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A brothel in Vienna has offered an interesting solution to its country's low vaccine uptake figures.
Austria's Fun Palast brothel has launched an “exchange” programme where customers can get 30 minutes with a “lady of their choice” in exchange for getting a coronavirus vaccine.
It comes as Austria's vaccine uptake numbers are among the worst in western Europe.
Only 64% of the country's population has had both vaccines.
And as of yesterday (November 9, 2021) the country's infection rate hit its highest ever level, as 8,400 tested positive, with 11,544 deaths having occurred from the virus in the nation since the pandemic began.
Austrian leaders have now introduced the “2G rule”, which means that if you are not double-jabbed, you can no longer enter restaurants, hotels, hair salons and large events.
A spokesman for the brothel said: “Due to the pandemic, we have registered a 50% decrease in clients. With this initiative we hope that the number of customers will rise again.”
Peter Laskaris, manager of Fun Palast, told various news outlets that he was seeing an “overlap” between the client base and the unjabbed.
He said: “Basically, I was looking at the statistics and I read that we need like 70/75 percent for us to reach herd immunity, but we're currently only at 63 percent.
“And then I noticed in the statistics that very many men, very many men with a migration background, virtually refuse vaccination or don't even know that you can be vaccinated.
“And since we are actually reaching this target group, we decided to set up a vaccination clinic here.”
An employee of the brothel, who calls herself Mina, said that the idea is “very good”.
She added: “The name fun palace suggest to have a bit of fun here and return back to normality a bit more.
“And I also think it's a great idea that this is being offered for women, children and of course men.”
And “Gerhard”, who is a customer of the brother said that his visit there had inspired others to “do the same”.
He said: “I would have gotten vaccinated anyway but the 2G rule has certainly accelerated things a little," he explained.
“And since an acquaintance of mine organised this action I thought 'Lets go for it'.
“I think this is perfectly OK because we can achieve a better immunisation rate this way and that's necessary to end the pandemic at some point.”
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According to Vienna International News, prostitution in the country was banned through the pandemic, although it was still taking place illegally.
The ban was lifted earlier this month, but strict restrictions are still place on both sex workers and their clients
Sex workers in the country were particularly hard hit by the Corona crisis financially and were entitled to benefits from the hardship fund as self-employed people.
- NHS
- Coronavirus
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