The doctor claimed on an open stage under the logo of the state of Lower Austria that the vaccines from the manufacturer Moderna would contain “neurobots” that “can be activated from outside, for example via 5G”. Every vaccinated person has “received an IP address” and humanity is being “converted into batteries for digital artificial intelligence”.
The wildest conspiracy theories are discussed in the seminar room. The audience, mostly people over 40, listens spellbound. Dr. K. begins his next claim, which he reads from his script that is lying on a table in front of him: The states have artificially increased the number of corona deaths, according to the practicing doctor K.: “Relatives [wurde] offered a free funeral or a certain amount of money if they agreed with the corona diagnosis.” And: As a result of the vaccination against the coronavirus, stillbirths and deformities have increased.
All of these claims are false: The ingredients of all Covid vaccines approved in Austria are known and publicly available. There are no “neurorobots” in it. There are no serious reports about financial offers that would increase the number of Covid deaths. And in Austria, the number of stillbirths per 1,000 inhabitants even fell from 3.8 at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020 to 3.4 in 2022.
On the Rutters stage, the doctor was not met with any contradictions for his false claims, on the contrary: at the end of his half-hour lecture, there was thanks “for the factual approach”.
It’s a strange afternoon. The state of Lower Austria has launched a vaccination campaign for a lot of money starting in 2021, and a vaccination bus toured all districts. Now the same federal state wants to support a group that does not present its criticism of the vaccination objectively, but rather spreads the most insane theories?
Long-term consequences
The doctor’s lecture is likely to have political – and possibly disciplinary – repercussions.
profil confronted Health Minister Johannes Rauch (Greens) with the research. The department head announced a disciplinary complaint with the medical association against the general practitioner. Rauch also believes it is “irresponsible” that the state of Lower Austria supports Rutter’s associations: “It was easy to recognize with a little preliminary research that this association spreads completely untenable, unscientific and factual information. I must therefore assume that the funding was promised by FPÖ State Councilor Luisser in full awareness of this fact,” said Rauch. The Green Party is therefore appealing to Lower Austria’s governor Johanna Mikl-Leitner (ÖVP) to reverse the financial commitment to Rutter’s clubs.
This could actually happen, as State Councilor Christoph Luisser’s office says: “If it is true that the funding applicant does not implement the project that he has submitted according to the funding criteria, this project will of course not be funded.” According to Rutter’s associations have so far submitted five applications to the State Council – the total possible funding amount is currently 25,000 euros. However, this should be viewed as “provisional in light of the renewed review of the circumstances and how the commitment came about,” emphasizes the office of the FPÖ State Council.
FPÖ State Councilor Christoph Luisser
Luisser is now having the funding commitment to Rutter’s clubs checked. “If it is true that the funding applicant does not implement the project that he has submitted in accordance with the funding criteria, this project will of course not be funded,” his office says.
Luisser, who initially defended the funding commitment after it became known, is now brushing off Rutter: The events have no connection to the state of Lower Austria, and the state council’s office has no information about their content.
More conspiracy, less ideology
The country could have researched Rutter’s history without much effort. Rutter is a political chameleon. He began his political career with the Greens, then moved to the BZÖ Carinthia, sat for the Stronach team in the Carinthian state parliament until 2017 and now increasingly sympathizes with Herbert Kickl’s FPÖ. A collection of the most confusing conspiracy theories can be found on its online platforms: chemtrails, world dictatorship, “controlled mass migration” and so on.
“For Martin Rutter, conspiracy theories are in the foreground, at least more than a clear ideology,” says Bernhard Weidinger from the Documentation Archive of the Austrian Resistance (DÖW), who has dealt extensively with the critics of the Corona measures: “What runs through are the warnings evil background forces and their supposed plans. He oscillates between structural and sometimes quite manifest anti-Semitism.”
On its website, Rutter’s vaccination victims’ association claims to help with alleged vaccine damage, but above all spreads conspiracy stories. One core piece is a virtual “vaccine victim archive” in which more than 40,000 completely untested alleged complications of vaccination against Covid-19 are listed. They all come from a Telegram group that is mostly filled with anonymous users.
The descriptions range from 91-year-olds who “suddenly died” months after vaccination, to young people who are said to have been successfully resuscitated 14 times because of vaccine damage, to vaccine-induced acne outbreaks and growth arrest in teenagers. There is hardly a problem in the tens of thousands of entries for which the vaccination is not blamed. Rutter and Co. print out particularly wild examples and exhibit them as a mobile “vaccine victim gallery” in larger cities.
Apparently none of this was an exclusion criterion for the funding approval. Will the money actually flow? profile will report.
Rutter left a request from profil largely unanswered. However, he announced that the events would be held in Lower Austria – and wants to expand it to the whole of Austria “thanks” to media reporting.
