Testing, Testing
Austria is filling the gap left behind by an absence of coronavirus vaccines with more tests in order to break the cycle of lockdowns and re-openings
Servus!
This week, chancellor Sebastian Kurz flies to Israel in order to meet with the country’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Together with Danish prime minister Mette Frederikson, the trio will talk about cooperating on the research, development, and production of vaccines and medication, Kurz told his European colleagues last week at a virtual summit. The three countries are believed to be looking ahead to the next phase of the struggle against the coronavirus when booster vaccines will be needed, tweaked to take new COVID mutations and variants into account.
Austria is, along with Israel and Denmark, part of the so-called ‘first mover’ group of nations who, by swiftly imposing lockdowns, rapidly brought case numbers down during the first wave of the coronavirus.1 The countries have held regular meetings since, exchanging ideas and best practices, but elected not to move together on vaccine procurement. The Financial Times reported Monday that Kurz turned down an offer in May to partner with Israel and Pfizer in deference to the European Union’s own supranational procurement program. Now Israel is the vaccinator ne plus ultra, while European countries have been slow to receive the much-needed doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine they ordered last year.
Kurz’s trip to Israel is an insurance policy against the EU’s ability to procure and distribute vaccines and he would not be the first European leader to take such measures. Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán has already done deals with Russia and China for their respective coronavirus vaccines—neither of which have been approved by the European Medicines Agency. Slovakia has joined with Hungary in purchasing the Russian Sputnik V jab, while Poland has enquired about the possibility of buying up doses of the Chinese vaccine. Hungary, Poland, Slovakia: Thus have the very countries for whom the European vaccine procurement program was designed—those with underfunded healthcare systems who valued cost over speed—become the ones who are undermining it.
A system of domestic vaccine production—an initiative favored not just by the government but also the opposition—will take time to realize. Until then, Kurz is betting on another strategy to end the cycle of lockdowns and re-openings which began in November: test, test, and test again. Since December, when the first voluntary mess testing of the population was held, Austria has built out its testing capacity. To give Vienna as an example, the city now has nine mass testing venues—either walk-in, drive-in, or both—as well as 30 smaller temporary venues housed in containers. Pharmacies can also administer tests and give out home testing kits, five of which Austrians can claim for free each month.
More tests, so the theory goes, means greater freedom. Shops, hairdressers, museums, libraries, and zoos have been open since February 8, and a negative coronavirus test result no more than 48 hours old is required in order to visit the hairdresser, nail salon, massage parlor, and so on. When outdoor dining comes back on March 27 (or March 15 in the state of Vorarlberg, where case numbers are far lower than they are currently in eastern Austria), a negative test outcome is also likely to be the ticket to gain entry into cafes and restaurants.
Testing has definitely contributed to a more accurate picture of the coronavirus’ spread in Austria and, as a tool, can help weed out positive cases. But faced with the highly-contagious British B.1.1.7 variant, mass testing has failed to break the relationship between people moving around more and people spreading the virus. In spite of more testing and the FFP2 (N95) mask mandate, since February 8, active case numbers have only increased. Perhaps testing can manage the virus but its progress could only be turned back via a fourth lockdown, which is unlikely to hold, or mass vaccination. Hence Kurz’s plane ride to Israel.
Bis bald!
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The less said about what happened next, the better.