I’m fascinated by all the concerned “freedom-fighters” who are opposed to companies mandating vaccination, negative COVID tests, and/or masks.
Where have they been when it came to decades of drug testing?
It seems odd to me that many of those who were fine with drug testing (which was never about on-the-job impairment and so didn’t affect other employees) are upset with corporations taking steps to ensure that they have a safer working environment where a lethal contagious disease is less likely to be spread.
I had the privilege of working my entire life without ever having to take a job that required drug testing (I had decided I would never do so). I realize that not everyone had could do that.
I’m retired now, so I don’t need to accept any work, but I would add to it that I wouldn’t accept a job with a company that didn’t take proactive steps to reduce the chances of spreading COVID-19.
Now that the Supreme Court has nixed the government mandate for employee vaccinations, it’ll be interesting to see what individual companies decide. Just like some of the more enlightened companies realized that drug testing requirements were driving away talented folks who liked to smoke pot, companies will now have to decide whether to attract those workers who care about their health or anti-vaxxers.
Fears and attempts to prohibit vaccinations are as old as vaccinations themselves. They’re typically linked to a theology. Just as in the 18th century, today’s anti-vaxxers are undergoing a Darwinian moment where the fittest or the survivors are the ones being selected for because they are guided by science and reason. The history of anti-vaxxers is well documented:
Modern anti-vaxxers are calling themselves “Purebloods” and are motivated by a religious perspective on disease and its prevention that can include faith healing. Religious exemptions are often recognized by the Supreme Court, corporate exemptions not so much:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/12/26/1932707/-Anti-vaxx-Chronicles-Purebloods-aren-t-seeing-the-results-they-expected
What if you believe in Vaccines, but not masks? (today’s masks at least) Masks have been linked to Cancer in Iraq . . . and we had proof of this back in 2014 and 2018. Unless in a medical facility, I won’t wear one at work or other places and the biggest reason is that the synthetic fibers come from Iraq after China or America etc takes that oil and makes polypropylene, and those little fibers are perfectly sized to get stuck in the little holes of your lungs. And this was after I wore it 5 days a week for 8hrs starting late Feb of 2020 to late August of 2021. Itchy noses, increased consumption of your own Carbon Dioxide, it smells after a bit, it pollutes, it makes your nose bleed from loose fibers or just scratching the nose constantly. Everything we buy now, made from oil, helps Iraq secure its position in the Guinness Book of Records for Cancer.
And I worked at a State VA style nursing home, and we had way more of our guys die in that Covid time than I can remember and I’m talking about Korean and Nam age guys . . . guys that did their 20 from 75′ to 95′. BUT–the constant room and roommate changes (Once a day to 3 times a day/week for over a half year) and keeping loved ones and friends out who used to see them every day or on their birthdays . . . isolation units where many residents lost stuff or stuff was destroyed out of fear for the disease . . . cowboy boots, old family Bibles passed down since the 1920s and taken to the foxholes, old pictures, clothing, rare antiques, letters from mom sent in 1969, medals, awards, coins, the last photo of the wife and you before she passed . . . memories lost, memories misplaced, memories not given back for months on end, but mostly memories simply placed in industrial-sized washers meant to wash large loads of laundry. Your shoes gone and not replaced for many days or weeks. We turned that place upside down Fighting an invisible Enemy while our nation was at War and in the midst of corrupt hypocritical violent chaos dished out by our Law Enforcement . . . sometimes the guys had no TVs for many weeks or months . . . sometimes the TV was the only friend the guy had other than paranoid nurses dressed for Outer Space, for a few weeks or a few months at a time. Maybe we killed some of them before the virus could get to them? PTSD doesn’t retire and watching old men who had THAT room for a decade now moved to numerous rooms become quickly more feeble, helpless, and filled with memory problems. I think we showed Covid that we could be more destructive to the ‘patients’. But that’s from being in a nursing home at that time.
And those cloth masks? I think the Cancerful Iraqi killing masks actually do the job, not these cloth masks which makes breathing very hard.
What about Hemp Plastic Masks? Less Arctic Ice will melt to make people feel that masks work.
If I ever need really heavy duty protection, I keep a couple of Israeli military gas masks in my earthquake kit. New face mask technology is on the horizon that my offer alternatives:
I think the premises you rely on may be the problem..
1. drug testing for substance abuse is nothing like being coerced/forced to have a spurious vaccine/chemical injected against your wishes.
2. “…a lethal contagious disease is less likely to be spread…”
Two problems here.. first, your exaggeration in the description of covid19 of course makes your comments seem reasonable, but there are published govt figures that describe the actual lethality of this virus and it’s variants, showing that the OVERWHELMING majority of people recover, many within days. There are several other common conditions that are equally or more deadly than covid19 and so the medical reality seems to have been warped for, what can only be assumed, political reasons.
Secondly, covid19 ‘may’ be less likely to be spread by vaccinated and constantly ‘boostered’ people (no data yet proving this up), but there is no evidence that un-vaccinated people are a danger to anyone as they are generally more careful how they interact with infected and vaccinated people.
There is not enough space here to include sufficient detail in my answers, but as a person who has had almost every vaccine available from child to adult, I am not anti-vax in any way and my assessment of the available facts makes me both suspicious and fearful of anyone trying so hard to force people to receive an injection of such flaky provenance!
3 “…workers who care about their health…”
To suggest that people who refuse to risk their own health by taking any currently available vaccine, do not care about their or their co-workers health is unfair and borders on preposterous. It may seem like a small % of people die or have horrible side effects to these fake vaccines, but it’s a genuine russian roulette.. no thanks!
While I have strong views based on my own research and observations, I would prefer to talk calmly about the actual facts available, and I will readily accept a change of mind if data really supports any claim you, and others like you, make.
I am closely watching Valneva who are developing AND TESTING a whole virus vaccine for covid19 diseases, and upon it’s acceptance and release (unhindered by larger pharma companies), I would most likely accept this and similarly developed vaccines as a safe solution.. and I believe many others who currently object to ‘mandates’ would become vaccinated without any coercion or bullying.
So you’re saying the vaccinated need to be protected from the un-vaccinated, by forcing the un-vaccinated to use the same vaccine that doesn’t appear to protect the vaccinated from transmission in the first place. What am I missing here?
A lot.
First of all, you’re completely off on your statement that the vaccine doesn’t appear to protect the vaccinated from transmission. The data is very clear that the unvaccinated are far more susceptible to catching the virus. Yes, breakthrough cases occur, but the vaccine makes it far less likely to catch it than if you’re unvaccinated. This means that a workforce with unvaccinated people in the mix increases the odds of the virus circulating, which includes increasing the odds of a vaccinated worker encountering a large enough amount of the virus to experience a breakthrough case. You can never be 100% safe, but why make the odds worse?
And if that vaccinated worker is also a caregiver for people who are immunity compromised, that becomes an even larger concern. With so many people who have died from COVID, the idea of working with people who are actively resisting common-science scientifically-approved measures to reduce the threat makes for an uncomfortable work environment.
It’s also extremely clear from the data that the unvaccinated are much more likely to require hospitalization if/when they get COVID, dramatically taxing the local health system. This degrades the quality of life for all residents in the area (thus all workers in the company) as they end up receiving inferior care for other kinds of medical needs and have to defer elective surgeries. Good companies are very mindful of community quality of life concerns for attracting workers.
It should make sense to companies to require vaccination, not only to protect the health of their vaccinated workers but also for the health of the company. Unvaccinated workers are more likely to miss an extended amount of work if they get the virus (hospitalization, death) and potentially cost the company more in health insurance rates (if they provide health insurance), etc.
There’s also the thought that requiring vaccination is a bit of an intelligence test. While it’s not 100% correlation, there is a tendency for anti-vaxxers to be anti-science and more susceptible to wild youtube conspiracy theories. For some jobs, that may be fine, but I’m guessing that a lot of companies would prefer to hire smart people.
It’s also not just the mechanics of the healthcare system (hospital capacity, etc.) that are being stretched to the breaking point by the science-deniers, it’s the humans doing the actual work. Burnout is extreme, people are quitting jobs they’ve loved for years and some are even committing suicide.
And where do we even begin with those who dismiss COVID because “the OVERWHELMING majority of people recover, many within days” yet don’t even remotely care about those who won’t recover while simultaneously ignoring the fact that the OVERWHELMING majority of those who are vaccinated are objectively better off themselves while also objectively safer to those around them?
And “recover” in context is a tricky, tricky word here as well. Plenty of people who don’t die from COVID still wind up with what is so far an open-ended degradation in their quality of life due to “long COVID”.
It is impossible for me to separate the anti-vaxers from that Texan politician who went on TV and proclaimed that seniors would be happy to die if it saved the economy for their grandchildren. Uh…no. I’m not dying for profit, thanks just the same.
I spend the fall and winter in SW Arizona and a LOT of these “snowbirds” are tRumpers and tRumpettes – and anti-vax. A man that is a friend of my sis and bro-in-law fit that description and he was a veteran w/ children (so lots of vaccines over the years). He and his wife insisted that because they were young (early 40s) and healthy they weren’t worried. They did not do social distancing (in fact quite the opposite).
He caught the vid and died w/in a month.
He was in the hospital for about 3 weeks.
Another acquaintance here found he had cancer on top of his bronchitis… he died waiting to be treated (no beds in the ICU).
Rest assured the regulars here on the couch know very well about how the govt lies.
Cannabinol (CBN) shows great promise in treating neurogenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s:
The NFL is funding research for the effects of THC and CBD on pain relief using rugby players as test subjects:
CBD Oil From Marijuana Linked To Lower Covid Rates
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rh54ZpSWcrY
the comment section is a treasure (but my how the conversation has changed!)