Hey, there! Log in / Register
Judge won't block vaccine mandate for Boston city workers, set to start Saturday
By adamg on Wed, 01/12/2022 - 4:59pm
WGBH reports that Suffolk Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Locke agreed with the city today that public-health concerns outweigh the collective-bargaining rights of firefighters and two police unions and denied a request to stop the Saturday start of a Covid-19 vaccination requirement.
Neighborhoods:
Topics:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
At this point....
As a member of a union in the City of Boston, I will stop paying my union dues if my union decides to resist the vaccine requirement. So many lawsuits have tried to stop vaccine mandates and all of them have failed. At this point, any union leader who wastes the members' money on another lawsuit to stop a vaccine mandate should be replaced.
To the unvaccinated - it's over. Get the jab or get in line at the unemployment office. You had no problem getting the measles vaccine so just shut up and get the jab.
Sincerely,
King of the Sheeple
Of Course you Will.....
BECAUSE YOU'LL BE FIRED ON SATURDAY. FIRED PEOPLE DON'T PAY UNION DUES. SEE YA!
Misread much?
Check that post again.
How's he gonna get fired...
...given that he's vaccinated?
In other anti-vaxx news
These motherfuckers using bullhorns to protest outside of the mayor's house when she's in there trying to raise her family are unacceptable.
Shana Cottone (the leader) is a true piece of garbage for this type of stuff. There are plenty of places where you can express your objection to a politician's policies but anyone with a single shred of human decency wouldn't do this.
I've criticized Wu plenty around here
But let it be understood that she has my complete support in spraying people who show up at her house in January with Super Soakers.
anyone with a single shred of
Same could be said of the mandate. It is nothing more than a way to punish your political enemies. This should teach everyone a lesson not to campaign against comrade Wu.
There are 100 other ways anyone with a single shred of human decency could come up with to improve the public health situation, but most are not politically convenient. It is a mandate against work and families. The shots do not prevent the spread of the disease, while it does reduce the severity of the infection. That's what the data shows.
Maybe pass a mandate to normalize the data to agree with your ideology?
Maybe read the science first?
I know this is shocking, but I'm going to believe Dr. Bisola Ojikutu, who is an actual MD, with a background in infectious disease, over some anon in a comment section about the efficacy of vaccination in slowing, if not entirely halting, the spread of the virus. Here, read her affidavit.
People who are fully vaccinated who do get infected stay infectious for a shorter period of time and don't produce as many viruses when they are.
What people like you aren't recognizing is that
The fact is, no vaccine is perfect. There were breakthrough polio cases. Hell, there were actual polio cases caused when one manufacturer screwed up and released vaccine doses containing live polio virus.
And yet, despite that, we conquered polio - a horrible disease, but one that spreads relatively slowly when compared to a coronavirus like Covid-19.
And now we have not just Covid-19, but omicron, which develops and spreads so quickly that things like weekly testing are no longer enough to ensure an uninfected workforce.
Unfortunately, once mass vaccination crashed into the rocks of know-nothing, science-rejecting lib-owners ruled by a king who once proposed drinking bleach, it was game over: Now we have to live with omicron and whatever comes after it and hope that the companies that are making what are truly revolutionary vaccines can adapt.
And we can dream that one day members of a death cult that has moved from horse parasite paste to their own urine will come to their senses. It's a nice dream, but unlikely - I'm sure you noticed how the subjects booed their mad king when he admitted getting a booster.
Is Bobby Kennedy Jr. a
Is Bobby Kennedy Jr. a Republican?
Ooh, your "Checkmate, libs" moment, that must've felt good
I don't know what he is, but the fact that members of his own family have strongly and publicly disagreed with him suggests he isn't being welcomed at any of the Sekrit Democrat Club meetings you know we're having (I don't know for sure because I haven't been to any of the special sessions of late).
Besides, he's not really local to Massachusetts, he's more of one of those Nooyawkas now. If you're looking for somebody local, might I suggest Shiva Ayyardurai, who sued Bobby a couple years ago over the issue of which one of them was more anti-vax than the other? True, he's a Republican, but nobody's perfect.
Thoughts on CDC
the CDC is no longer saying the vaccine is effective at stopping transmission (as of the past few days). However very effective at doing what it’s needed to do (lower risk of death).
What are your thoughts on the new CDC position?
The CDC
Director Walensky is finally getting the media training she needs so she’ll stop saying utterly stupid things, including the “it doesn’t stop transmission” line that you’re repeating.
https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/01/07/politics/rochelle-walensky-cdc-commun...
Not a new position
The CDC has never said that the vaccine stops transmission because it never has been 100% (vaccines almost never are). So it's not a "new" position. But as Adam has explained for you, it does reduce transmission.
But by all means, please forego vaccination. I am looking forward to Covid-19 reshaping our population and perhaps saving us from some dire outcomes. #silverlining
I’m boosted
Not saying, or suggesting anyone to not get the vax. But it’s troubling to get mixed messages from the CDC. I’ve already received my booster.
At what point is the info accurate vs not? What has been inaccurate in the past? What is being driven by outside interests? Is the backlash being received the reason for the PR training, and not because the info was wrong? When you change messaging constantly, with contradictions, when can we really know if you are right vs wring?
What the CDC says will often times shape local policies, and what she said is a stark contrast to policies being rolled out right now.
She said this in 2021
"....
Right
The CDC has embarrassed itself with flip-flopping and imprecision in its statements.
But if instead of harping on particular phrases, you look at the totality of the advice, including from various (actual) scientists, and you still can't figure out what to do, I'd say the bigger problem is with you and not the CDC. So please, don't get vaccinated.
He might be
You're talking about someone who was willing to headline an anti-vax conference with strong Trump/MAGA and QAnon connections: https://respectfulinsolence.com/2020/10/05/ampfest-antivaxxers-team-up-w...
Yes, his father was a liberal Democrat 45 years ago--that tells me absolutely nothing about RFK Jr.'s political leanings. It looks from here like his view is that vaccines are always bad, and he'll take any platform to promote that lie.
Even if you could prove that RFK Jr. isn't a Republican, that wouldn't be an argument against vaccination.
I don't think he is a Republican, but he acts like one, at times
I don't think that Bobby Kennedy Jr. is a Republican, but he sure as hell acts like one at times. His buying into the notion that vaccines per se cause Autism, and the fact that he's against the Covid-19 vaccination are both good indications of that.
What does that have to do
with the price of tea in China?
(No really, I don't see the connection here. Someone fill me in?)
There's a bunch of conflation going on here
Gaffin is noting that it is "Republicans" who oppose the vaccine mandates. The poster is noting that Robert Kennedy Jr. is a major anti-vaccination person, and he sure as heck isn't a Republican.
A decade ago, it was a very different crowd that was opposing vaccination, namely left leaning wackos, typically on the West Coast. Now we have right leaning wackos across the country doing the same thing. Polls will show that it is Republican leaning people who are more opposed to the Trump vaccine, which to me is odd, but here we are.
Are you gonna make a pie...
...out of all those cherries you just picked?
He asked a question
And I didn’t see you attempt to answer it.
You could be a constructive part of a conversation, or you can be a troll. Oh, I think we know which option you prefer.
Bosh
You got the answer to this trolling question a long while back. Don't try to pretend that your efforts to dialogue in good faith are being hampered by Adam's failure to hand you a special hand-written note.
Ah! Thank you.
And yeah, it's interesting how vaccine hesitancy has shifted in partisan alignment. I think if you look at it from a Moral Foundations Theory, what you'd find is left-wing vaccine hesitancy stemming from a Purity foundation, and ring-wing from Liberty. Probably some combination of that + propaganda to activate the connection.
That's where a national Covid-19 vaccine mandate would be handy.
That's where a nation-wide Covid-19 vaccination mandate would've come in handy, and worked. We'd more than likely be out of the woods, or close to it by now, if a national Covid-19 vaccination mandate had been implemented. That's what President Biden should do--on the double!
The breakthrough polio infections were rare, and people probably suffered milder cases of polio, recovered, and resumed leading normal lives. No vaccine is 100% affective, but at least vaccines will keep people from becoming seriously ill, being hospitalized, and dying or becoming permanently incapacitated as a result.
The polio vaccines enabled the polio bacteria to grow inside the gut, but prevented the bacteria from affecting the nervous system, especially the brain and the spinal cord.
Leaving mandates up to individual states has been a disaster.
The sad thing is I believe
The sad thing is I believe you really believe a public health effort is a political punishment. What happened to our schools that anyone could think this way?
This statement is @9:57pm anon and has nothing to do with Bobby.
A lot of people are stupid vicious and willfully ignorant.
An awful lot of people are stupid, vicious, and willfully ignorant, that's why! There's so many people who are so against and refuse to listen to science that we're getting screwed over.
We can thank Donald Trump and his supporters for getting us into this mess. They don't care who dies or becomes permanently incapacitated as a result.
“Punish your political enemies”
It’s a well known tactic to encourage your enemies to do the things that will keep them from suffering and dying. /s
Apparent corollary
The antivax contingent of the Republican Party seem to relish encouraging their constituents to suffer and die.
If someone had written this stuff as a novel 20 years ago, everyone would have ridiculed it as incredible.
It's okay
Between voter suppression, election disinformation, gerrymandering and outright election theft, they figure they only need about five constituents in the entire country to keep their knee on everybody's neck.
My eyesight isn't so great
Initially I read the "antivax contingent" as the "anthrax contingent"...
Funny you should mention that
Some of them had a anti-vax meeting in Texas, got some sort of a respiratory infection (gee I wonder what that could have been) and then instead of recognizing the obvious infection they had, claimed they were poisoned with anthrax. One of the attendees died from their infection.
https://www.sacurrent.com/sanantonio/anti-vax-podcaster-douglas-kuzma-di...
You have a point
We’re sick and tired of people who defend their right to get sick, get others sick and burden us with their diseased asses and their diseases. Hell yeah it’s time to punish these people — take the basic step to protect yourself and others, or don’t expect to be welcomed into polite society. No shirt, no shoes, no vaccine, no service.
There are 100 other ways to achieve this? Name five. Should be easy, I can’t wait to hear them.
You know why I voted for Michelle Wu? Because she didn’t pussyfoot around and pretend that we have to be polite and swallow bullshit like your dumb line that protecting people from a preventable disease that’s killing 1500 Americans a day is somehow “a mandate against work and families.” She didn’t pretend that people on the public payroll have some god-given right to leave themselves vulnerable to covid then get their salary and medical treatment paid for while they get sick and die.
So again, you have a point. We’re mad as hell, we’re tired of your bullshit and we’re done with it. You want a job, you want to eat in a restaurant or work out in a gym, you get vaccinated to protect yourself and others.
Whooo-Wheee, emac! That's telling 'em!
Whoo-whee, emac! That's telling 'em! Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Anybody who wishes to get back to leading a normal life (i. e. working a job, going places, and doing other stuff) should shut the hell up, get the vaccinations, and accept the fact that there'll be side affects that're only temporary, if they have any at all. The same is true for people who go to school, or wish to go to school, too.
It's disgraceful and extremely selfish of people who are able to obtain the Covid-19 vaccinations to refuse to do so. Had the vaccines for Covid-19 been made mandatory on a national level, rather than leaving it up to individual states to do so, we would've been out of the woods, or at least close to it, by now.
Well, no
I mean, there can be arguments made about how wide or narrow vaccine exemptions should be, and mind you we are talking vaccines that have been safely administered for the past year, but at the end of the day, that GD bullhorn is a low. Because yes, I can hear those fucking morons in the morning, and don't live across the street from Mayor Wu. I can hear them at least a quarter mile away.
Doing stupid shit like yelling into a bullhorn in front of a person's house at 7 AM is not the way to convince people of the validity of one's argument. Anyone with a shred of human decency would know that. That goes for anyone's ideology.
There are people who can't get the vaccines, due to being
There are people who really can't get the vaccines, due to being severely immunocompromised in some way or other (i. e. people with organ transplants, or people undergoing chemotherapy treatments for cancer, for example), but in order to reach herd immunity, and to protect everybody, including the above-mentioned people who are severely immunocompromised, is to reach herd immunity, which can only be obtained through not only state-wide vaccine and mask mandates, but a nation-wide vaccine mandate and a mask mandate as well. That's how polio, measles, smallpox and other illnesses were pretty much wiped out.
Oversimplifying
I'm guessing from other things you've posted that you know that what you wrote her is not literally true, and that you understand the nuance. If this is the case, I hope that you will reconsider making these kind of oversimplifying statements that will give the wrong impression to people who don't share your understanding.
It is not true that the people you speak of "really can't get vaccines". They can. They SHOULD. The exact timing of the vaccination is another matter; it has to be coordinated with their care, and specifically with treatment regimens that artificially suppress their immune system (for example, some cancer treatments that do this as an unwanted side effect, or deliberate immune suppression to hopefully prevent rejection of a transplanted organ). I went through this myself when getting my booster shot, on a much more minor scale. But these "severely immunocompromised" people absolutely can and should "get the vaccines". I think you know this, but many people reading your comment do not. Complex situations are hard, but when we oversimplify them, the result is something other than the truth.
It's agreed--people shouldn't blow their horns in front of homes
While it's agreed that people shouldn't yell and scream into their bullhorns in front of the homes of people, including politicians, who are trying to raise up their families, and/or get ready to go to work in the morning, or at anytime, for that matter, people have to be made aware of the necessities of vaccine mandates. Had the Covid-19 vaccination mandate been implemented nation-wide, we would not be in the mess that we're in right now. Leaving vaccination mandates up to individual states has proven disastrous.
Had a polio vaccine mandate been left up to individual states, many more people would've been permanently incapacitated, ended up in iron lungs, either longterm or permanently, or died from polio outright.
Over a half million people here in the United States have died of Covid-19 have died from it, which is way too damned many, imho. More lives could've and would've been saved if former President Donald Trump hadn't laughed off Covid-19 as a hoax, and then refused to do a damned thing about it until it was too late to contain and control it. Thanks to Donald Trump, the anti-vaxxers, the conspiracy theorists, and the Trump supporters, we're in this damned mess.
Might be time to simply outlaw that stuff....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frisby_v._Schultz