This is not going to change people’s mind. This is not going to be read millions of times but it is what I feel I need to … I don’t know, I need to report? To shout?
At the end of June, I got vaccinated for the covid-19. I did it as soon as it was allowed to people in my category in the city where I live (Vienna, Austria). I got the “booster shot” at the end of October, again as soon as it was allowed. I follow the rules: I wear a mask in closed public spaces, I get tested before going to a concert if needed.
The situation in some Austrian hospitals and the number of infected people are very, very bad. In the last few days, the local news has reported that the people in intensive care unit (ICU) are either not vaccinated (the large majority) or they already had health issues before getting infected with covid-19.
Since few days, unvaccinated people in Vienna are in lockdown. They are not more than 36% of the population (roughly 64% is fully vaccinated). When the numbers of covid-19 cases was lower, the leading party of the Austrian government repeatedly said that this pandemic was over. Two days ago, they announced that from February 1 the vaccination will be mandatory and from tomorrow, November 22, the entire Austria will be in lockdown for at least three weeks, hoping that the situation will improve. I hope that too. I honestly do not know how nurses, doctors, and everybody working in the hospitals can still be doing their job. Love for humankind? Need of an income to survive?
Yesterday, November 20, many people went on the streets of Vienna to protest against these measurements that, according to the experts, should allow us to save lives. As I said in the beginning, I do not want to change people’s mind.
These people protesting, as far as I can tell, are against the vaccine because of many reasons. You probably find a list of them somewhere in the internet. I can report, in random order, some (categories) of them that I remember reading or hearing.
- The vaccine is not the solution, it will not save us because… (there are variants of the virus, migrants will keep bringing it to our country)
- The vaccine is bad (it contains crazy stuff, it’s an experiment)
- It’s my body and decide what to do with it
- Jesus is my vaccine
I do not have many social interactions with many people, but I have few friends I like to meet and few hobbies that require me to be next to others for some time and my life will be limited again because of the facts reported above.
The way the majority of society (vaccinated people, health workers, scientists) has been treaten here is very, very disappointing and frustrating.
As you may know, I’m Italian and in Italy, the situation is not so bad as here in Austria. I think the current government has been doing a relatively good job at keeping things at a decent level and I’m quite proud of it. On the contrary, the image of a well-developed informed Austrian society, an example of a liveable place, turned out to be completely wrong.
I would like to express these feelings by protesting in front of the Austrian government (I can’t vote aat the Austrian elections). I asked on reddit what vaccinated Viennese people think about the situation, whether they plan to protest for the ways they are treated. The majority replied along the lines of “whatever, I’ll watch Netflix or play video games”.
All of this makes me deeply sad and mad at society.