Maryland is doing a lottery too. Fingers crossed! 
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This is really wonky but I actually suspect that Oregon is doing this partially because they need to spend money to avoid having to get out a huge kicker (kicker is a thing we have to do where if thereās a gap between āprojected revenueā and āactual revenueā over a certain amount, they have to give money back to everyone on their taxes. Kicker is dumb but the rant about it is not for this thread).
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Yea, I forgot that when Iām getting my annual TB test and my flu shot, Iām always joined by lots of people who work for the hospital system who are getting both the TB test and the flu shot for work! I wonder how that will shake out for covid-19 in 3-5 years once itās more just a background risk. regular testing? annual boosters? Interestingā¦
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I had to have annual TB testing for a number of jobs Iāve had. You could not get the job with a positive test.
I know our hospital doesnāt require the flu shot. A ton of healthcare workers also donāt take that one.
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I agree with @Elle overall that itās an unsettling precedent. I donāt love the idea. The argument that itās ānot that many peopleā (who have been told not to get the vaccine for medical reasons) isnāt an argument most people would accept about other minority groupsā needs. Unfortunately, I think this argument is made more readily when the minority group is one comprised of ill or disabled people.
I think the lack of visibility of disabled people (weāre likelier to be unemployed or self-employed, go to separate schools, and many disabilities are invisible, etc.) contributes to a massive underestimation of how many of us there are and how intense the impact of decisions like this can be. At the start of Covid, many grocery stores decided to use disabled parking as increased space for lines, to help with social distancing. Iām sure this decision was made in part because ānot that manyā disabled people use those spots compared to the number of people who stand in lines, but that means a lot of disabled people have been unable to do their own grocery shopping for a year.
Iām not sure what the solution is but Iām more than a bit chary of anything that requires people to have medical conversations with non-medical providers, because the idea that people will just accept that you canāt get vaccinated and take you at your word, without extensive and invasive questions, is wildly wishful thinking.
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Wait, what?
How was that legal? Or were they already over their legally mandated number of spaces?
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x 1,000,000
Some of the (random) policy related things Iāve been privy to or part of have made it so clear how exponential the smallest decision can be in terms of impact. Especially things that donāt affect able bodied people at all so arenāt even looked at because we are terrible at actually asking the people the change would affect.
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My DDās nutty sister-in-law, who has stopped talking to most of us because we objected to her political memes and countered them with actual facts, and she complained that it was just like being crucified? She sucked it up and got vaccinated because her employer, a nursing home, insisted. Iām good with this.
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The majority of disability law is not enforced or overseen. Any time there is a compliance issue you have to file a claim and sue. Seeing as 70% of disabled people are unemployed or under-employed, the percentage of disabled people with resources to sue each time something like this happens is justā¦not enough. Weāre not a rich enough group to do it consistently, basically, and places know that.
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Today at my grocery store job a man came in without a mask. When he was approached by the manager on duty with a free mask and asked to put it on he said, āi donāt wear masks.ā She then said "okay then unfortunately I need to ask you to leave "
Previously to this interaction heād grabbed some food off the hot bar. He proceeded to throw it at her and shouted that we were all liberal fuckers.
So yeah. I can see my coworkers concern about safety re: enforcing masks.
Our county mask mandate is in effect for another two weeks.
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As far as I can tell 90% of the people who shop in my city are vaccinated, including all the young children. Because almost NO ONE had a mask on at Costco. My husband told me no one at the rec center had one today either
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I am so sorry that you have to go through that garbage. It really makes you wonder why people act in such a manner.
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The trippy thing is that itās so intense for people that feel that way, but they wear seatbelts, and pay taxes, and use condoms, and wear shirts and shoes in restaurantsā¦ The spin on anti-masking was so freaking effective in the beginning. Wild.
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Yeah but Americans have famously fought all those changes tooth and nail too. Hell we were like 50 years behind Europe in pasteurizing milk. I STILL have uncles complain about seatbelt laws.
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And helmets! Helmets make people crazy, too.
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My wife and I went upstate for the weekend just for a change of scenery. Itās the first time weāve left the city since February 2020. It was nice to go somewhere less crowded, where people seemed to be doing a good mix of no masks outside but fully masked inside. It was good practice being out without a mask.
Honestly, it felt so nice that I feel like something inside me snapped. As the evidence continues to show how good these vaccines are (even against variants*), I am starting to feel a lot more comfortable doing things again. Before, I was nervous I could still be an asymptomatic carrier and contribute to spread, especially of the variants. But it seems like so few people are getting breakthrough infections, and the ones that do have low viral load. Iām not as worried about it anymore.
Iām going to be traveling to see my family for the first time since Christmas 2019 in June, and then to a once-in-a-lifetime event that Iāve had tickets to for 2 years. Iām still going to mask, wash my hands, be mindful of distances, etc. But it really does seem safe for vaccinated people to start resuming activities again in a responsible way. Science is just so wild. While I do know theyāre not 100%, these fast and effective vaccines feel like a miracle.
*source for new study showing Pfizerās coverage against the Indian variant is below. I got Moderna, but I imagine the efficacies are similar. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/24/two-doses-of-covid-vaccines-provide-protection-against-india-variant.html
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Oh totally! Itās fascinating to me that the divide is/was equally intense for all those changes. The whole national identity of individualism thing.
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This guy was spoiling for a fight/some sort of drama. Thatās part of it too. He came in hoping that would happen is my guess.
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That was exactly my thought too. You donāt go into the hippie grocery co-op in the super liberal college city and not expect that. I mean, come on. Iām really sorry that it happened though.
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I get this. I donāt feel quite comfortable traveling yet, but have been running at least one errand in person on most days, which we were not doing before vaccination. And that is starting to seem normal and safeR than I expected it would. Baby steps.
That is great news about the India variant being covered by Pfizer!
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