Germany lockdown unvaccinated8/21/2023 While scientists almost unanimously back COVID vaccines as the best way to protect people from the virus, which has led to the deaths of more than five million people worldwide – including 113,000 victims in Germany and more than 13,000 in Austria – civil liberties organisations have shared growing concerns about how democratic freedoms have been curbed by some governments in the pandemic. Maybe my opinion will change in the future, but who knows.” I would take the vaccine if it felt safe, but at the moment I don’t want to get vaccinated because my gut feeling is that the vaccines have not been tested enough. “I’m just sorry in general that there is such a war between vaccinated and unvaccinated people, without there being any respect for the other opinion. “The only thing I don’t want to do is get vaccinated just to get my freedom back,” he said. Nat A, a 35-year-old rail steward in Vienna, said he does not know what he will do if the mandate comes into effect. There is only one dominant discourse at the moment,” she said. “I feel less comfortable, more anxious and more excluded being here. She has not ruled out returning to the United Kingdom. I’ve had tearful, panic-filled moments, and at the same time, I’ve felt like this is just another thing on top of the usual exclusions that we have to deal with.”Ī resident of Berlin for more than 10 years, Keysha, who works in the creative industry and on issues around diversity, said the pandemic has increased a sense of homesickness. And it has created massive upheavals in my family, impacting our life and my relationship. “Being excluded in this way during the last few months has triggered my existing anxieties. There’s something non-humane about the whole situation. “It has been difficult seeing people laughing and enjoying themselves in cafes when I’m not allowed in,” Keysha said. As a person of mixed heritage living with disabilities, she feels uneasy about the current climate. Keysha*, a 39-year-old Londoner living in Berlin, said her family stopped immunising when she was younger. The latest measures and proposed mandates, they add, are having a significant effect on their emotional, physical and mental wellbeing. Those who remain unvaccinated say their voices, concerns and experiences are not being heard. Official figures show that roughly 70 percent of the population are fully vaccinated and nearly 30 percent have received a booster shot. Similar rules apply in Germany, where new Chancellor Olaf Scholz has said he backs the vaccine mandate proposal. Those who refuse jabs have been placed under a lockdown and are currently barred from entering all non-essential public spaces, such as cafes, gyms and libraries. With nearly 70 percent of the population vaccinated, Austria has one of the lowest vaccination rates in Western Europe. Those who do not comply will face hefty fines of up to 3,600 euros ($4,100) every three months. In November, Austria announced that all those living in the country would be required to be vaccinated from February this year. “We can sit outside certain places, but it always feels like you don’t have the permission to exist in the same way that those who are vaccinated do.” It is clear that through these measures, they want to exclude us. Then the rules changed to a PCR test, which would have cost me around 300 euros a week. “Before, only a free test was needed to go swimming, so each time I went I did that. In the meantime, the semi-retired writer and translator says she has limited her social life. I hope it doesn’t get to that, and that the mandate doesn’t come into effect, but if it does then I would explore my options.” “I did a lot of research about vaccines after what happened, and given this knowledge and my history, how can I trust these COVID vaccines? I know many people who have already left Germany. If Germany does implement a vaccine mandate next year, a move being discussed, she would consider leaving the country. Meier has not been immunised against COVID, a position she says she is committed to. Since then he has been living with physical disabilities and my destiny has been determined by this,” Meier told Al Jazeera, from her home in Frankfurt, central Germany. “I trusted the vaccine but then my son got very sick and nearly died. Matthias was left with serious disabilities that continue to shape his and his family’s lives, decades on. Names marked with an asterisk* have been changed to protect identities.īerlin, Germany – Liz Meier*, now 56, was a young mother when her two-year-old son Matthias* was given the triple vaccine against mumps, measles and rubella.īut the jab, made mandatory last year for school-age children in Germany, did not react well.
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