Vaxxes weren't mandatory at work but HR prepped for the (unconstitutional) OSHA mandate so they had the data. My employer was as vaxxed as the nation (about 70/30). We managers got a report if people weren't vaxxed because we had to ensure they were following state protocols. But we were encouraged to keep this a private matter.
Candidly, my HR function did a great balancing act - indeed, vaxx status was treated as another form of "diversity" so for ONCE, that worked out. An HR rep confided that they were worried the not being vaccinated would become a new Scarlet A, and since it was chiefly the younger employees that weren't getting the shots it could hurt recruiting in the long run.
Indeed, a while ago I did a search for "died suddenly" on the CNN website and found a very slight uptick in such stories in 2021 vs 2019. Even then, it was very slight, and probably not statistically significant.
To your point, I've been more concerned about the loss of humanity. The fragility of many people's psyche has come to the surface. Many people have wigged out on Zoom calls, over light and transient causes. However, as more people return to the office, they're coming back to life. Indeed, a few people in my shop have almost asked me to DEMAND that we all return for drinks once a month, to get our groove back on.
I've also had colleagues confide in me about how tough the lockdowns etc have been on their children and parents. While they've benefitted by spending more time with their kids, the kids are now more afraid than before. Similarly, grandparents got to the point where they DEMANDED to see the little ones - they didn't care if they died of covid. I know of older folks who died probably because they were isolated "for safety reasons" and that loss of tactile contact hastened their demise. I know first-hand of people who were blocked by hospitals from entering, and instead said goodbye to parent's over Zoom...they will NEVER get over that anger.
I've said repeatedly that shots released without the proper clinical trials that take on median 9 years to complete, are potentially fraught with peril. Further, about 60% of new vaccines fail clinical trials. Thus, if people are dying suddenly due to the shot, I'm not surprised. I will not criticize anyone for taking the shots - it's their personal health decision. But the people behind mandates and shaming are particularly loathsome filth.
However, I'm prolly more concerned about the loss of humanity, loss of youthful fun, heightened anxiety, suicide, death for foregone medical screening, and all that. We will NEVER get that back, and children now 10 yrs old have spent 20% of their life worried about killing grandma with a kiss. God help us all.
Great post! And informative (becoming a rarity on FR lately).
I see we are in agreement. I am not vaccinated myself. I am firmly against mandates. There are legitimate reasons to be concerned about the vaccines, including unknown long-term effects, elevated risk for myocarditis, especially in young males (the smallpox vaccines administered to our military back around 2003 sadly also carried elevated risk for myocarditis), indications there may be slightly elevated risk for Shingles outbreak, etc.
All these unfounded claims in these clickbait grifter blogs obscure the real concerns and make those of us in the anti-mandate side look foolish. And cry wolf too many times ...
We need truth and facts and proof on our side in this fight, not easily disproved claims that will be laughed out of court and the public square.
Whether to get the Covid vaccine is a personal and private decision and others’ decisions are none of my beeswax — or the government’s.
Someone here asked me how I could be unvaccinated yet say there are valid reasons some of us choose to get vaccinated. (As if there is a conflict there.) Here’s my reply:
Others have calculated their risk/benefit ratios differently based on their own age/health condition/life situation, perhaps with the help of a trusted doctor — and I respect that their reasons for getting the vaccine may well have been perfectly valid. I am not going to judge anyone’s private, personal decision on whether to get vaccinated or not.
President Trump and our own beloved JimRob are vaccinated. Both are smart, knowledgeable men and I trust they made the right decision for themselves. Some here chose not to get vaccinated for their own personal and private reasons. I trust they made the right decision for themselves and respect that, too.
Either way, it’s really none of my business. Nor any business of the government’s. It’s neither my affair nor the government’s to go nosing about in other people’s personal private health decisions, let alone dictate them.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/news/4088729/posts?page=15#15
The lockdowns have done massive damage in terms of human suffering and death, physical, mental and spiritual suffering, societal damage, economic damage. The damage done to children is especially maddening, yet the Dems seem to be targeting them with more vaccine and mask mandates in some cities as school starts up again. It’s insane.
The supply chain problems (an artifact of lockdowns and our reliance of imports from China) have resulted in shortages of essential goods (including pharmaceutical ingredients) and critical medical supplies.
Oh, and speaking of anecdotal evidence and sudden deaths, back in the early 1970s, the dentist in his early 30s —fit and healthy, great tennis player — who lived a few houses down the street suddenly keeled over dead from a heart attack, leaving behind his wife and the young children. His widow was in such shock and grief she could barely function for over a year, so we neighbors stepped in and helped. One of the children was a playmate and close friend of my baby brother’s.
A few years after the dentist died, his widow died of cancer and the children were adopted by their aunt and uncle. It was all so tragic. I was just a kid myself at the time, old enough to help the widow with housekeeping and yard chores and childcare, but still a kid — anyway, it affected us all deeply.
Can you imagine if the Covid vaccines had been given the year the father died? The vax doomers would claim he’d been killed by the vax, and the vax caused the mother’s cancer. Steve Kirsch would ask “what are the odds?”
A year ago at this time, the company was still driving the vaccine mandates (I got an exemption) and still promoting masking and social distancing. Most employees as a result chose to work at home (those that could). The underlying message the company was perhaps unintentionally promoting was that the workplace was not safe.
Over the past few months, all these mandates have been lifted and all the silly signs and floor arrows have been removed from the offices. As a result, employees are drifting back into the office. Many of them sick and tired of working from home and being on those endless ZOOM calls.
The workplace culture is slowly coming back. We are starting to go out for drinks after work again. We are having pizza and sandwiches brought in for lunch. Surprisingly, to me, nobody seems stressed out about who is vaxxed and who is not. As one of the unvaxxed, I was concerned of having a sort of Scarlet Letter sewn to my shirt. This is New York City after all. But nobody seems to care and nobody even asks. It's almost like the last two years never happened. I'm hoping that a few years from now, this will all seem like a bad dream.
Next week will be the real test. Corporate has decreed that starting after Labor Day, all employees will be required to spend at least three days a week at the office. Many employees have not been to the office since this whole COVID lockdown started so this will be interesting. If you walk around the cubicles of my office, some of them are like a time machine. The desks are littered with papers and memos dated March of 2020.
I'm looking forward to a more normal work routine.
In April of 2020, my sister-in-law passed away in her sleep. What they did to my brother was horrible. He was not allowed to have a wake and funeral for her. Nobody from the family was even allowed to congregate at his house (this was Massachusetts). People would pull in front of his house in their cars and roll the window down (fully masked) to express their condolences.
A few months after that, my own wife had a serious operation in Rochester, Minnesota. I was not allowed in to see her. I had to sit in my hotel and wait for the doctors to text me as to her status and condition. Prior to her operation, the surgeon berated her for not having the vaccinations. It was the most bizarre thing. When I picked her up, everything had to be done outside. The nurses wheeling her to my car would not approach until I was fully masked.