Europe has recorded 12 million new confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the past week, the highest record in Europe since the outbreak, mainly due to the high infectivity of the Omickron mutant strain.

Austria uses tools to scan vaccination codes. "3G" refers to rehabilitation, two shots of vaccine, nucleic acid or antibody test certificate, "2.5G" refers to not accepting antibody test certificate, and "2G+" refers to a type of rehabilitation or vaccination certificate that requires the same time, plus nucleic acid test certificate.

vaccine is becoming one of the hopes of Europe getting out of the epidemic and returning to normal, but the debate on "vaccines and freedom" is also deepening the division of European society. Austria where I currently live is a microcosm of this contradiction.

Far-right parties and anti-vaccine march

In mid-November 2021, Austria's two-dose vaccination rate was only 66%, ranking at a low level among continental countries. Therefore, Austrian then Prime Minister Alexander Schallenberg announced that a mandatory vaccine policy would be implemented in February 2022. On January 20 this year, the bill was passed by 137 votes in favor and 33 votes against the 183 seats of the Austrian House of Commons. This also makes Austria the first European country to force all adult residents to get vaccinated.

This bill has also aroused many rallies and protests from Austrian people. The largest was on December 11, 2021, and about 44,000 people attended the rally. The most recent one was on January 15 this year. About 27,000 people gathered in Heldenplatz in the center of Vienna, Austria. Rally parades of varying sizes occur almost every two weeks. Sometimes rail transit can be interrupted due to parades.

0 January 15, 2022 rally protest site

0 January 20, all parties except the far-right party Austrian Liberal Party (FPÖ), voted in favor. The Austrian Liberal Party has also become one of the main forces against the vaccine policy. Herbert Kickl, the leader of the party, appeared many times at rallies against vaccines and epidemic prevention measures and delivered a speech. Crick expressed his dissatisfaction with vaccine policy in four consecutive "shocks" ("Entsetzt, erschüttert, fassungslos und schockiert") during the January 20 debate, insisting that it violated the freedoms of the Austrians.

However, European governments are far from simply choosing “freedom or epidemic prevention”, they are facing deeper social problems caused by long-term “abnormal” states. This includes but is not limited to rising prices, unemployment, economic tightening, and the face of more severe social inequality among the middle and lower classes.The politicization of vaccines is only one of the manifestations of the dilemma faced by European society. The propaganda strategy of far-right parties, "to oppose the new crown vaccine and freedom", also takes advantage of this. This also greatly compressed the public's space for policy discussion and deepened the division of European society.

Vaccine politicization

I attended a political science seminar at the School of Political Science of the University of Vienna on January 25. During the discussion, when talking about Austria's latest vaccine policy, students from two political departments, Valentin and Michael started arguing about whether they should be vaccinated. Valentine believes that vaccination is the only effective means to control the epidemic and a way for individuals to assume social responsibility. Mike believes that the mandatory vaccine policy will greatly affect those homeless people. The heat of the debate ended with the fact that both sides accusing each other of being "Nazi".

The implementation of the mandatory vaccine policy in Austria is mainly divided into three stages. The first stage is from early February to March 15. Residents who have not been vaccinated will receive notifications asking them to get vaccinated. The second phase is from March 15th. The Austrian government will check the performance of residents' responsibilities for vaccination nationwide. Unvaccinated residents will be reported and the Austrian Ministry of Health will decide the final date for the first shot of the vaccine. The third stage starts from this final vaccination date. Residents who fail to fulfill their vaccination responsibilities may face a fine of up to 3,600 euros (about 25,531 yuan). After the discussion meeting, I chatted with Mike about his views. He told me that he is an social worker and he contacts many homeless people on a daily basis, as well as street artists. He said many homeless people he knew participated in the march against forced vaccination. These homeless people were unable to enter public facilities for food and heat because they did not have the conditions to be vaccinated. But he emphasized to me that he is a left-winger and he is not against the new crown vaccine, but he hopes that the implementation of the policy can take into account the difficulties faced by more people.

This is a very interesting phenomenon. When discussing vaccine policies, people need to emphasize their position on political spectrum in order to avoid looking like their own political opponents when they speak. This is also a reflection of the politicization of vaccines in people's daily communication. It seems that there are only two positions in the speech field. If you don’t agree with me, then you must be my argumentative enemy.

Stefan, who invited me to this discussion, told me that a friend he had been very good before, suddenly started reposting some conspiracy theories about vaccines on social media one day. He seemed very disappointed in his tone. I asked him if the vaccine debate really caused serious problems between friends and loved ones. He nodded, showing affirmation.

Social network governance, personal information protection, the difficulties that the middle and lower classes may face, etc., a topic could have been discussed from many aspects, and these discussions can also promote social development to varying degrees. But the politicization of vaccines, or the political polarization caused by various issues, has submerged these discussions in noise and hustle and bustle.

"Daily"

Austria is the first European country to issue a vaccine injunction on all adult residents. Germany next door has also begun to discuss the implementation of a vaccine injunction in February or March at the latest. In the visible future, vaccine injunctions will become a very likely option for European governments. The debate over vaccines and vaccine injunctions will continue in European societies. It’s just that no one can deny that vaccines are still one of the few ways to return Europe to “normality.”

Vienna, Austria Center, my vaccination site.

I received the booster injection at the end of November 2021, and the immune response was quite strong, but this made my life in Europe gradually return to a certain "daily" state before the epidemic. The movement of people between European countries seems to have become as convenient as before the epidemic. An Indian friend in Brussels, Belgium invited me to visit her new home many times, saying that he also wanted to go back to Gent to see him and meet his friends he met while studying there. I can finally start planning my trip to Brussels .

(Liang Xiuyu, graduated from the University of Ghent, Belgium and the University of Vienna, Austria, and now lives in Vienna)

Editor in charge: Zhu Zhengyong Picture editor: Le Yufeng

Proofreading: Shi Yan