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Be interesting to see how they enforce vaccine if mandatory because so many people out there against it. In my city, any healthcare type job you have to provide proof of immunizations for mumps, measles, & rubella before getting hired. Think in the near future, covid vaccine be added to the list & non healthcare jobs will also require proof of covid vaccine too. Predict huge problems for forcing existing employees to get vaccine unless a new law is passed. Hard to imagine your employer giving you an ultimatum of getting the shot or be fired. New hires would be so easy to enforce to get vaccine.
Enforce..mandatory...require..ultimatum.. Any subject about altering your body that may include these words could understandably be met with skepticism.
i'm wondering if there is any other conversation regarding people's choices about their own bodies, where most of us who post in SLAP regularly, would find these kinds of terms acceptable? although i know there are some significant differences between these situations, perhaps inevitably the abortion conversation came to mind--from the Amnesty International site:
"Being able to make our own decisions about our health, body and sexual life is a basic human right.
Whoever you are, wherever you live, you have the right to make these choices without fear, violence or discrimination.
Yet all over the world, people are bullied, discriminated against and arrested, [refused employment?] simply for making choices about their bodies and their lives..."
if the conversation could remain civil, it would be interesting to think about why this "basic human right" wouldn't apply to every situation, including COVID and the vaccines. i know that the conversation is different when we're talking about something that is potentially harmful to others--and not just ourselves--but a "human right" is a "human right," isn't it? and if/when circumstances do come about that require us to rethink/deny any "basic human right," it should not be done hastily or lightly.
i'm torn on the vaccine and i'm glad i will not be one of the people to get priority right away anyways--like others, i'm going to wait. i teach at the university level, and have been fortunate to teach "remotely" and continue to work this whole time...i understand this is not the case for many people. i'm not taking any of the sides here, because i am fortunate and i am not on the front-line or a first-responder or anything like that.
and i say all of this after losing my mother to COVID in late October--i had a mild/moderate bout with it myself while she was fighting for her life in the hospital (in isolation)...i had to have two of the classes i was teaching reassigned to another instructor, all while trying to talk to the hospital and make decisions regarding my mother...seriously the hardest three weeks of my life. i caught it while taking care of her the first few days she had it, before we had to call 911 a few days in...so i do not take any of this lightly, but i also do not get vaccines either, and since i have a bit of freedom to do so, i will wait.
by the way, my mom was 77 and had diabetes, so we knew early on when we got her positive test results that she did not have a good chance, but i still can not believe what that vicious fucking virus did to her in under two weeks--seriously y'all, watch out for all of the especially vulnerable people in your lives, they can not be cautious enough...