Austria’s vaccination plan is a step too far
As Covid cases surge across Europe, Austria has announced that it is to be the first country on the Continent to make vaccination against the virus compulsory. The regrettable move, to be introduced in February, will see all those who refuse the jab without good reason face heavy fines, and even jail sentences if they are not paid. In addition, the entire country is to begin a complete national lockdown from next week. It is to last for three weeks, with a review in 10 days.
For months, pro-lockdown scientists have held up European countries as a model for the UK to follow. The UK Government was accused of being reckless for not reintroducing mask mandates and for failing to require vaccine passports for entry into some venues.
However, such restrictions have done little to contain a new wave of infections that has been crashing across Europe from the east, and which is now placing hospitals in countries such as Austria and Germany under pressure. As a result, their governments are resorting to even more draconian measures in a desperate attempt to curb rising case numbers.
It is in itself extraordinary that Alexander Schallenberg, the Austrian Chancellor, has felt the need to reimpose a full national lockdown – including on the vaccinated. The vaccines have been available for months, and other European countries – including the UK – have been able to persuade the vast majority of their populations to be inoculated, massively reducing pressure on hospitals and slashing death rates. In Austria, however, a sizeable minority has remained stubbornly opposed and the result is that the country has been left vulnerable as case numbers rise once again.
This newspaper has consistently argued in favour of the vaccines, including the current booster programme of third doses. There is also arguably a case for compulsory vaccinations in some settings, particularly for people who work with the vulnerable. Britain is insisting that all care home staff be fully vaccinated and will bring in a similar requirement for NHS workers in the spring.
But the Austrian plan is in a different league: the country’s entire adult population will have to submit to what is, after all, a compulsory medical procedure. There is bound to be significant resistance and it is not clear how exactly it will be enforced. Many Austrians will feel that it infringes on their individual rights, not least to privacy. There is also a danger that compulsion by the state will undermine faith in the benefits of vaccination in general.
Vienna is to take two months to work out the legal technicalities of its plan; its time would be put to better use finding more productive ways to promote vaccine uptake.
TMigrant crisis
he Home Secretary, Priti Patel, is setting out to tackle what has become the almost intractable problem of how to cope with the large number of asylum seekers wishing to come to Britain. Ms Patel’s hard, but fair, plan would change the way asylum seekers are treated once in Britain and seek to prevent what is becoming a national crisis. There have been over 24,500 arrivals across the Channel already this year, nearly treble the total for 2020, with more than 5,000 this month. The aim must be to discourage people from making this often hazardous crossing.
A number of so-called “pull” factors are cited to explain the UK’S attractiveness to migrants, including our liberal employment laws and the English language. But there is also the problem of what happens to asylum seekers when they enter the labyrinthine asylum system. Often they are allowed to live in this country for years before discovering their fate. Emad al Swealmeen, who blew himself up in Liverpool last week, had been in this country for at least seven years.
The Home Secretary is seeking tenders to build purposebuilt reception centres where up to 8,000 migrants would have to obey strict rules or risk losing their right to claim asylum, as well as a digital system to speed up the process. Her proposals follow a visit she made to a camp on the Greek island of Samos, where asylum seekers are given an 8pm curfew or face punishment, which could hamper their asylum request. These measures are unlikely to be enough to end this crisis on their own, but they are a step in the right direction.
From Russia with love
What do you get the Tsarina who has everything? It is a question that must have plagued Russia’s Alexander III. A Romanov could not rely on a new ironing board cover or some petrol-station flowers. At least for Easter Day in 1885 he had a good answer, with the help of the jeweller Peter Carl Fabergé. That first egg he created started a Russian imperial tradition and a number of Fabergé’s creations are on display for a special exhibition at the V&A. But is everything as it seems? It has been claimed that one of them – the Third Imperial Easter Egg, thought lost but which came to light in 2014 – may not be the real deal after all. If that were not enough, there are still several other missing eggs made for the Romanovs yet to be found. Will anybody crack the case? Such mysteries are what make history so intriguing.