Austria's Covid policies are increasingly absurd as of March 2022

It was obvious in early December, by looking at South Africa, that Omicron changed everything.

During December, some countries, Austria included, put specific restrictions on travel from countries with high Omicron prevalence.  This was exactly backwards.  It should have been policy to have Omicron displace Delta as quickly as possible.  So reduce restrictions for travel from Omicron countries.  Or just remove all travel restrictions, and the greater infectivity of Omicron will do the rest.  Yes, this was all obvious at the time.

If you know someone whose health was wrecked by Delta in December or January, and it was in a country with a policy of DELAYING DISPLACEMENT OF DELTA BY OMICRON, then this policy may have made the difference of which strain they got.

Austria tightened restrictions on travel from Omicron countries Dec 26, way after it was obvious this was wrong and bad policy.

There was some kind of police crackdown throughout January, as it was impossible to get a coffee without "papers please", even in the local places that know me.

Ski lift attendants in Tirol were militantly enforcing mask rules throughout January and February, for queues outside in the fresh air, weeks and months after Omicron exceeded 99% of new cases in Austria.  A bus driver in Mayrhofen lost his shit, because I tried to ask him where the bus stop was for going back in the other direction, but I had failed to put my mask on.  He went bright red and screeched Germanically about calling the Polizei, in a high voice.  This didn't seem proportionate.

A fellow passenger on a chair lift asked me to put my mask on, too.  I did, and I made some smalltalk about snow conditions that day (it was a beautiful day), and asked, out of curiosity, what level of new cases were now Omicron in Austria.  Basically all, he said.  Well over 99,5% (they say "Komma" to denote the place where a decimal point should go), he said.  Again, this is outdoors moving through fresh air.  So I guess he was capable of knowing the rule made no sense in the situation, but perhaps was just concerned with adhering to it for the rule's sake.

A lift attendant "enforced" masks on us when we were the only people around, and were catching the chairlift in a more remote spot, and high winds were blowing.

Train conductors continue to enforce FFP2 masks, today, March 18.

The mandatory vaccination law, which was not acceptable in the first place, has now been suspended, but not revoked.  There is no acknowledgement that it was and is overreach, or of the concept of individualised medicine.

As time goes on, it becomes clearer that natural immunity is better (higher efficacy, longer-lasting) than the vaccine-induced immunity, which decays quickly.  Since everyone is getting exposed, there's no point bothering so much with vaccines at this point.  They served their purpose during a particular phase, and now Omicron means that phase is over.  Individuals might opt for boosters, sure, but mass vaccination as a strategy certainly makes no sense at this point..

Yet in Austria, the recovered papers only last 270 days, after which someone finds it very difficult to do normal things unless they have a further vaccine.  And the general obligation to be vaccinated may yet return from its suspension.

And having had Omicron provides good backwards protection against previous strains, but vaccines and recovery from previous strains do not provide as great protection against Omicron (while still being somewhat helpful, and swinging the severity odds nicely).  There are now several layers of not-making-sense to these policies.

Austrian Covid policy decoupled from reality in mid-December (having previously crossed the boundary of the morally-acceptable in November).  Since then, every passing day of cafe enforcers, public transport enforcers, ski lift enforcers, blah blah blah enforcers has made the country look more ridiculous.