fifth, sixth, seventh lockdown is no longer allowed, these are then compulsory measures,” said Meinl-Resinger. She is now shaking hands with the government “for a new start in vaccination management,” says that no further compulsion is required, but rather positive incentives to get vaccinated.
Speaking of vaccinations, the NEOS recently opposed the mandatory vaccination planned for 2022. Every summer, according to Meinl-Resinger, people have even suggested compulsory vaccinations for occupational groups such as health and nursing professions as well as for educators, “we do not close ourselves to this discussion at all”. However, one should not let the government out of its responsibility to set sufficient positive incentives instead of trying to enforce coercion. Everyone who has not yet been vaccinated, but also those without the third vaccination, should be given a fixed vaccination date, according to the NEOS boss.
“I am convinced that we will all manage that in Austria,” said Meinl-Reisinger about a vaccination rate of around 75 percent, which would protect against further virus waves. The approval of other vaccines, which is likely to be imminent, could, according to the politicians, give a vaccination boost to those who have not yet been vaccinated. Concerned people have to be taken seriously – what Meinl-Reisinger has “absolutely no understanding” for is a minority who are “ready to use violence and cause chaos” and “whipped up” by a political party.
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