Oklahoma Conservatives are finally in favor of employees organizing against their almighty bosses!
Earlier this week, The Oklahoman reported that anti-vaxxers in the healthcare community – an equally great and sad real-life oxymoron – are uniting to oppose employer vaccine mandates that will help protect our sickest and most vulnerable humans from catching the Coronavirus.
Here are details via The Oklahoman:
Health care workers were among the hundreds to gather at an Edmond church last week, united by a common interest — they haven’t gotten the COVID-19 vaccine, and for now, they don’t want it.
Many of these healthcare professionals came because several health systems in Oklahoma will soon require the COVID-19 vaccine for employees, though workers can request medical or religious exemptions to the rule. Health officials and experts agree that the vaccines are highly effective at preventing the worst outcomes of COVID-19, including hospitalization and death.
But some are troubled by policies that require the shots. Liza Greve, executive director of Oklahomans for Health and Parental Rights, a group that opposes the COVID-19 vaccine requirements, said there will “absolutely be legal challenges” to the policies.
“I can tell you by the response that we received [Thursday], I don't think these people are going to back down. I think that's what their employers are hoping,” Greve said. “I think the vast majority, this is going to be their line in the sand.”
I'm a liberal dude and I'm against government vaccine mandates, but I do think employers – especially those in the healthcare field – have a right to require them. If you're some quack doctor or nurse that doesn't want to get a vaccine during a global pandemic, that's 100% your right and stupid choice. I also think a hospital group 100% has the right to make a smart choice and not employ you over it.
Naturally, the anti-vaxxer contagathon was held at Fairview Baptist Church in Edmond. It was recently named by Right Wing Religious Zealots Monthly as one of the "Top Places to Worship in Oklahoma If You Don't Believe In Science."
The guys in charge of the church are Paul Blair – the infamous pastor who once held a press conference to deny he was a Klansman – and Dan Fisher – a man who gallivants around the rural Oklahoma countryside pretending to be an 18th-century authoritarian religious zealot with a gun fetish.
As Paul Blair's Facebook page reminds us, the anti-vaxxer healthcare works will fit right in at his church:
Yep, take that worthless opinion for what it's worth.
Motivated by their fellow brainless brethren, the Derplahomans in the state legislature are now working hard to get a law passed that will prevent employers from imposing mandates:
A battle is brewing over vaccine mandates in local hospitals.
Metro hospitals said they’ll require employees to get vaccinated, but there’s growing pushback from some state lawmakers.
This comes as COVID-19 hospitalizations are spiking – up 160% since Tuesday of last week.
A group of House Republicans has asked Gov. Kevin Stitt to ban hospitals from requiring employee vaccinations. They’ve also asked Stitt to call lawmakers to the state Capitol to get this done. Apparently, Stitt didn’t respond, because the lawmakers have taken a major new step.
Stitt is on a weeklong trip to Azerbaijan. The state constitution says that the lieutenant governor is acting governor in his absence.
Now that group of lawmakers, led by Rep. Sean Roberts, wants Lt. Gov. Matt Pinnell to ban the hospital mandates or call a special session – before Stitt returns from abroad.
In a letter, Roberts wrote that the hospital requirements constitute “medical tyranny.”
That's weird. I always thought Oklahoma conservatives supported a business/employer's right to basically hire and fire whoever they want, whenever they want. It's almost like they're spineless hypocrites on this issue and just do what's politically convenient. Oh well, at least they can go to sleep each night knowing the people who vote for them are also hypocrites and don't care.
