The Mandate

The last 18 months have been a nonstop roller coaster of surprises.  Just when you think you have it figured out, a new curveball comes flying.  Even when you think you know what curveballs make show up, a new one comes out of nowhere.  The world is exhausting on so many fronts.

This week my company announced that they are mandating vaccines for some workers.  Which workers you ask?  The remote ones, not the ones that are together in person.  The rationale is that the remote ones make gather together in person at some point, but the ones currently working together in person have been doing so for 18 months and so they are fine to keep doing what they’re doing.  Or, I think, its because we are in a labor crisis and they can’t afford to lose even one person who physically works in our buildings.  They can’t afford to lose any professional staff either, but they haven’t realized the impact there yet.  We all know it's just uneducated hillbillies that refuse the vaccine right?  No educated professional would not be vaccinated by this point.

Except for all of us very educated professionals that are unvaccinated.

Throughout this pandemic, I’ve always been in favor of individuals doing what is right for them.  We all come from such unique places in life with our families and health histories, that it is impossible to have a one size fits all rule that can apply to the whole state let alone the country.  I believe the same thing for vaccines.  You do what is best for you and your family and I completely support your right to do that.

I am not an anti-vaxxer and believe that vaccines in general are one of the greatest miracles of modern medicine.  I highly encourage everyone to get their children fully vaccinated in all childhood vaccines because I very much believe in their life-saving benefits and they help protect those in society who cannot get vaccinated due to reactions or other issues like cancer patients.  The COVID vaccine is not the same as those vaccines.

This is a new type of vaccine (Pfizer & Moderna) that modifies the RNA to instruct the body how to fight the virus.  I think the science behind it is interesting, but it's far from proven and there is no way to know what the long-term effects will be.  Will this generate new kinds of autoimmune disorders?  Will it make weird cancer?  Will we all be just fine?  The truth is we don’t know.  But even with that unknown, there are groups of people that should be vaccinated.  The elderly are at significant risk of COVID and their risk of long-term issues is small.  Those with significant medical issues that may not fair well against COVID, may be better with risks from a vaccine than risks from COVID.  However, I am young and more likely to die of a lightning strike than from COVID so my risk of long-term issues (potentially) with the vaccine are much higher. There are some immediate risks as well from any of the three main vaccines, as have been widely published.

I do not believe the vaccine contains a chip or is a population control method.  I’m not refusing to get the vaccine because Trump said to (the same Trump who is vaccinated and ordered 100 million doses of the vaccine while president).  I simply do not feel that the risk to myself from COVID is great enough to risk the vaccine.

But what about creating herd immunity and protecting those who can’t get vaccinated?  COVID has proven enough times that it can reinfect people that many experts are walking back from the idea of herd immunity.  Additionally, Delta has also proven it can infect the vaccinated just as easily as the non-vaccinated.  The vaccinated can also spread Delta quite easily.  Might the vaccine work well against original COVID?  Yeah possibly, but that’s not the war we’re fighting anymore.  There is quite literally no benefit to the guy sitting next to you if you are vaccinated.  The vaccine does seem to offer YOU some protection against severe illness and death, which is great!  But it does not eliminate that chance either as has been seen repeatedly.  Israel is the most vaccinated country in the world with over 80% of its population fully vaccinated, and they are now seeing record high cases.

I said from the beginning it was dangerous to put all of our hopes in the vaccine basket, and it still is.  Vaccines are helpful to some and that’s great, but we have to stop looking for COVID to just disappear one day.  This is a disease that is here to stay and we need to figure out how to manage it.  We need good treatments for those that get sick, many of which we have, but we need to continue to develop those so it because less scary when someone is positive.

What we don’t need to do is mandate vaccines for everyone as a condition of employment.  I am an adult in what claims to be a free country.  I have the right to make my own personal health decisions, especially when the mandate would quite honestly do nothing to protect any of my coworkers.  Vaccinated can spread COVID and I work in my basement and don’t see any coworkers.  There is nothing safer that I can do than what I am doing at this moment.

This past week has caused me a level of stress that I have rarely felt in my life.  I have applied for a religious exemption as I am a practicing Christian and feel that this vaccine at this juncture is not in line with what God is asking of me.  I am not calling on all Christians to do the same, God has called us each to live in our own way, but this is where I feel He has led me to at this time.  My religious exemption request is being reviewed, but I am being required to not just state why the mandate interferes with my belief, but furnish documented proof such as from ‘my religious leader’ and then some HR person will decide if my beliefs are good enough to warrant an exception or, come November 1^st will I be terminated.  I’m not sure what specifically gives HR the right to determine the sincerity of my beliefs, but clearly, they feel they have that power.

Thankfully I have found that I am not alone.  There are others like me who believe this is against their faith or personal beliefs and are fighting a similar seemingly fruitless battle.  If I’ve learned one thing this last 18 months its that’s while we often feel alone, when we reach out a little bit, it's not hard to find others who feel the same way and are just drowned out by the yelling of the loud minority.  It doesn’t make you feel less alone, however.

I believe COVID is real and not a plan-demic, but I also know that humankind has survived much worse.  I also know that avoiding dying from COVID does not guarantee immortality.  Everyone I’ve known this year who has died has not died from COVID.  Our lives are special and unique and not something to be given up lightly, but in the end, death does come for us all and every loss is sad.  However, I believe that for those of us who believe there is something far better beyond this and so when it inevitably is my time whether from COVID or something else, I’ll be at peace. 

I see the cost of the last 18 months, and the moment's people will never get back.  We should not be reckless, but we also should not stop living.  I think about the people I have not seen in nearly two years now.  They’ve spent so much time avoiding everything to try and stay alive, that they haven’t lived.  We all have to make the choices that are right for us and our families, and this is mine.  Or at least as long as I am allowed to have a choice.

So we’ll see what happens come November.  Maybe I’ll experience being fired for the first time from a company I once respected.  Or maybe they’ll decide that I am religious enough to warrant an exception.  Maybe we’ll all fold to the pressure as so many others have had to, and have to choose between providing for our families or having a medical procedure that goes against our beliefs.  It should be an interesting fall.

Hopefully, in the future, my employer doesn’t decide I’m too fat and mandate liposuction.  Or fire all the people that smoke since secondhand smoke is dangerous to others.  Or maybe those with diabetes will just be too expensive to keep on the health plan so they have to go.  Or young people expanding their families take too much time off work and inconvenience everyone else, so we should probably get rid of them too unless they get sterilized. 

That’s the thing with the slippery slope, eventually, it gets everyone.