Shot in the Dark

Your Papers

Declan Leary, on Muriel Bowser’s vaccine mandate in the District of Columbia – which isn’t all that different from the ones going into “effect” in Minneapolis and Saint Paul

It is all the more concerning given the precedent we risk setting if we tolerate the vaccine mandates. As a number of conservatives have warned repeatedly these last few months, even begrudging compliance with irrational diktats issued by the Covidcrats gives the ruling class valuable strategic ground. Moving forward, we can only expect our government to become less sensible and more immoderate if we refuse to push back now. As TAC’s

Helen Andrews wrote last week, “Once Americans get accustomed to scanning a QR code every time they enter a building, there is no limit to the surveillance and nudges that can be built on top of it.”

So I don’t know what to do here. I could easily comply; I have proof of the jab ready to go right on my phone. I need to show it if I want any part in so much of what makes city life good, worth living even under the rule of a Muriel Bowser and with a not insignificant risk of getting shot on a given day. (This latter point, by the way, calls into question the sincerity of the mayor’s interest in preserving the lives of citizens.) But I am far from convinced that the benefits of compliance—just like the benefits of enforcement—will really outweigh the costs.

I’m in about the same boat:  I’ve had the J&J vaccine (chosen because it was alleged to be best at preventing hospitalization, which given that I had OG Covid in the spring of 2020 was my only actual concern).   I could play the game.

But I am not going to.

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Mitch Berg

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17 responses to “Your Papers”

  1. Mammuthus Primigenesis Avatar
    Mammuthus Primigenesis

    These idiot politicians with their unscientific, arbitrary “mandates” are the first people to clamor about Trump’s “threat to democracy.”

  2. SmithStCrx Avatar
    SmithStCrx

    I had Covid before the vaccines were available. Even before that I’d made the decision that I wasn’t going to get a Covid vaccine. Among numerous reasons why not my main two were low personal risk and general concerns about a new technology that I could see was going to get rushed through the typical approval process. OTOH, I fully support my parents getting the vaccine because they are both in a much higher risk group (70+).
    I also had conversations with my wife about the vaccine and possible mandates surrounding my working retail, our daughters’ school, etc. She was very supportive of my decision that I would refuse to comply with any mandate, and we agreed that if my employer ever instituted that I will refuse, not quit, and make them fire me.

  3. jdm Avatar
    jdm

    It occurred to me that isn’t a vaccine mandate kinda, sorta a HIPPA violation?

  4. gl whisler Avatar
    gl whisler

    Roe Vs Wade is based on the precedent set in Griswold vs Conn, which says we have an implied right to privacy…

    I’ve always wondered why that implied right to privacy only applies to Birth Control and Abortion. Why can’t I use Griswold to tell the state to go pound sand about how I choose to protect myself from disease?

  5. bikebubba Avatar
    bikebubba

    Regarding the right to privacy, HIPAA doesn’t quite protect it like you’d think it would. It’s 5000 pages, I’m told, mostly of exceptions to medical privacy.

  6. jdm Avatar
    jdm

    Thanks, bike. I didn’t know. What I *do know* however is that HIPPA is invoked anytime medical people (bureaucrats) want to hide info. But vaccine status, even with wannabe-vaccines, is apparently not covered. Or if it was polio or measles? Golfdoc50?

  7. SmithStCrx Avatar
    SmithStCrx

    As Twila Brase is fond of pointing out,

    Health
    Insurance
    Portability &
    Accountability
    Act

    It’s not about privacy. It’s a list of all of the ways that your data isn’t private.

  8. Joe Doakes Avatar
    Joe Doakes

    One notch tighter on the ratchet. It’s the last one, I promise.

    Not much, just one notch. Hardly even notice it. And it’s for the common good.

    There. Comfy? Good.

    Okay, now one more notch . . . .

  9. Emery Incognito Avatar
    Emery Incognito

    Most everyone I know wouldn’t turn to Marjorie Taylor Greene for healthcare or legal advice.

    /“Vaccination information is classed as PHI and is covered by the HIPAA Rules. However, HIPAA only applies to HIPAA-covered entities – healthcare providers, health plans, and healthcare clearinghouses – and their business associates. If an employer asks an employee to provide proof that they have been vaccinated in order to allow that individual to work without wearing a facemask, that is not a HIPAA violation as HIPAA does not apply to most employers.”/
    https://www.hipaajournal.com/is-it-a-hipaa-violation-to-ask-for-proof-of-vaccine-status/

  10. bikebubba Avatar
    bikebubba

    Another thing regarding HIPAA is that when I mentioned as a wisecrack the “500” pages of the act and how it meant it really didn’t protect privacy at all, my doctor announced it was actually 5000.

    And somehow I would be tempted to introduce the vaccine mandate in the original German…..Papiere, bitte.

  11. Joe Doakes Avatar
    Joe Doakes

    Let’s ask the question a different way.

    Why ISN’T an individual’s personal medical history treated as private information by everybody who has it? Why should ANYBODY be forced to reveal it?

    “Our company is dedicated to saving the planet from climate change, the principal cause of which is people. All employees are required to state whether they have had a vasectomy, had their tubes tied, had any abortions, any miscarriages, and how many children they born. This information is critical to the organization’s reputation in the community so participation is mandatory and failure to promptly and accurately disclose is grounds for termination.”

    I can think of three exceptions to the “everything is private” rule – doctors who need to know to give treatment; insurance actuaries who need to know to set premiums; recruiters who need to know to judge combat suitability – but I can’t see where employers or politicians or teachers would fit in.

  12. Night Writer Avatar
    Night Writer

    I was at an MLK event yesterday, listening to some stirring preaching. At one point, though, there was reference to the speaker having a dream that black people and white people could be treated as equals, that gay people could be free to marry in their church – lot’s of “Amening” – and that everyone be vaccinated. I had to wonder if I would get the left foot of fellowship if I were to say I was unvaxxed.

  13. jdm Avatar
    jdm

    Well, I’ll have to admit that I feel quite put in my place. Twice over, in fact, because I rather like MTG.

    So, HIPPA apparently exists only to protect a client’s personal health information from being revealed by a medical bureaucrat to another party. You’re on your own if a non-covered (as they term it) entity asks for your personal health information. Like if you’ve been vaccinated. Or have AIDS or Hepatitis or TB. Good to know. The future is going to be interesting.

    Still like MTG tho’.

  14. Emery Incognito Avatar
    Emery Incognito

    I’m just lucky I didn’t confuse HIPAA with HEPA!

  15. Mammuthus Primigenesis Avatar
    Mammuthus Primigenesis

    KSTP says that your “proof of vax” required to dine or attend public events in the metro can be a photo of your vax card on your phone.
    These are not serious people, doing serious things to counter a serious problem.

  16. Mammuthus Primigenesis Avatar
    Mammuthus Primigenesis

    I’m looking at the numbers and it looks like case load has peaked in the US and is going to fall rapidly.
    This fits the omicron pattern we have seen in South Africa and Britain. (Britain is about ahead of the US).
    The bandwidth of the administrative state is unable to react to an event like this, even on the local level. The vax passport of Minneapolis does not go into effect until today, more than a month after the current wave of cases began, and which began to recede a few days ago.

  17. Night Writer Avatar
    Night Writer

    MP, the dropping caseload will cause the mayors to proclaim that their mandates worked, and to pass out participation stickers you can stick on your mask.

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