Austria Suspends Mandatory COVID-19 Inoculation for All Adults

The Austrian government on Wednesday announced it would suspend the mandatory COVID-19 inoculation for 18 years and older, days before the law becomes effective. 

Last month, Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen imposed the tyrannical law that would require all adults in the country to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 or face significant fines.

BREAKING: Austrian Parliament Approves Mandatory COVID-19 Inoculations for All Adults

While the legislation became law in early February, it was scheduled to go into effect starting March 15th and run through January 31st, 2024.

As reported by The Gateway Pundit:

Beginning on March 15th, law enforcement authorities will start checking people’s vaccine status by conducting random traffic stops and spot checks to find dissenters. Anyone caught violating the mandate can be fined “up to four times a year,” with the penalty increasing with each violation. An individual’s first offense will result in a €600 (~$687) fine and can go as high as €3,400 (~$3,890) by the fourth.

According to reports starting on March 15th, authorities will begin conducting random checks for vaccination certificates, including traffic stops.

This was the first of its kind in Europe.

However, Karoline Edtstadtler, Austria’s constitutional minister said, “we will suspend the vaccination mandate, in accordance with proportionality.”

Make no mistake – all of us that fought & saw off the Vaccine Mandate here shone a light for everyone

Now Austria 'suspends' vacc mandate before fines due to come into place

Suspend not good enough: do not allow this anywhere

Keep fighting #Together https://t.co/nGKmYa623V

— Together (@Togetherdec) March 9, 2022

Austria was the first country in Europe to adopt a universal Covid-19 vaccination mandate. Now it's backtracking, saying it will now suspend the measure based on findings showing that vaccines don’t protect well against infections by Omicron. https://t.co/becjnxW7v4

— The Wall Street Journal (@WSJ) March 9, 2022

ABC News reported:

The government, however, said Wednesday that it was suspending the mandate at least for now following a report from a commission of health and legal experts. Health Minister Johannes Rauch said the commission will deliver another report within three months and the government will review the situation then.

“It is time now to use the flexibility of this law,” which allows for the mandate to be suspended, said Karoline Edtstadtler, the minister responsible for constitutional matters.

“We came to the conclusion that … we will suspend the vaccination mandate, in accordance with proportionality,” she said. “At the moment, many reasons point to this interference with fundamental rights is not justified; at the moment — because of the dominant variant we see here — we don’t see any need to actually implement this vaccination mandate.”

The mandate was first announced as Austria saw a surge of infections with the delta variant of COVID-19. But the currently dominant omicron variant, while leading to very high infection levels, generally has caused milder illness.

Austria was the first country in Europe to go ahead with a universal vaccine mandate. Only neighboring Germany is even considering emulating it — and it’s still uncertain whether it will do so. Some countries in Europe have introduced limited mandates, for specific professional or age groups.

The Austrian mandate exempts pregnant women, people who can’t be vaccinated for medical reasons and those who have recently recovered from COVID-19.

Edtstadler said the mandate may yet be needed.

“I don’t think I need a crystal ball to tell you that today’s isn’t the last chapter we will write regarding the vaccination mandate,” she said.

While the suspension of Austria’s COVID-19 jab mandate is a temporary victory in the war against medical tyranny, the authoritarians will likely repeat their attempts in the future.