Another long line
docked boat chairs
then sign, sign, sign
you’ve been conscripted
layers of paperwork
between now and free
grandchildren of disease
like rats
run circles around vaccines
a saga of failed strategies
each jab brings relief
but the pandemic battleship
boasts a large fleet.
© khartless 2021, All Rights Reserved
There was a story on here just this evening about care homes who have implemented a “jab or job” policy having to close, or reduce, because employees have chosen to walk. Their jobs basically pay only minimum wage and there are vacancies everywhere.
It’s in the news because the health service has started to adopt the same policy. It’s not yet clear whether they will lose staff. But those jobs also don’t necessarily pay well.
Public sector employers here want everyone vaccinated, and while they can’t fire individuals if they claim medical exemption, they definitely aren’t hiring those that won’t or aren’t vaccinated-sad that caregivers and elderly facilities will be suffering. I say, increase the wage, require vaccines to hire, and place the appropriate funds in caring for our elderly with happy employees that feel valued.
Increasing wages = increasing taxes. Even if you would do that, lots of people wouldn’t. They will more willingly cut off their nose…
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It’s one of a number of sectors here which are struggling to find labour. A lot of that, in turn, is because of tighter immigration. So it’s worrying on one level, but on another level, it is a case of “serves you right”.
Ironically, I can see how the NHS might enforce this, because they will have records of jabs, but I can’t really see how private care homes enforce it, because they have no such records. So it must be done on an admission basis, in which case… lie! My friend in the US says they pretty much work on don’t ask, don’t tell there.
Huh. Here in Aus all the jabs are tracked and if we want to travel interstate we have to produce proof of jabbage (so to speak). You print your proof of a gov’t website. So here it would be easy for any sector to implement no jab, no job policies. WE believe in big brother here, I guess. But yes, BREXIT has impinged on the available workforce, I imagine. It’s going to take a while for post-Brexit side effects to appear and then be untangled, I guess.
It’s interesting, actually, because I wonder if the NHS is the *only* way to get vaccinated, here? I suspect it is right now, but I doubt it’ll be the case going forward – they are bound to invent a mechanism for rich people to jump the queue.
And, as soon as you do that, you lose those records, because when someone is jabbed privately, it won’t show.
In fact, one of the reasons for having something done privately here is so it doesn’t appear on our “official” records. An AIDS test, for example. Something we might wish to keep extremely private.
*shrug* Maybe it is. Maybe it isn’t. I agree with vaccinations so I just produced the document required. As I said, Australians are used to the rules list growing and growing. Lots of people find loop holes. After all, we’re of convict stock. But the kind of people I hang around with tend to comply.
That’s what women (and not only women) have said about abortion for years. And in the vast majority of cases I agree. But I also think we westerners have come to value individual rights above the health and safety of the community and I think it’s a bit dangerous. Humans are social creatures and want to live in communities and, due to a constantly expanding population, those communities have got bigger and bigger. Not only that, travel has become easier and easier. So sure, if we don’t care about the future of the species, we just worry about ourselves. So I don’t know where I stand on mandates. But I find it weird that people argue so avidly for their right to, not only potentially die themselves, but also to infect their loved ones. Anyway, if it is each for themselves, then I will stay at home for at least the next 9 months because I’m considered vulnerable. It’s harder to keep my kids (who aren’t old enough to be eligible for a vaccine yet) home.
Yard Sale of Thoughts 
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