Health Minister Johannes Rauch (Greens) is focusing on research and further development of treatment options when dealing with Corona and its health consequences. This applies to both the acute illness and long-term consequences. There will be no more general measures or regulations from the federal government – “as of today” – he reiterated. For the election year 2024, Rauch warns urgently of a shift to the right. The social issue must also come back into focus.
“I can understand the longing of everyone who is fed up with Covid,” emphasized the minister in the APA annual-end interview. “I’ve always said the pandemic will disappear or change or become less – but the virus will remain. So it will just be there every season, just like the flu.” And of course it makes sense in certain situations, for example to wear a mask.
“We know what’s going on in the hospitals”
However, restrictions on civil liberties as in the past are only justified if there is a risk of the health system being overloaded. There are good instruments – such as wastewater monitoring and the SARI dashboard: “We know what’s going on in the hospitals.” Austria is far from overloading the health system – with, according to Rauch, currently around 1,200 COVID-19 patients in the hospitals, even now in what is by far the largest wave of infections to date. Of course, it is up to each health facility to issue measures such as a mask requirement within the framework of the house rules – as is currently the case in some cases.
Regarding the possible long-term consequences of a Covid infection, the minister referred to the measures taken and expects further research results. The steps recommended by the Supreme Medical Council will all be implemented, said Rauch regarding the planned reference center for post-viral diseases (such as Long/Post Covid or ME/CFS). “As far as the long-term effects are concerned, the research is simply open. The numbers of those affected by Long Covid vary from five percent to 40 percent, although I consider the five percent to be too low and the 40 to be too high, but that’s mine Opinion.” We have to wait and see where the scientific evidence ends up.
“You simply can’t say that Long Covid doesn’t exist”
“The fact is, it has already been said: You simply cannot say that Long Covid does not exist or that ME/CFS is an illness that is essentially just psychosomatic,” the minister also summarized the debate that is still simmering in parts of science a somatic cause of the disease. “Those affected are rightly upset, feel like they are not being taken seriously and are left alone. We are taking this seriously and taking the appropriate steps,” assured Rauch.
Rauch dismissed fears that the private practice area might be overwhelmed with the treatment of Long Covid or Post Covid or ME/CFS patients. For example, he recalled a tool for practicing doctors developed by the President of the Austrian Society for General Medicine (ÖGAM), Susanne Rabady, with which you can “check out symptoms online, so to speak.”
This means that the information provided to doctors is “very low-threshold,” emphasized Rauch. And there is also “further training” at conferences – allegations that nothing happens are therefore inaccurate.
Low willingness to vaccinate among Austrians
In order to counteract Austrians’ low willingness to be vaccinated – especially for Covid, but also for influenza – Rauch wants to focus primarily on “raising awareness”. There is a need for a “fight once morest hostility to science” in the country. “I can see that, because some people are of the opinion that the earth is flat and vaccinations are of no use,” he said – also with a view to the FPÖ. “You have to clean up the nonsense, you have to stand up to it and that’s what we’re doing.”
However, Rauch does not see a need for a larger vaccination campaign like the one that existed in the early phase of the corona pandemic: “That is simply due to experience that large campaigns don’t really make a difference.” He also sees a high level of information among the population – almost three years following the first corona vaccinations. Rather, at the state level, old people’s and nursing homes were asked “very specifically” to ensure that the residents were refreshed. Rauch also relies heavily on family doctors: “I believe that the basic information, so to speak, from the bottom up in the doctor’s office is the very best information.” Because there is trust there, “people believe that too.”
“Vaccination protects and the vaccination works”
However, Rauch admits that the transfer of the vaccination program – including for influenza – to the private sector did not work quite as well as hoped: At the beginning it “only worked to a limited extent.” He therefore agreed with the state health councils at the most recent meeting of the Federal Target Management Commission to learn the lessons in January and to be better prepared for the coming vaccination season. For the influenza vaccine, for example, the quotas for free vaccinations were quickly sold out.
At the same time, the minister once once more called for people to take advantage of vaccination offers: “Vaccination protects and vaccination works,” and this should be countered by conspiracy theories to the contrary. “Of course the corona vaccination makes sense and protects once morest serious illnesses. Of course the influenza vaccination makes sense” – especially for high-risk patients over 60 years of age. And the HPV vaccination – “which we have now made free up to the age of 21” – also protects once morest possible cancer, the minister recalled one of his projects.
Satisfied with health care reform
Rauch is also satisfied with the health care reform passed by the National Council in December. “I would call it a huge achievement,” he said. His aim was to improve the situation for patients and to create a “uniform catalog of services from Lake Constance to Lake Neusiedl”. The minister is aware that not all measures take effect immediately: “Now it’s regarding implementing them.”
The reform will have its full effect in one to three years, “when the expansion has actually taken place in the private sector and the hospitals have then been relieved”. The “good news” is: “We have already opened well over 50 primary care facilities, five of which are children’s PVEs. We have 30 in the pipeline.”
“Then we won’t recognize this Europe”
Rauch is critical of international and national developments in terms of voting behavior and the rise of right-wing parties. Once once more, Rauch described the EU elections taking place in June as “the most important elections of my political life”. He is not prepared to accept without a fight “that the entire political situation shifts to the right to the extreme right and instead of one Orban or one Kaczynski we get many small Orbans or Kaczynskis – then we will not recognize this Europe.”
The right-wing parties like the FPÖ are telling “a complete illusion,” namely that you just have to “build a fortress” and the problems will be solved. “The opposite is the case.” In competition with the large blocs China, the USA and the BRICS states, Europe will only succeed “if we as a Union, as the European Union, are effective and are able to act jointly.” Parliamentary democracy is an “abomination” for right-wing parties. “They despise parliaments; they are concerned with creating rights of intervention and setting up structures that threaten freedom of the press, threaten the rule of law, undermine democracies and ultimately lead people to immaturity. That is not our model of life.”
The minister sees the situation similarly with regard to the National Council elections in the fall, for which the FPÖ can expect a clear election victory according to current surveys. It will have to be possible to “concentrate and bundle the democratic forces in Austria,” said Rauch. ÖVP and SPÖ will have to be “capable of forming a coalition” – “unless you actually accept a Federal Chancellor (Herbert, note) Kickl – and also accept to implement what he has announced.” In all probability it will have to be “a three-way constellation” “that is able to counteract this destructive approach of the FPÖ with something constructive,” says Rauch, hoping that his party, the Greens, will be involved. “An attempt must be made to form a democratic government beyond the FPÖ. My role in this will not be a decisive one because I will no longer be running for office,” Rauch emphasized once more.
