Has the government’s get-your-shots-or-get-out mandate unified your office? Or polarized it like never before?

Are you or your coworkers arguing? Either face-to-face, or glaring Zoom-to-Zoom over the pros and cons of requiring people to get the series of jabs. Or else!

Interestingly, both the pro-shot and anti-vaxxers think the decision is a no-brainer. Naturally, in their favor!

Those who believe in them and have gotten the shots say there is overwhelming evidence in their favor. Goal: Herd immunity. It is a civic duty, a moral obligation to get the shots and booster. A no-brainer.

On the other side, there are personal reasons for opposing the mandate. People who refuse to get something they don’t trust, believe in or that violates their freedom as Americans.

Last week’s column — The shot heard round the office — generated an unusual amount of comments. Thanks for that.

Here are two of them:

VACCINES:
This topic will certainly get the hornets stinging. I just don’t get people and their lack of common sense. Not everyone is a genius but we rely on our geniuses to give us advice and we should follow that advice. Sometimes even geniuses get either the message or the answer wrong but we should still listen. We have vaccines that have been required for years for school, military service, colleges and universities, federal service, etc. (polio, measles, mumps, yellow fever, rubella, etc.). We know how certain diseases are spread. We have used condoms to stop the spread of sexually transmitted diseases since 1855 (as well as preventing pregnancy). Doctors have used masks and hand washing in medical care for easily 200 years. We have isolated the typhoid Mary or leprosy types for generations until we found treatments. So how do people lack the common sense to listen to the experts when they say wear a mask and social distance. It is just common sense. People should be granted exemptions for religious and medical reasons. But we have to wonder how many people have requested exemptions just because it is convenient for them like parking closer to the grocery store in handicapped parking spaces or fire lanes. Again I will let the experts decide those exemptions. But sometimes I laugh at the lack of common sense. For example, I watched a family tell reporters that wearing a mask to school was idolatry and it was hiding the beauty of god’s work. And I thought, well why are you guys all wearing clothes? Don’t the clothes hide the beauty of god’s creation, your body? Didn’t God have you born naked? I can even accept that a few percent of the population just don’t have common sense. But the rest of us, let’s apply our common sense and forget politics and do what is right for our families, country, fellow citizens, the world, etc. and get your vaccine.

MANDATES:
We all want to blame Millennials, Baby Boomers or some generation. But I have to say that I travel a lot internationally and the world is a very different place outside America. Americans appear selfish to me. It is all about ME, ME, ME and I mean that about all generations. In Europe you don’t travel without a vaccine. You fill out forms to identify your travel so they can do contact tracing. You have to show your vaccine card at the door to just about every indoor venue or museum. I know the arguments. Yes, Americans are guaranteed their freedoms by the Constitution. Well guess what folks, with freedom comes an even bigger burden, RESPONSIBILITY!! I constantly watch people hide behind the Constitution saying that have this freedom or that. You can’t yell fire in a theater, the press is still responsible for slander and defamation, machine guns are outlawed. Freedom isn’t unlimited or free. It carries an obligation to do the greatest good for the greatest number, to help those in need, to share, to LEAD and sometimes FOLLOW. So if you want to wave the Constitution make sure you also know it protects everyone including women, minorities and comes with responsibilities. Vaccines are one of those responsibilities. They protect the common good and the health of the country. I understand that someone may die from a vaccine, but without the vaccine a lot of people will die. Don’t thank me for my military service to my country and my willingness to die for those freedoms and responsibilities. Instead accept that even though you never put on a uniform that you need to serve your country and be an example and get your vaccine.

This next comment is on the same column but from a very different viewpoint:

Mike,

Rob, quoted in your column last week should not cast stones so carelessly. Folks like him who have this attitude are a perfect picture of the downfall of our society, not the other way around.. This “do what I want you to do, or else” attitude is everywhere now. Why should ANYONE have to wear their reasons for anything on their sleeve for the permission to be “admitted” into society? I am tired of it all. Personally, wearing a mask exacerbates existing conditions and has caused several respiratory issues which can shorten my life, but I MUST do it or face backlash from others. 50% of my vaccinated family members had severe adverse reactions to this shot. In the milder case, my sibling’s heart condition was impacted causing an immediate need for heart surgery and permanent decline in heart condition. In the worst, one of my parents is now an invalid because of near total neurological shutdown. This has been 6 months of rapid, total decline from walking to requiring complete care with no prognosis. I would rather take my chances with COVID than take my chances with this treatment. Even with this family background, I am not a candidate for medical exemption. Even though I don’t even get the Flu shot (and don’t get the Flu!), and carefully consider what goes in my body, I am not within the parameters of a religious exemption. I don’t mind getting tested, if that is what makes others comfortable, but that option has been removed from the table. I am not getting this shot until A LOT more is known about it and how it can adversely impact recipients. I think each person who is either hesitant or objects has a unique personal reason that is not being considered. Being unvaccinated DOES NOT MEAN I am killing anyone any more than being vaccinated means that I am not. The “get vaccinated at any cost” crowd is running based upon fear. I chose not to live my life in fear. My 34 years of service will end because of the intolerance of many people in our nation whom I have come to see as strangers. It saddens me greatly.

        Read more: Federal Report

-Signed me: One of the few with another perspective who can actually still make a choice

Nearly Useless Factoid

By Alazar Moges

A full moon on Halloween night occurs approximately 3-to-4 times per century.

Source: Farmers Almanac 

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