The Austro economy is very export-oriented. In the government's latest vaccination plan, key workers should only get vaccinations with the large majority of the population – not in the previous phase, as was previously planned. That’s probably only in summer. Companies whose people oversee projects abroad are now growing dissatisfaction with the vaccination strategy, and some are trying to get vaccines themselves, Ö1 reported Tuesday morning. The vaccine manufacturers' association warns.
As one of the few company bosses who express the criticism publicly, Palfinger boss Andreas Klauser affirmed on the radio that his company “could not just watch and sit idly by what happens”. Palfinger was recently the victim of a cyber attack and he, Klauser, has to make sure that the listed company with 11,000 employees worldwide functions as best as possible.
You have “already gotten a few dents in the crisis”. “We are simply trying to take additional support measures here in order to be able to act in the best possible way,” says Klauser of the vaccine initiative. “We have received offers. We are currently reviewing them.” It is about residual quantities from abroad for around 200 to 250 key employees. It is not about torpedoing the national vaccination plan. Competitors from Scandinavia could already start traveling from April. Klauser had already said something similar in the “Salzburger Nachrichten”.
The domestic vaccine contingent is not attacked by the private acquisition. In principle, they would be legal private purchases.
Renée Gallo-Daniel, President of the Association of Austrian Vaccine Manufacturers, expresses understanding for the fact that companies want to protect their employees by looking for vaccines themselves. In her association, however, this is viewed “very critically,” she said on the “Morgenjournal” of ORF radio Ö1. “We would really make the appeal here: If such an offer comes, please contact the authorities.”
One knows such offers that companies would receive: “And we really have to warn against this, because the vaccines that are offered here either cannot come from legal sources or there are also a lot of counterfeits in circulation.” “The background is that in the context of the pandemic in Europe and around the world, Covid-19 vaccines are only offered in public, national vaccination programs.”
The Federation of Industrialists (IV) has always shown restraint when it comes to companies procuring vaccines themselves. In principle, companies are advised to adhere to the national vaccination schedule. But key workers should also have priority, because they are necessary to ensure the competitiveness of the Austrian economy on the world market.
