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Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by tomrod on Monday October 04, 2021 @06:20PM (#28752879)
I expect there will be a lot of comments on this post representing a diverse set of views.

From an economics perspective, people choosing to avoid vaccinations adopt a stance that exacerbates a public health risk because, by their choice, they avoid internalizing the costs of their decisions. Mandates like the one rolled out by the Biden administration are legal, have strong standing, and are effective policy tools. And no one is being held down and coerced to receive a shot.

Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by iammisc on Monday October 04, 2021 @06:37PM (#28753134)
> And no one is being held down and coerced to receive a shot.

This is absolutely garbage reasoning. They're having their livelihoods ripped away. Simply not pulling a trigger does not give you some moral high ground.

Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by panda-giddiness on Monday October 04, 2021 @07:22PM (#28753645)
Healthcare workers have a duty to their patients. Those patients include the willfully unvaccinated, but they also include immunocompromised individuals who can't mount a robust vaccine response. While that latter class of people might sound like an edge case not worthy of consideration in larger society, it is exactly the sort of edge case that's relevant in a healthcare setting.

If a healthcare worker isn't willing to receive a jab that could literally save someone else's life, they're in the wrong field. If they don't believe that vaccines are effective or safe or whatever, they can choose not to vaccinate; but they shouldn't be allowed to force that risk on their patients, especially since a "vaccine-hesistant" position is overwhelming at odds with the medical consensus.

Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by TacticalCoder on Monday October 04, 2021 @07:34PM (#28753750)
But that doesn't explain firing all those among those 1400 who tested positive in the past and whom, according to recent studies, are not just a bit but way less likely to spread the Delta variants than those who, like me, got the Pfizer vaccine but never tested positive.

I'm vaccinated but this entire witch hunt against unvaccinated people makes me very uneasy.

Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by panda-giddiness on Tuesday October 05, 2021 @04:26PM (#28765144)
> But that doesn't explain firing all those among those 1400 who tested positive in the past

Sure, I think that's a valid concern, but it's also shifting the goal posts. You can advocate for that specific subset without advocating for the entire group.

Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by darwinwhy on Monday October 04, 2021 @06:43PM (#28753234)
Funny choice of words when talking about healthcare workers.
Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by codeecan on Monday October 04, 2021 @06:56PM (#28753384)
do you know what coerced means?

compelling a party to act in an involuntary manner by use of threats, including propaganda or force.

They're clearly coerced, unless you don't think getting fired falls under threats.

Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by Mirioron on Monday October 04, 2021 @06:48PM (#28753296)
Obesity has a sizable impact on the healthcare system. WHO says that obesity kills 2.8 million people a year.[0] Would these kinds of methods work there too? Get fit or be let go?

Obviously this wouldn't ever be taken seriously, but it is surprising to me that obesity is an issue that's mostly ignored. Yet the impact of it is on at least the same scale as the pandemic.

[0] https://www.who.int/news-room/facts-in-pictures/detail/6-fac...

Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by munk-a on Monday October 04, 2021 @07:08PM (#28753514)
I think, speaking as an obese person, that if there was a solution that was as easy as getting jabbed in the arm twice - I'd jump on it in a moment. Obesity has a diversity of causes but I can guarantee you that it's never an easy thing to overcome.
Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by ballarak on Monday October 04, 2021 @07:35PM (#28753757)
The obesity examples fails because obesity is non-contagious. The issue with COVID is that not getting vaccinated puts your coworkers even more at risk in an environment where you're already much more likely to be infected.

Additionally, in health care you're often working with patients who have comorbidities, for these patients, contracting COVID from a healthcare worker could be a death sentence.

Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by Mirioron on Tuesday October 05, 2021 @02:52AM (#28756239)
But the risk with obesity and Covid is that they both overload the healthcare system. As long as it keeps working fine then Covid is unlikely to spiral out of control. Obesity itself seems to make Covid worse.
Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by throwaway0a5e on Monday October 04, 2021 @08:26PM (#28754111)
>The obesity examples fails because obesity is non-contagious.

There's plenty of research showing that people tend to gravitate toward the weight of other people they are around.

Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by p45please on Monday October 04, 2021 @08:33PM (#28754158)
What an interesting response, do you really think obesity is similar to a contagious virus or are you just grasping at straws to support your ideology?
Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by throwaway0a5e on Monday October 04, 2021 @09:09PM (#28754390)
> What an interesting response, do you really think obesity is similar to a contagious virus or are you just grasping at straws to support your ideology?

All I'm doing is pointing out that a statement in the parent comment is false, nitpicking essentially. It's kind of what we do here. There's no need to project an entire ideology onto me. Just because I disagree with one particular falsehood on one particular side of an issue does not immediately mean I am on the "other team".

Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by xjlin0 on Monday October 04, 2021 @06:52PM (#28753343)
that's a valid argument, also please keep in mind that obesity kills people in decades, while covid kill people in days.

And sadly there are some people would get fired because of overweight in some fields.

Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by staplers on Monday October 04, 2021 @07:14PM (#28753584)
My body my choice. If you infect me with your covid, it's a problem. Covid kills more people a year than obesity.
Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by chucksta on Monday October 04, 2021 @08:20PM (#28754083)
How does my body my choice not apply to the other person?
Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by AutumnCurtain on Monday October 04, 2021 @06:26PM (#28752953)
If their hospital is anything like the one I work for, their business model would be crippled by not requiring vaccination simply due to the impact on utilization.
Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by tomohawk on Monday October 04, 2021 @07:53PM (#28753892)
It is immunity which confers safety. You can achieve immunity by vaccination, but if you've already had covid, you have better immunity.

Many countries recognize this

When the government requires people to get a medical procedure, it had better be necessary, not just for the population, but also the individual.

If there is no benefit to the individual, it is unethical, and probably illegal, to force a person to get it.

Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by wyager on Monday October 04, 2021 @06:37PM (#28753126)
> From an economics perspective, people choosing to avoid vaccinations adopt a stance that exacerbates a public health risk

So do people choosing to leave their house. There are certain classes of externalities that society has chosen not to explicitly internalize, such as those imposed by living a normal life.

Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by tomrod on Monday October 04, 2021 @07:20PM (#28753632)
Which, moving forward, will probably mean being vaccinated for COVID.
Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by wyager on Tuesday October 05, 2021 @01:26PM (#28762551)
Maybe, but don’t pretend you’re arguing from a purely economic basis, unless you’re also willing to punish people for ever leaving their house.

You’re also missing the higher-order issue of internalization overhead, but that’s a whole separate consideration.

Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by po1nt on Monday October 04, 2021 @06:26PM (#28752965)
Fair point of view. Except that everybody pays taxes yet get different treatment based on what they decide to do with their body.
Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by munk-a on Monday October 04, 2021 @06:29PM (#28753010)
That has pretty much always been the case though right? In 1995 people who chose to smoke were prevented from being indoors in NYC for their entire dining experience if they wanted to have a cigarette. It is perfectly reasonable that there be some differences in treatment based on your choices.
Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by po1nt on Monday October 04, 2021 @06:42PM (#28753216)
Well I'm against government forcing this either. It should be venues responsibility. You can always leave a venue that is smoker friendly.
Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by iammisc on Monday October 04, 2021 @06:42PM (#28753215)
Except 'having a cigarette' and 'breathing' are activities with two different moral weights. 'Having a cigarette' in a building is a luxury. Breathing in a building is not.

For example, it would be okay for a state to ban drivking alcohol anywhere. Alcohol is a luxury. Breathing is not. Neither is working.

Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by dantheman on Monday October 04, 2021 @06:33PM (#28753078)
Mandates like the one rolled out by Biden administration are definitely not legal, just like the eviction moratorium is not legal. The federal government does not have police powers and the agencies and regulators can't make rules outside their mandate.

The authority to mandate vaccines is at the state and local level.

Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by mullen on Monday October 04, 2021 @06:42PM (#28753212)
No police powers are being used, so I don't see how that is relivate. Also, the Agencies are not going out of their mandate. OSHA was created to make the workplace safer and by mandating vaccines, they are.
Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by dantheman on Tuesday October 05, 2021 @11:40AM (#28760965)
OSHA was not designed or ever granted power to mandate vaccines, just like the CDC was granted power to stop evictions.

Can OSHA mandate that employers create rules that employees must pass a physical fitness test? Must become vegetarian?

Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by ryandrake on Tuesday October 05, 2021 @01:45PM (#28762857)
OSHA's charter is to reduce hazards in the workplace. Physical fitness tests have nothing to do with that. A deadly communicable disease that could be spread by co-workers falls squarely into the "workplace hazard" bucket.
Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by bpodgursky on Monday October 04, 2021 @06:51PM (#28753320)
Police powers are obviously being used... how do you think laws and regulations are enforced?

If a business violates the OSHA rules and then doesn't pay the penalties, they are shut down and, if the business continues operating in violation of the regulators, arrested. That's the obvious and implicit statement. The police do that!

The police aren't out raiding houses but the police powers are obviously being used; it's the state's monopoly on violence! It's the government's biggest lever!

Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by orf on Monday October 04, 2021 @06:59PM (#28753430)
So all federal laws are invalid?
Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by bpodgursky on Monday October 04, 2021 @07:17PM (#28753610)
No? All federal laws rely on the police to enforce them. I'm a realist, not an anarchist.

Just don't pretend that there isn't a clear threat of violence, when you are making laws that tell people what to do or take their money.

Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by orf on Monday October 04, 2021 @09:08PM (#28754386)
ok so the point about federal laws being invalid because they are enforced by the police is invalid?
Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by bpodgursky on Monday October 04, 2021 @11:04PM (#28755077)
Are you intentionally misreading what I wrote?

I never said anything about federal laws being invalid. I said they are enforced by police action. Which is obviously true.

Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by bobthechef on Monday October 04, 2021 @07:09PM (#28753523)
If you aren't vaccinated, you are fired because the government has mandated it. If you don't leave, you're trespassing and the police will most certainly going to be involved.

But in general, American oligarchs have figured out that private enterprise is a good way to circumvent constitutional and legal limits to their power.

This is also how the surveillance state came into existence. BigTech is a de facto arm of the government while maintaining legal separation. It does the dirty work because it doesn't have to play by the same rules government must. As naive libertarians like to say, it's private so it's all consensual so it's cool, man.

Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by iudqnolq on Monday October 04, 2021 @06:35PM (#28753093)
> The federal government does not have police powers

Then what's the FBI?

Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by tomrod on Monday October 04, 2021 @06:38PM (#28753148)
Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by da_big_ghey on Monday October 04, 2021 @06:38PM (#28753162)
Unconstitutional. It is unconstitutional. And morally wrong, and very corrupt (look at literally anything Hoover have done, or recent scandal with spying, or Page and Strzok.)
Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by chickenpotpie on Monday October 04, 2021 @06:41PM (#28753206)
What part of the constitution?
Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by da_big_ghey on Monday October 04, 2021 @10:41PM (#28754926)
Constitution is whitelist not blacklist, what part give it permission?
Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by iammisc on Monday October 04, 2021 @06:40PM (#28753185)
Police power doesn't simply mean having a law enforcement agency. It means being able to do the daily policing work that the federal government is basically explicitly barred from doing except in particular circumstances.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_power_(United_States_co...

> Federal police power has been defined by Supreme Court rulings. In affirming that Congress has limited power to enact legislation, the court ruled in United States v. Lopez (1995) that "The Constitution...withhold[s] from Congress a plenary police power that would authorize enactment of every type of legislation."[6][7] In United States v. Morrison (2000), the court invalidated a provision of a federal law on violent crime. The court stated, "The regulation and punishment of intrastate violence that is not directed at the instrumentalities, channels, or goods involved in interstate commerce has always been the province of the States...[W]e can think of no better example of the police power, which the Founders denied the National Government and reposed in the States, than the suppression of violent crime..."[6][8]

Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by iudqnolq on Monday October 04, 2021 @06:42PM (#28753220)
Eh, you're technically right but the courts have interpreted interstate commerce extremely broadly. A pandemic is interstate in a similar sense as the wheat in Wickard v. Filburn.
Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by throwaway0a5e on Monday October 04, 2021 @06:49PM (#28753308)
A pandemic is much more legitimately interstate than anything in wickard v filburn
Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by iammisc on Monday October 04, 2021 @07:10PM (#28753533)
How is mandating a remote employee, who's clearly not moving around a legitimate interstate interest. Pray do tell. In general, non-kangaroo courts require laws to be written to be suitably tailored and narrow in scope.
Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by throwaway0a5e on Monday October 04, 2021 @08:29PM (#28754131)
>How is mandating a remote employee, who's clearly not moving around a legitimate interstate interest

Do I get to use the same asinine reasoning they used in Wickard v. Filburn?

Because if not then your guess is as good as mine.

Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by iudqnolq on Monday October 04, 2021 @06:53PM (#28753352)
I agree that requiring large employers to require vaccines has a more significant effect on interstate commerce that a person growing wheat for their own use. I think it's a similar order of magnitude though.
Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by iammisc on Monday October 04, 2021 @06:47PM (#28753285)
Um okay... but he asked what the FBI was. Is the FBI enforcing covid vaccines? I don't think so
Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by iudqnolq on Monday October 04, 2021 @06:52PM (#28753340)
I used the FBI as an example of a federal agency that has broad enforcement powers and that most Americans don't consider unconstitutional.
Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by xjlin0 on Monday October 04, 2021 @06:56PM (#28753391)
Didn't all public schools ask for student's vaccination card already? Legal and scientific
Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by dantheman on Tuesday October 05, 2021 @11:42AM (#28760994)
Public schools are locally controlled.
Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by chewbacha on Monday October 04, 2021 @06:37PM (#28753147)
Fwiw; Biden has full authority to mandate federal employees are fully vaccinated.
Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by chickenpotpie on Monday October 04, 2021 @06:39PM (#28753180)
Explain OSHA
Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by iammisc on Monday October 04, 2021 @06:41PM (#28753200)
Honestly... will someone please explain OSHA? It was held by many to be unconstitutional at the time of institution. It still is today. Just because the feds broke the law in the past doesn't mean we get to excuse it again in the future. The federal government is very good at breaking laws. At some point, they must be held to account.
Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by akira2501 on Monday October 04, 2021 @06:47PM (#28753284)
> they avoid internalizing the costs of their decisions.

You don't know that. There are ways to take precautions to the benefit of your fellow citizens that do not involve taking the vaccine. There's more than one way to be civil.

> And no one is being held down and coerced to receive a shot.

No.. but you're limiting their rights under the guise that their decisions must be harming someone. You're engaged in penalizing behavior without actually establishing any guilt. It's disturbing that this is bandied about so readily.

Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by orf on Monday October 04, 2021 @06:58PM (#28753417)
> You don't know that. There are ways to take precautions to the benefit of your fellow citizens that do not involve taking the vaccine.

That's certainly true, but I expect the intersection between "people who don't trust vaccines" and "people who don't take any precautions" to be overwhelming.

Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by akira2501 on Monday October 04, 2021 @08:27PM (#28754117)
What is this expectation based on?

What if it was only true for 50% of the unvaccinated, would that still justify this approach? At what rate would it be justified?

Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by beerandt on Monday October 04, 2021 @06:28PM (#28752981)
It's the businesses choice to make healthcare a job benefit.

I know we've gotten to where the practice it's common, but that doesn't make it any less of a business decision.

So what happens when companies start screening new hires for expensive health issues?

Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by bastawhiz on Monday October 04, 2021 @06:32PM (#28753056)
If the health issues were communicable to the other employees in the office, I would personally probably support those screenings. Besides being expensive for the company that pays me, it's entirely reasonable to expect my coworkers have done the absolute bare minimum to also protect me from an awful disease.
Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by beerandt on Monday October 04, 2021 @06:39PM (#28753173)
Fauci was also for banning hiv/ aids patients from public places in the 80s. Because a novel disease was thought to be more communicable, more deadly, and more of a pandemic than it really was.
Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by bastawhiz on Monday October 04, 2021 @06:54PM (#28753357)
> more deadly, and more of a pandemic than it really was

Essentially 100% of people who contracted HIV in the 80s died from it. So I'm really not sure how you can say that it was thought to be "more deadly" or "more of a pandemic than it really was." HIV was a death sentence, and without treatment, it continues to be a death sentence.

HIV and COVID-19 are not comparable, and the politics around them cannot be boiled down to a single person's opinion at any one point in time.

Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by beerandt on Monday October 04, 2021 @07:22PM (#28753657)
No one cought it by having a conversation or casual contact at work or in public.

>Essentially 100% of people who contracted HIV in the 80s died from it.

You need highly contagious and deadly. Not or. Speed of spread/ death counts, as well.

Besides, COVID was initially sold as being much more deadly than actually is. Hindsight makes justification/ lack of easy.

Yet how long would the hypothetical lockdowns have taken credit for slowing the spread back then? Even without lockdowns, how long did the cooties stigma last?

>cannot be boiled down to a single person's opinion at any one point in time.

I've been told to trust the experts.

Re:New York's largest healthcare provider fires 1,400 unvacc... by bastawhiz on Monday October 04, 2021 @09:06PM (#28754376)
Unfortunately, the only fact you've stated is this:

> No one cought it by having a conversation or casual contact at work or in public.

Correct. The transmission of HIV was also not understood. Nor was it even known to be a virus for quite some time, hence why it was called "the gay cancer." Part of the reason why it wasn't understood was the government's intentional apathy towards it, out of bigotry.

> Besides, COVID was initially sold as being much more deadly than actually is.

You might recall that the first wave completely depleted the availability of ventilators. In fact, this very website hosted links to DIY ventilator projects because the problem was so bad.

Who are you to decide how much death is enough death to warrant concern? If the world healthcare systems cannot keep up, it's a problem. Five million people will have died by the end of the year. No other disease in US history has ever killed as many people. Your waffling about what makes a disease worthy of concern is unnecessary: salmonella only kills 0.4% of people who contract it, but we don't argue about restaurant staff using clean cooking equipment.