Does this apply to the flu, varicella, meningitis, etc as well?
If an officemate wanted to be a free rider on one of those they could, and it would be very unlikely any harm would come from it.
If we had a 90% vaccination rate for this coronavirus we would not be having this conversation (and several hundred Americans would not be dying daily from a preventable illness).
As for the flu, its not especially dangerous, not prone to exponential spread, pre-symptomatic transmission is rare and the vaccines are not especially effective. So the flu shot is in a different class than the others.
Certainly not in the older generations. I never had a chickenpox vaccine. They didn't exist when I was a child. I have had chickenpox though.
Yes exactly. You can see it happening in these comments right now :)
No, you're wrong, this is about saving lives. Around 300 people died today from a disease that we can stop. 300 more will die tomorrow. Are there perhaps others sub-agendas that some people are pushing under the cover of the pandemic? Yes, obviously, just like with literally every other catastrophe. But the primary agenda is stopping a preventable disease form killing another 20,000 or 30,000 Americans.
Full stop.
Also, I find it baffling you think we can get to a 90% vaccination rate given the politicization of this vaccine.
But it’s all fine because obesity is as American as apple pie.
-- Hannah Arendt
Thousands die worldwide each die from hunger and thirst. And just earlier, these two stories were flagged off the front page after shooting to the top very quickly:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27986986
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27988737
That stuff about "saving lives" sounded hollow from day one and is wearing increasingly thin.
You don't just get to say "this as about saving lives" and not have any real argument.
Encouraging vaccination, and getting it to levels consistent with other vaccines, does not automatically mean accepting new powers for employers or anyone else to enquire about people's medical status.
Google's move is consistent with wanting to give the appearance of being a progressive company that shares the values of many people here, that think individual privacy and freedom take a back seat to showing that we are taking the disease seriously. This is the same theater we see with airlines and security at other venues. There are real ways of addressing it, and then there are token gestures that are mostly about appeasing stakeholders. This is effectively populism. It's comforting to provide rituals and easy answers, but it is discriminatory and divisive, and not consistent with liberal democratic values, even if you agree with it.
Less transmission of disease in the office would be a good thing as we return.
[1] https://www.uscis.gov/policy-manual/volume-8-part-b-chapter-...
Fuck and yes they will. Plenty of school districts will kick you out at this point and forget about going to a university without vaccines.
I needed to prove vaccine status to go to graduate school.
I have applied for visa in multiple countries, attended public schools as well as university, and even had employment contracts specifying current vaccination.
I have never had to actually present any of that information. I'm not even sure how I could find it.
I hate selective enforcement of rules / laws.
Edit: fixed typo.