From February 2022, vaccination will be compulsory in Austria. Is that possible?

Our Scientific Director Michael Lysander Fremuth informs about the rights and obligations of the individual and the state, as well as the fundamental freedoms and limits with regard to compulsory vaccination.

• “The protection of the general public can take precedence over the personal interests of the individual,” said Michael Lysander Fremuth about the human rights implications of compulsory vaccination in an APA interview on 19 November 2021. Read the full article on compulsory vaccination here on ORF.at.

• Michael Lysander Fremuth also spoke to Deutsche Welle TV on 20 November 2021 about the planned compulsory vaccination in Austria starting in February 2022. You can watch the interview on Deutsche Welle TV here.

• Why mandatory vaccination, childhood vaccination and a lockdown for unvaccinated persons are possible despite the existing interference with personal freedom explained Michael Lysander Fremuth in an interview with Puls24 on 4 December 2021.

• In the ntv podcast “Wieder was gelernt: Impfpflicht in Österreich” from 15 December 2021, Michael Lysander Fremuth clarifies that there will be no physical coercion within the framework of compulsory vaccination and goes into more detail about the implementation of compulsory vaccination in Austria.
• In Michael Lysander Fremuth’s guest commentary Impfpflicht ab Februar – mit Grundrechten vereinbar?, published in the Standard on 16 December 2021, he clarifies the admissibility of compulsory vaccination on the basis of the current state of knowledge. Fremuth runs through various scenarios and shows that compulsory vaccination – against the background of newly emerging virus variants – must constantly be reviewed for compliance with fundamental rights.
• Is compulsory vaccination the way out of the pandemic – or does it only advance the division in society? What does the omicron variant change, and which details should be discussed more? Michael Lysander Fremuth discussed these questions with other experts in the video talk “Standard Mitreden” on 19 December 2021. The discussion with the Austrian Health Minister Wolfgang Mückstein, vaccination expert and political scientist Katharina Paul, and Reinhold Kerbl, pediatrician and Secretary General of the Austrian Society for Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, can be viewed here.