Posted on 08/23/2021 6:40:58 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
I am an Oregon state employee, but from the looks of things, I won’t be for too long. Kate Brown, the governor of Oregon, has announced a mandate for all state executive agency employees to have full COVID-19 vaccination by October 18 or six weeks after full approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), whichever is later.
I am currently five months pregnant. Under this mandate, I stand to lose my job and health care if I don’t allow a needle in my arm, even though the long-term effects of the COVID-19 vaccine are unknown.
Yes, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are now recommending the vaccine for pregnant women. The CDC says the risks of COVID-19 for unborn children and their mothers are greater than the unknown risks of the vaccine. But how can they know, if the long-term risks of the vaccine are unknown? These COVID treatments are, after all, only several months old themselves.
According to the CDC, the percent of preterm births among women with COVID-19 was 12.17, compared to 9.91 percent among women without COVID-19. That’s only a difference of 2.26 percent. Further, these numbers are not broken down by age and underlying health factors. In fact, these numbers are quite small when compared to the relevance of other factors like stress.
Finding another financially comparable job at this point in my pregnancy will be virtually impossible. It is a terrible decision to make between financial security — a roof over my family’s heads, food on the table, being able to pay for doctor bills — and putting something in my body that could ultimately affect me and my unborn child in ways I do not know.
What I do know is that the CDC has reported no COVID-19 deaths for women my age (age 30-39) in the state of Oregon in either 2020 or 2021. What’s more, few have been hospitalized. At the highest point, the rate of weekly hospitalizations for women in their thirties even being hospitalized was just over seven out of 100,000. That is not even discerning between underlying health factors.
I understand my level of risk from the virus as a healthy 35-year-old woman and I understand that the long-term risk of the vaccine is unknown. My personal decision for my body and my unborn child is based on my conclusion that the unknown long-term risk of the vaccine outweighs the risk of the virus for someone my age at my level of health.
I was hesitant to write this, but as an Oregon state employee, the governor’s new mandate threatens me with “personnel consequences” up to termination. I am being forced to either contradict what I think is best for myself and my baby or face losing my job, income, and health coverage when I need it most.
In the state of Oregon, employers are compelled by law to cover abortion in health-care plans, but the state can terminate an employee for not getting a vaccine that is not fully vetted by the FDA. It’s worth noting the social and political pressure currently on the FDA to approve the vaccine soon. Hopefully, the rush will not diminish the necessary thoroughness of their evaluation and testing.
For my entire adult life, I have served the people. I gave 10 years of military service in the U.S. Army, serving as an information systems specialist in Fort Hood, Texas (during which I completed a 15-month deployment to Iraq), South Korea, and finally the White House Communications Agency, where I directly supported the office of the president of the United States, who at the time was President Obama.
Immediately after serving in the U.S. Army, I went on to public service in the state of Oregon as an IT systems administrator. I have been an Oregon public servant for seven years now. Most of those years have been under the governance of Kate Brown.
I find it unbelievable that someone could think abortion is simply a woman’s bodily “right to choose” while denying her right to choose whether to have a needle stuck in her arm. After 17 years, is this is how my public service should end?
I dont know where in the hell you all get your information about the VA but my sister was in the Air Force for TWO years and has full benefits from the VA. FULL BENEFITS.
She served during an undeclared war also.
Matter of fact, you all are full of snit!
“VA will pay for prenatal care, delivery, and postnatal care for eligible women Veterans, as well as care to newborns for the first seven days after birth for all eligible women Veterans. Many details are involved with pregnancy care.”
Time for a job change it looks like.
“VA will pay for prenatal care, delivery, and postnatal care for eligible women Veterans, as well as care to newborns for the first seven days after birth for all eligible women Veterans. Many details are involved with pregnancy care.”
“VA will pay for prenatal care, delivery, and postnatal care for eligible women Veterans, as well as care to newborns for the first seven days after birth for all eligible women Veterans. Many details are involved with pregnancy care.”
If you're fired for cause most states won't pay you unemployment.
For what purpose would she need to mention if she has a husband in this situation? This is about her body, her work history, and the baby inside her body. Her husband didn't serve her military tours. And what if he has coverage, but losed his job before the baby is born? The rights in this situation belong to her.
That said, if the number of deaths of wanted babies in utero continues to remain significant, and assuming citizens can even obtain the true numbers, I think the fathers of these fetuses should have a right to petition for a pregnancy exception, provided that the government doesn't indemnify itself first for women or fetuses that die because of not having the vaccine.
That's a separate issue from vaccination. That's about the babies not receiving enough brain stimulation and not being able to be socialized with lots of family members relating to them, playgroups with other babies (mine started at 6 months), walks outside in strollers to gain more visual information, mothers being in mom-support groups, etc., and the effects of the relatively greater anxiety levels of the moms.
See post 86.
“For what purpose would she need to mention if she has a husband in this situation?”
It’s simple: she is telling us her story but if there was a second income, why then it would be a different story. And if there is no man in the life of a 5-month pregnant woman, that itself is a story worth telling, especially given the context which is the depiction of her difficult circumstances. Cue Jane Austen: it is important for young women and their parents to focus on what can go wrong when it comes to men and sex.
This intelligent veteran doesn't happen to mention whether she has a husband or not, and your first instinct is to sling the "slut" smears. And you wonder why there are women who don't think they "need a man"? You're correct; you don't get it. Shame on you.
As she pointed out, it's hard to get a real job, or any other kind, when your pregnancy is advanced and showing. She will lose her existing coverage, or have to change doctors if she has a temporary policy, late in pregnancy. Those are pressing, immediate concerns.
Don't know where you live, but in blue states, a military background is often a trigger to reject a résumé.
Sorry, but the 1950s are over. Employers are not entitled to know a woman's marital status and it is none of your business in this situation, either. We are no longer living in the era when employers get to discount a woman's eligibility for full benefits because she is married, or not.
Either she is a full employee with the same benefits as her male co-workers and the same respect as male veterans, or she is not. if the government is going to have been so hare-brained as to make women eligible for combat, they also have to support a woman's right to equal treatment regarding benefits.
Thank you for this. I work for woke CVS and am looking into alternatives. I’ve some co-workers who share the same beliefs but don’t have the financial flexibility that I have and this is good information.
Yeah some unions are defending their members some are not :(
Seems like some big ones are though , so, worth checking.
I wonder how she’s voted in recent elections.
You've got that right.
Just like you are LYING about your purpose for challenging the study’s authenticity.
And you know that HOW?
You are clearly not interested in investigating this objectively to find the truth. You are here to persuade.
And you know that HOW?
How much do you get for each post?
You can grow up anytime now.
Piss off.
Make me.
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