Covid week 10/18

[chilerellanos]

We lost our first employee to the vaccine mandate.

I think there’s only two unvaccinated staff in my department, and both applied for medical exemptions. I know the one was denied. They offered to let her stay on and test twice weekly and she resigned.

Good bye. She was an idiot (Aside from this issue, and unreliable as hell anyway).

We are soooooo short staffed though. This is really going to hurt us, even as unreliable as she is.

[Velar Fricative]

On Friday we had our vax-or-test mandate announced in full detail. One of my staff shocked me with their reaction basically saying "oh, so (employer) is just going to ignore natural immunity, huh?" I did not expect that coming from them. I anticipate there will be people who don't even want to test. If that's the case, they have to resign.

[chilerellanos]

Oct 18, 2021 8:31:08 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

On Friday we had our vax-or-test mandate announced in full detail. One of my staff shocked me with their reaction basically saying "oh, so (employer) is just going to ignore natural immunity, huh?" I did not expect that coming from them. I anticipate there will be people who don't even want to test. If that's the case, they have to resign.

That boggles my mind. If you’re so confident with your natural immunity why are you so scared of testing?

[Velar Fricative]

Oct 18, 2021 8:32:24 GMT -5 chilerellanos said:

Oct 18, 2021 8:31:08 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

On Friday we had our vax-or-test mandate announced in full detail. One of my staff shocked me with their reaction basically saying "oh, so (employer) is just going to ignore natural immunity, huh?" I did not expect that coming from them. I anticipate there will be people who don't even want to test. If that's the case, they have to resign.

That boggles my mind. If you’re so confident with your natural immunity why are you so scared of testing?

Because they are lazy. It's weekly testing, you must do it on the day of your first shift of the workweek, it must be a rapid test so you can come to work quickly, AND we are allowing them to use work time to get tested. I really thought people would be happy about the testing option but it is clear some people might just quit to avoid testing.

[chilerellanos]

Oct 18, 2021 8:52:32 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

Oct 18, 2021 8:32:24 GMT -5 chilerellanos said:

That boggles my mind. If you’re so confident with your natural immunity why are you so scared of testing?

Because they are lazy. It's weekly testing, you must do it on the day of your first shift of the workweek, it must be a rapid test so you can come to work quickly, AND we are allowing them to use work time to get tested. I really thought people would be happy about the testing option but it is clear some people might just quit to avoid testing.

Oh, I know. Also, it’s just a “you’re not going to tell me what to do” issue.

The employee I work with said it was an invasion of her privacy.

Ok, bye.

[chilerellanos]

Also, this particular employee just doesn’t even believe in covid.

Like, she had a covid patient and instead of wearing the full isolation gear, she was wearing her regular mask, no gown, no goggles. And the mask was under her nose.

I filled out an incident report on her, because she just doesn’t follow protocols anyway.

Good bye.

[Velar Fricative]

Public health systems in crisis. Basically, we're even more fucked for the next pandemic thanks to the gutting of public health institutions and authorities in this country.

www.nytimes.com/2021/10/18/us/coronavirus-public-health.html

[rubytue]

A happy covid story. A friend of mine from an online cancer group was extubated last week. She has had a bitch of a time, with 4 relapses of Hodgkins and basically out of treatment options (treatment progression is chemo -> autologous stem cell transplant (basically, a reset of you immune system) -> allogenic stem cell transplant (donor bone marrow). After that, no real evidence based options (but some things show promise, but it’s basically a stage iv metastatic diagnosis). Anyway, the odds were not in her favor when she was admitted three weeks ago with covid and secondary treatment-induced lung issue. A week ago, everyone was ready to give up, but she is awake and smiling today.

[ssmjlm]

My fed agency is adding onto the pressure of getting vaccinated. We just had make sure our employees read and understand if they are not yet vaxxed, what dates they need to have theirs done by before adverse actions.

I know of 2 unvaccinated individuals in my office. Neither have health issues, so I cannot imagine they would qualify for any exemptions.

[pixy0stix]

Booster symptom update - The day after the booster I woke up feeling bad. Right around the 12 hr mark after the booster I developed a low grade fever. Took some tylenol and it went away. After the tylenol wore off, the fever came back with a vengeance. Took more tylenol and it abated a bit, but didn't break. I had nausea the whole day, too. I finally went to bed, slept like a rock, and woke up feeling ok. So it wasn't as bad as my second shot symptoms, but it wasn't pleasant. Also, my arm still hurts.

[noodleoo]

Oct 18, 2021 9:14:34 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Booster symptom update - The day after the booster I woke up feeling bad. Right around the 12 hr mark after the booster I developed a low grade fever. Took some tylenol and it went away. After the tylenol wore off, the fever came back with a vengeance. Took more tylenol and it abated a bit, but didn't break. I had nausea the whole day, too. I finally went to bed, slept like a rock, and woke up feeling ok. So it wasn't as bad as my second shot symptoms, but it wasn't pleasant. Also, my arm still hurts.

Bummer! But glad it passed relatively quickly.

[Velar Fricative]

Oct 18, 2021 9:14:34 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Booster symptom update - The day after the booster I woke up feeling bad. Right around the 12 hr mark after the booster I developed a low grade fever. Took some tylenol and it went away. After the tylenol wore off, the fever came back with a vengeance. Took more tylenol and it abated a bit, but didn't break. I had nausea the whole day, too. I finally went to bed, slept like a rock, and woke up feeling ok. So it wasn't as bad as my second shot symptoms, but it wasn't pleasant. Also, my arm still hurts.

I was thinking about you. I'm sorry it wasn't pleasant but I'm at least glad it wasn't as bad or lasted as long as the second shot.

[picksthemusic]

pixy0stix , which one did you get? I can't remember. I'm dreading my Moderna booster once the CDC gives the okay for healthcare folks. I felt like I got hit by a freight train.

ETA: My coffee hasn't kicked in yet - I answered my own question. LOL Don't mind me!

[chilerellanos]

Oct 18, 2021 9:40:33 GMT -5 picksthemusic said:

pixy0stix , which one did you get? I can't remember. I'm dreading my Moderna booster once the CDC gives the okay for healthcare folks. I felt like I got hit by a freight train.

ETA: My coffee hasn't kicked in yet - I answered my own question. LOL Don't mind me!

I’m also dreading my moderna booster. I had a pretty bad reaction to both of them. 😩😩😩

[pixy0stix]

Oct 18, 2021 9:40:33 GMT -5 picksthemusic said:

pixy0stix , which one did you get? I can't remember. I'm dreading my Moderna booster once the CDC gives the okay for healthcare folks. I felt like I got hit by a freight train.

ETA: My coffee hasn't kicked in yet - I answered my own question. LOL Don't mind me!

Pfizer

[mrsukyankee]

I had the AJ vax for both of mine and now they are giving Moderna or Pfizer as the booster. I am not looking forward to my reaction to either.

[wawa]

I was chatting with a local business owner of a blue collar family owned biz - between 100 and 200 employees.
She did a survey of her employees and only HALF of them are vaccinated. HALF. The county where we live is knocking on the door of 90% of the 12+ population vaccinated. It's not an anti-vax kind of place, so that number is SHOCKING to me.
So now she's trying to figure out what the hell she should do between now and whenever the OSHA regs come down because testing all those folks weekly will be expensive and hard but losing all those folks would be a death blow.

[lea]

One of DH’s friends is leaving his job (and the state) because he’s afraid of the vaccine and also afraid of weekly testing because he watched a Bitchute video about carcinogens on the swabs(?!). I just can’t anymore.

My parents got their Pfizer boosters. Dad had no reaction (same as before). Mom said she felt achy and stuff (same as last time) but within a couple days she had cold symptoms so I don’t know if the achy feeling was from the shot or the cold coming on. Last time she also ended up with eczema that her doctor said was likely caused by the vaccine response so she’s waiting to see if she gets another flare-up this time.

[isabel]

Apparently the people on our team who are unvaccinated all got calls from their supervisors on Friday letting them know that if they are not fully vaccinated by December 8th they will no longer have a job with our company.

Two of them were crying at their desks this morning. A third is a supervisor to a fairly large team and has literally only worked at our company for her entire career (I would guess she's around 40). Her dad and husband both work for the company too. When asked by my boss (they are peers) if she is going to get it, she apparently started crying and said she doesn't know what she's going to do.

You guys. I genuinely cannot make sense of this shit. Good Lord. You are going to give up a well paid job with very solid benefits over a fucking vaccine, which millions of people have received with no adverse reaction beyond a day's worth of fever and body aches? Make it make sense!

Also, it's going to be not good if we lose all the people on our team who aren't vaccinated. I really hope some of the ones that will immediately affect my job come to their senses. They don't seem quite as set in this as the ones described above, so fingers crossed.

[Velar Fricative]

NHL player Evander Kane is suspended for 21 games allegedly due to using a fake vaccine card. TW in the article as there is a brief mention of domestic abuse allegations as well.

amp.cnn.com/cnn/2021/10/18/sport/evander-kane-nhl-suspension/index.html

There is no official mandate, but all but a handful of players and staff in the NHL are vaccinated. Those who aren’t vaccinated cannot travel between the US and Canada for games.

[lilypad1126]

My mom was telling me yesterday that her old company (that basically fired her Sept 2020) has reached out to see if 1, she is vaxxed (she is) and 2, if she'd be interested in coming back to work for them b/c the company instituted a vaccine mandate and a bunch of people are either quitting or getting let go b/c of it. AND, shortly before that call, a friend of hers that she worked with there called her to tell her the company had just fired her (not for vaccine reasons).

This company has a history of treating its employees poorly and firing people for no real reason, so lots of turn over and always short staffed. My mom basically laughed at the idea of going back to them (to no one's surprise but her's, she loves being retired). But, it's going to impact a lot of people if employees keep quitting rather than get the vax.

Oh, and spoiler alert: this company is in the health insurance industry. So, that's extra awesome that it's employees don't see the value in vaccinating.

[Velar Fricative]

Oct 18, 2021 10:52:40 GMT -5 wawa said:

I was chatting with a local business owner of a blue collar family owned biz - between 100 and 200 employees.
She did a survey of her employees and only HALF of them are vaccinated. HALF. The county where we live is knocking on the door of 90% of the 12+ population vaccinated. It's not an anti-vax kind of place, so that number is SHOCKING to me.
So now she's trying to figure out what the hell she should do between now and whenever the OSHA regs come down because testing all those folks weekly will be expensive and hard but losing all those folks would be a death blow.

It's just more anecdotal evidence that there are two verrrrrry distinct populations right now (at least among white people). I vaguely recall a piece about how vaccinated people and unvaccinated people tend to congregate within their own bubbles, which does ring true for me personally. It's why DH's co-worker refuses to believe how high our local vaccination numbers are because "no one she knows is vaccinated."

If people thought we were polarized through the Trump years (and before), I think vaccination has ended up worsening the polarization problem and will continue to do so, to the point where people will really walk the walk and quit their jobs, move to live among more like-minded people, etc. 

[rubytue]

wawa, I wonder if the business has mostly in-county employees. Anecdote, but in H’s experience, a lot of the trades drive in from more rural areas for the good wages. His old company, based in Harford county, had mostly employees from Cecil and PA. And would send them all over the place, included a couple jobs in Alexandria. They’d win bids bc of the wages/bid price, and then kill the guy. H was the only AA employee at the time the casino (Live!) was being build, and he was put on that job just because of some in-county quota thing. Granted, we don’t have any knowledge of *this* county yet. But just a thought of how our county’s high vax rate may not apply to people working here 😞

[wawa]

Oct 19, 2021 10:08:11 GMT -5 rubytue said:

wawa , I wonder if the business has mostly in-county employees. Anecdote, but in H’s experience, a lot of the trades drive in from more rural areas for the good wages. His old company, based in Harford county, had mostly employees from Cecil and PA. And would send them all over the place, included a couple jobs in Alexandria. They’d win bids bc of the wages/bid price, and then kill the guy. H was the only AA employee at the time the casino (Live!) was being build, and he was put on that job just because of some in-county quota thing. Granted, we don’t have any knowledge of *this* county yet. But just a thought of how our county’s high vax rate may not apply to people working here 😞

The company is near the airport.  So...AA Co, and easily pulling from all the usual suspects further afield.  It just took me by surprise because I think of the whole region as being heavily vaxxed, but.....yeah.  Not actually once you pop out of our little bubble.

My office is even more of a bubble than my personal life. (all college educated, near DC, progressive speciality)   I forget sometimes.

[Velar Fricative]

There's also a Spongebob meme going around social media summarizing this, but here's a more in-depth article that spells out much of what the meme mentioned. The economic rebound is still waiting for workers.

@@ brief childcare mentions in the article but is mostly not @-related.

www.nytimes.com/2021/10/19/business/economy/economy-workers-labor-force.html

[pixy0stix]

Oct 19, 2021 11:20:02 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

There's also a Spongebob meme going around social media summarizing this, but here's a more in-depth article that spells out much of what the meme mentioned. The economic rebound is still waiting for workers.

@@ brief childcare mentions in the article but is mostly not @-related.

www.nytimes.com/2021/10/19/business/economy/economy-workers-labor-force.html

I wonder at what point businesses concede that the workforce isn't coming back and start downscaling.

[ssmjlm]

wawa, would it be possible for them to pass on the testing costs to the employee? I would be.

[Velar Fricative]

Oct 19, 2021 11:28:22 GMT -5 pixy0stix said:

Oct 19, 2021 11:20:02 GMT -5 Velar Fricative said:

There's also a Spongebob meme going around social media summarizing this, but here's a more in-depth article that spells out much of what the meme mentioned. The economic rebound is still waiting for workers.

@@ brief childcare mentions in the article but is mostly not @-related.

www.nytimes.com/2021/10/19/business/economy/economy-workers-labor-force.html

I wonder at what point businesses concede that the workforce isn't coming back and start downscaling.

That is the million dollar question. I was just thinking the other day that I don't know how the restaurant industry will fully rebound, if ever. If it does, it can't look the same - I don't see how that could happen.

[rubytue]

Oct 19, 2021 10:16:51 GMT -5 wawa said:

Oct 19, 2021 10:08:11 GMT -5 rubytue said:

wawa , I wonder if the business has mostly in-county employees. Anecdote, but in H’s experience, a lot of the trades drive in from more rural areas for the good wages. His old company, based in Harford county, had mostly employees from Cecil and PA. And would send them all over the place, included a couple jobs in Alexandria. They’d win bids bc of the wages/bid price, and then kill the guy. H was the only AA employee at the time the casino (Live!) was being build, and he was put on that job just because of some in-county quota thing. Granted, we don’t have any knowledge of *this* county yet. But just a thought of how our county’s high vax rate may not apply to people working here 😞

The company is near the airport.  So...AA Co, and easily pulling from all the usual suspects further afield.  It just took me by surprise because I think of the whole region as being heavily vaxxed, but.....yeah.  Not actually once you pop out of our little bubble.

My office is even more of a bubble than my personal life. (all college educated, near DC, progressive speciality)   I forget sometimes.

I hear you on the bubble thing. If it wasn’t for H, I’d be completely surrounded. And he isn’t working right now, nor does he have friends. So, there is that. I do wonder if this will bode well for him when he starts job searching again, being fully vaxed, that is. Someday, he is going to have to go back to work. He is definitely one of those where covid drove him out of the workforce. It was the icing on the cake of a job that was making him miserable. And then we have reasons to keep him home. But those reasons won’t last forever (much to his shagrin).

[Susie]

Oct 19, 2021 9:56:21 GMT -5 kellady said:

I was actually kind of surprised when I reached out to a couple of cleaning companies (they appeared to be individual small companies and not chain), and mentioned vaccination, and both replied that they were vaccinated.  Good! 

We also recently hired a small local company for house cleaning and were pleased to hear that they could ensure vaccinated employees.  I have people in my household who can't be vaxxed at this time, so it was either vaccinated cleaners or continuing to struggle along myself.  Thaaaaank goodness for success.