My role is weird so it wasn’t clear if I was 1a/b/c. My company though determined that with each state and we had access through the DOH when they told us to. Maybe reach out to HR?
My dad just got his first dose of Moderna!
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You all, I feel so filled with despair after talking to my friend. She thinks I should be happy for her since she got the shot. She was telling me how to get an appointment. But I’m not eligible, she’s not eligible. She says it’s fine, you just pick one of the preexisting conditions and lie. I mean, they don’t check. They’re not going to make you prove it. How is that OK? I’m trying to tell her that it isn’t OK, but she just wants the accolades and congratulations that are accorded to the vaccinated these days. If she got it legit, I would lay that on thick.
She wasn’t ever particularly concerned about Covid anyway. She complies with the rules, she wears her mask with me because I’m sensitive, she’s not going to get into a throwdrown with the grocery store manager. But she shops all the time. Her kids are in competitive sports and the games have been relocated to adjoining red states to get around our restrictions. And she happily travels all over to go to these meets. She dines in restaurants, she meets all her other friends maskless because they don’t care either.
So why is she willing to push others out of the way to get to the head of the line? I think it’s the prestige of being in the exclusive club. And that’s why I can’t even get over this. My elderly dad is still waiting, and people like her are waltzing up and getting vaccinated. Maybe she didn’t take my dad’s shot (because of geography), but she took someone’s dad’s shot for sure.
I feel so mad, is this what is going to end a 30 year friendship? What do I say? I told her I couldn’t believe that she did that, but I know it didn’t sink in. She has a lot of other redeeming qualities. All of us humans are flawed, and I don’t expect perfection. But this is really getting to me.
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Charitably, maybe she REALIZES how much of a massive vector she’s being, carrying on so? I’d prefer someone like her lie for the shot than someone who can/does fully stay home, I suppose, just from a public health perspective. At least then it’s serving more of a role in preventing spread? I definitely would struggle with the dishonesty, too. That’s. A really hard one. I’m sorry you’re in this position.
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That sure seems like biotech to me.
At least here, we have to attest that we meet the requirements, but they can’t ask how.
So you can say you meet the group, but you be made to tell them it’s because you had a lung replacement.
I think any reasonable person would assume a bioscience company is part of the biotech industry.
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that’s my thoughts too. I’m not in a huge rush to get it but some of my other colleagues are asking me (since I’m HR 
) if we are going to be included in the next group. This is the last group right before it’s supposed to open up to the general public so I may just wait anyway, I’m low risk and live a mostly isolated life.
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Maybe as HR you could say “the government has not provided clarification to us what companies are included in this group.” If you wanted to editorialize maybe “it seems like we should be.”
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I too find it very hard to know what to do in these situations. It seems so jarring to me when someone I am friends with does things that seem so unethical to me. I have no real advice, sorry.
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Edit because I thought this was the tiny complaints thread.
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Well, there is a lot of overlap…
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My wife’s best friend, who is a woman in her mid-30s who is not dumb, is on a trip in Hawaii right now with her family. Highlights captured on social media have included them making new friends at the resort, and dining indoors with people from other households without masks on. Trying to channel Elsa and let it go, because I know this friend is so important to my wife.
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I’ve known multiple people who went to Hawaii. All have said it feels “so much safer there than the mainland. They take it so seriously.”
All also seem to assume there is no covid among tourists since a test is required to go, therefore all people are safe. No one has verbally recognized (to me, in these conversations) the limitations of the testing, false negatives, or too early to be positive on test due to lower viral load chances.
My grand-boss is in Costa Rica right now. She’s been heavily quarantined, very pro-mask. It confuses me.
I really want to be in Costa Rica. I really want to be anywhere. We usually travel 5+ times a year. The only place I went last year was a cabin in the woods where we interacted with no people and never went inside a building with other people.
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My co-worker just road tripped to Florida. At least she did not fly, but, seriously, WTF.
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Have at it and shame me. I’m looking at plane tickets for NYC for end of April after husband and I have both had our shots and reached the immunity threshold. Flying versus driving seems like the better risk mitigation due to the enormous difference in time required and the tech being used on planes. Once in NYC plan is to hang out basically at home with SiL’s family and meet new niece. According to new CDC guidelines this all seems to be ok and we would be avoiding risk as much as possible. However I do own up to the fact that my thoughts on this may be skewed by living in Florida where everything’s been open and no mask mandate since last June.
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You guys are vaccinated though. Here, very few people who are not seniors or frontline workers have been able to get this. It’s only today that underlying conditions started, and that is only at one vaccine site.
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I refuse to shame! That sounds like a fun, safe plan. Glad you’ll get to see family and meet the new niece.
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We’re likely flying in May a similar distance (PDX > LAX) because it seems safer than driving or the train because of lack of shared/public restrooms. It also seems like the airlines are taking things much more seriously than we can guarantee random reststops to do so. We have to make this trip before June 21st for immigration reasons, so it’s just a matter of making the choice of how.
We’re (unfortunately) not vaccinated yet but there’s potential that we will be by then.
I honestly think it’s fine. We’re at the stage where we all have to start making choices based on individual risk profiles. We’re in that tricky stage where some people, and some countries have access to the vaccine and others don’t and it’s going to be tough for awhile.
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I would look at it literally. They’re specifically calling out workers who manufacture medical supplies, presumably medical supplies that are needed to protect workers who are working with covid-19 patients or the covid-19 patients themselves.
But I also know several people who work for the healthcare industry who have been working at home and have absolutely zero patient contact who have already been vaccinated. So you could probably tell everybody that they’re eligible for the vaccine, and I would be surprised if there were any negative consequences or anyone got in trouble for that decision.
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rant:
I’m so tired of people telling me that they’re “being careful” or that someone “is taking it seriously”. I keep hearing it. I feel like it keeps being used as justification for why it’s “safe” to hang out with people and do more risky things because “they’re being so careful”!!
One of my friends was talking about choosing to get a tattoo and how they’re sure it’s fine because the tattooist is “being so safe”. Umm, sure, but it’s an inherently indoor business and a totally optional activity…?
this part:
We’re at the stage where we all have to start making choices based on individual risk profiles.
this is hard and I hate it and I wish my risk profile magically matched everyone else’s. 
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I honestly think now is the time to take a bit of a break from passing judgements on people’s choices unless you really know the ins and outs of their situation. I think making assumptions about people’s trips, if they’re qualified to get a vaccine, work situation, family visits, etc, without really knowing the situation is only going to lead to resentment and frustration and maybe unnecessarily.
You might not know they’re vaccinated already, they have already had the virus, you may not know they have underlying health conditions, you may not know what choices they’re making to make to make their situation as safe as they can, you might not know their mitigating circumstances.
I think it’s very important right now to stop being upset and frustrated about things outside your circle of control because we’ve all been there for over a year and it’s a really bad mental place to hang out in.
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