Restaurants, Cafes, Bars
Restaurants and bars also strictly enforce the Opportunity Pass. A small cafe doesn’t have the manpower of a huge business to put guards at the door to stop you from entering. But staff are strict in asking for your documents before you order. For example, I’ve confirmed that every restaurant and cafe in my area requires the Opportunity Pass and refuses service to non-Pass holders.
Most enforcement is done by private businesses, but government inspectors also conduct spot checks. For example, a local restaurant owner told me that inspectors unexpectedly entered his place last week. Using a scanning app, the inspectors went from person to person to verify that everyone in the restaurant – customers and staff – had a valid Opportunity Pass and matching ID. Fortunately for the restaurant owner, he’s strict about barring non-Pass holders, so the inspectors found that every person did indeed have a valid Opportunity Pass. If anyone didn’t, the owner would have been fined.
(The owner told me this story when we bumped into each other on the street. We’re friendly with each other, but I’m no longer allowed to enter his restaurant to chat, so we could only speak standing outside.)
Outdoor Seats, Indoor Toilets
The law of August 16 bans people without a Covid Pass from all restaurants and cafes, both indoors and outdoors.
On September 10, the government modified the restriction so that people without a Pass may sit at outdoor cafes. They are required to wear masks and are limited to maximum 5 people at one table.
The law prohibits non-Pass holders from entering any adjacent buildings to use the toilet. So effectively, people without the Pass are banned from using indoor bathrooms at these places.
The rule caused problems because venues had to monitor bathroom access to ensure toilets are only used by people with a Covid Pass.
Stating that the government “is ready for dialogue“, the Health Ministry announced on September 15 that non-Pass holders will be permitted to use indoor toilets. People without the Covid Pass are required to move directly to the bathroom without stopping at any other place indoors, and must properly wear facemasks during the toilet trip.
It’s a moot point anyway because the weather has become too cold for most people to sit outside.
Coercion to Vaccinate
The government contends that the vaccine is not mandatory because you can still get the Opportunity Pass if you have immunity from infection or if you do tests.
However, it’s a fig-leaf to mask the pressure to vaccinate.
Our government pays lip service to immunity from prior infection, but in practice makes it difficult to use as a basis to receive the Opportunity Pass. Officials explain that they’ve made it burdensome because they don’t want citizens to purposefully infect themselves in order to avoid vaccination.
As for the testing option, it is similarly designed to be difficult. Before the introduction of the Covid Pass regime, people could get tests for free at various places through the government health plan. Now, it’s mandatory that testing for the Opportunity Pass must be done at a private lab or medical institute – no mobile labs or home tests – and be paid privately. A negative result is valid for only 48 hours from the time of the sample. So you would have to do a test every 1-2 days in order to live your life freely. The money and time make that difficult for the vast majority of people.
Additionally, if you get a positive test result, even if you have no symptoms, you and all your contacts must isolate for 10 days, which for many people means the loss of income from work.
Only Pcr Tests Allowed
Our government mandated that only a PCR test is acceptable to get the Pass, rather than the cheaper rapid antigen test. Government leaders explicitly created this requirement in order to increase the burden of testing.
The burden of the PCR test is the time and money. Labs offer PCR tests for 60-75 eur and give results in 12-24 hours. The government only recognizes the test as valid for 48 hours from when the swab sample is taken, not from when you receive the result from the lab. With the wait to get the result, this means you would need a test almost every day in order to maintain a valid Covid Pass and continue your life without restrictions.
That number of tests would cost more than 1000 eur in lab fees per person per month, plus the time of going to the lab.
The government explicitly created this burden of time and money, as well as the risk of being forced into isolation, in order to promote vaccination instead of testing.
There’s been a lot of controversy about the PCR-only requirement because it’s obviously vindictive, so the Cabinet has indicated that they are changing the rules to also allow the cheaper antigen test.
But whatever form of a test they allow, the intention is clear: the government is putting maximum pressure on us to get vaccinated. Our freedom has become conditional on vaccination or daily testing.
We oppose this coercion.
Why Don’t We Want the Pass?
My wife and I are not opposed to Covid vaccinations. Vaccination can be beneficial for many people. It’s a personal medical decision that should be made by each individual in consultation with their doctor.
What we strongly oppose are vaccine mandates. The government should not force us to undergo a medical treatment against our will. Our rights as citizens should not be restricted because we do not undergo this medical treatment.
Medical Exemptions: Only Allergies
We oppose the Opportunity Pass out of principle. We believe that Covid-vaccine mandates are wrong in all circumstances.
But in our own case, we have a further issue.
My wife has a long-term progressive disease. Based on data from both the vaccine trials and countries which publish real-world side-effect statistics, we are worried that the vaccine could trigger serious side effects in the short-term, or worsen her condition in the long-term.
Additionally, she’s pregnant with our third child.
We discussed our concerns with the specialist doctor who has treated her for years. The doctor researched the topic and reached the opinion that she is at increased risk of severe adverse effects due to her condition. We presented to the authorities a note written by the doctor detailing my wife’s situation and the conclusion that vaccination is therefore not worth the risk for her.
Our request was rejected. My wife will not receive an exemption from the Opportunity Pass restrictions. We received no explanation. As far as we know, there is no appeal.
We don’t know what happened in her case. But in general, our government is opposed to medical exemptions. The authorities have announced that they only allow medical exemptions in cases where a certified allergist doctor finds, through extensive documented testing, that a person is severely allergic to the substance within the vaccine (anaphylactic reactions). In an interview, an official of the Ministry of Health stated that such an allergy is the only allowable exemption and the Ministry dislikes “the tendency to use medical excuses as a justification to not vaccinate“.
To be continued…