Tens of thousands oppose the Austrian compulsory vaccine COVID | Coronavirus Plague News

About 44,000 people attended the rally in Vienna as Austria launched a coronavirus vaccine.

Tens of thousands gathered at the Austrian capital in Vienna to hold official demonstrations of COVID vaccine and house confinement rules for those who have not yet received the jab.

Police say about 44,000 people took part in the protests on Saturday, the most recent of the week’s major protests since Austria last month became the first EU country to claim that it would make the COVID-19 vaccine legal.

A slight closure from last month ends on Sunday for vaccination, but those who have not received the required dose should stay home.

“Not for the vaccine of fascism,” read one sign of opposition. “I am not a Nazi or a criminal,” said one. “I am fighting for freedom and against vaccination.”

Vaccination should be mandatory from February to all residents of 14 years, unless it is time to provide health care.

No one is going to receive a compulsory vaccination, the government has said, but those who refuse to shoot should do so pay the first penalty of 600 euros ($ 670), which can rise up to 3,600 euros ($ 4,000) if not stable.

Manuela, 47, said she came from out of town to protest.

So why “prevent non-vaccinated individuals, especially children?” She asked the worker, who said she had been vaccinated but did not want to be named.

“It’s a strange discrimination not to send a child to dance classes, tennis or swimming lessons.”

Analea, a 44-year-old violinist teacher who also declined to give her family name, said “it is not the way democracy should go”.

“We can have different ideas and cultures, but we still live together freely,” he said.

About 68 percent of Austrians have a COVID-19 vaccine, one of the lowest in Western Europe. Many Austrians are skeptical of the vaccine, which is promoted by a to the right of the Freedom Party, the third largest in parliament.

The Freedom Party, led by President Herbert Kickl, convened a rally on Saturday in protest of the uprising.