And I am SO glad. The Right is throwing fits about how requiring vaccines isn’t ‘MERRICUN. They are, as usual, entirely wrong, both in law and in history.
Mandating vaccines started with George Washington, who, even before he was President, ordered that the Continental Army get a goddamn smallpox vaccine because he didn’t want them to die before they could do the Revolution. And if you’ve ever read a description, the smallpox vaccine in that time was a MUCH, MUCH more unpleasant experience than the teeny tiny mosquito bite that is the COVID stick today, side effects included.
(There is also Supreme Court precedent, not that this SC knows what that means.)
And this move to require vaccines (OR TESTING – but I hope to GOD that the holdouts will be charged for weekly testing) will give cover to employers like The Place Where I Work That Does Not Pay Me – they are tippy-tippy-toeing up to requiring vaccination, I can see that this is their long range plan, but this will shorten their timeline considerably.
This is clearly an OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) issue, as well. Workplace Safety is LITERALLY what OSHA does – workers didn’t voluntarily wear hardhats and steel toed boots and attach tethers when working up high, employers didn’t care – until OSHA was established because those guys were getting maimed and dead in horrifying numbers.
I work in an industry (that must not be named) where safety culture is very strong, and also for some employees, literally a life and death kind of thing. Yet, we have people out with COVID, some have been out for a while and are recovering but still sick, because they are not vaccinated, because get their “news” from sources that are literally LYING to them. We had that guy saying that the vaccine changes your DNA and it’s a government plot, and we don’t need to think too hard about where he gets his information.
President Biden has pulled the car over and is now yelling into the back seat, ordering the lunatics to knock off the shit. I am so here for it. I would like to be normal again, someday.
I suspect next week’s team meeting is going to be lively.
As God Is My Witness, I’m going to start making a sweater this weekend. I have a couple of pattern options, knitted and crocheted, and I will pick one and start. My nerves need it.