More Than One in Ten Austrians Are Defying Mandatory Vaccination Law

People demonstrate against the Austrian government's measures taken in order to limit
FLORIAN WIESER/APA/AFP via Getty Images

Nearly a million Austrian adults are reported to not be fully vaccinated against the Wuhan coronavirus, despite the Austrian government requiring all adults to take the vaccine, threatening fines or even prison.

Austrian Ministry of Health figures suggest that a total of 972,289 adults in the country, 13 per cent of the adult population, are unvaccinated against the Wuhan coronavirus, down from 1.3 million unvaccinated Austrians at the start of February.

A total of 5.69 million people, which corresponds to three-quarters of the Austrian adult population, have a valid vaccination certificate, while the number of people who have recovered from the virus stands at 729,000, Austrian newspaper Kronen Zeitung reports.

Austria’s capital city Vienna has the most people who violate the mandatory vaccination rate at 16 per cent of the population, while Tyrol and Burgenland are the lowest with 11 per cent.

Those who have recovered from the coronavirus within the last six months are exempt from the mandatory vaccination obligation but only 7.4 per cent of Viennese fall into that category, compared to 13 per cent of people in Upper Austria and Salzburg.

While the Austrian government has proposed to enact fines and possible prison sentences for those who refuse to be vaccinated, an expert commission is expected to make a report this week to decide if the policy will be implemented as planned starting in mid-March.

Physicians Eva Schernhammer and Herwig Kollaritsc along with legal experts Karl Stöger and Christiane Wendehorst have been tasked with determining if the mandatory vaccination policy is needed to stop the Austrian medical system from being overloaded.

Should the experts determine that the policy go ahead, Austria will enter “Phase 2” of the mandatory vaccine plan, which could see police check people for proof of vaccination as part of their routine checks at traffic stops and other areas.

Prior reports had indicated that Austria may also deploy undercover plainclothes police officers to randomly check people for their vaccination papers.

Follow Chris Tomlinson on Twitter at @TomlinsonCJ or email at ctomlinson(at)breitbart.com.

COMMENTS

Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.