EDITORIAL
Vaccine Mandates:
A Whip That Will Be Used on Us All

Sep 13, 2021

President Joe Biden has issued a vaccine mandate for federal workers. Now he is pushing to include private industries with over 100 workers in similar orders.

He said, “We’ve been patient. But our patience is wearing thin. And your refusal [to get a vaccine] has cost all of us.”

What a crock! The cost of this pandemic hasn’t been paid by Biden, the government or the wealthy they represent. It has been paid to a large extent by the working class, their elderly and the poor.

And it’s not our unvaccinated neighbors who have caused us to sicken and die. It is the failure of those in power, those who run the government, to muster the tremendous financial resources and technology available in this country, to stop the virus dead in its tracks.

The billionaires and their government have created this deadly situation we are in. They have let the pandemic rage, here, and across the world. They have hoarded stocks of vaccines that could have been used to stop the spread. Their priority was to guarantee massive profits to the drug manufacturers. They bought up, with taxpayer money, three to four times more vaccine than what was needed in the U.S.—and at exorbitant prices! The virus was allowed to morph into the deadly Delta variant.

The people who run things have accepted that the pandemic will not be eradicated but will be an ongoing situation. They have decided to move on to what they call business as usual. To call it over as far as any expectation that the government should be responsible.

So now, they are pointing their fingers at the one-third of the adult population who are still unvaccinated, saying they are to blame, that they all are just stubbornly “refusing” the vaccine.

It is a way to turn one section of the population against the other. It makes every unvaccinated person into an enemy, an outcast, someone to blame. By making an example of workers who have not been vaccinated, the Biden administration hopes to shift blame for a continuing nightmare of a pandemic onto the backs of the victims themselves. And it hopes to convince workers who have received shots to do the same.

The vaccine is, to date, the best weapon individuals have to protect themselves. Even though there has not been enough time to see long-term results, the vaccines are, in this current period, protecting those who have them.

The trouble is, they are not equally available. They may be easy to get in one area, but not so much in another. Some people have given up on trying to get them.

And many people don’t trust them. They don’t trust the government, the drug companies, the medical system. And why should they? The politicians lie. Everyone knows it. Conspiracies? Every day! The government and Wall Street carry out secret negotiations, always for what the billionaires want, never for the good of the population. The medical system has messed them over or shut them out all their lives.

Instead of working to overcome the fears of the population, to deliver safety and protections, the bosses have decided to move on.

They want plants and workplaces up and running and forcing vaccines on the workers is the cheapest way to avoid the disruptions in production caused by sick and reluctant workers. It reduces the bosses’ responsibility for medical costs, also. It allows them to hire only workers who are vaccinated and compliant. Much cheaper than making the workplaces safe.

Of course, there will be many bends in the road ahead of us. So maybe Biden’s message of “get vaccinated or get tested” will never reach these levels. But the corporations will use the government mandates as a way to discipline the workforce, to force workers to be compliant while saying, “It’s not me forcing you to do this! It’s the President!”

So, beware of agreeing that it’s a good idea to force workers to get vaccines, which gives bosses the right to suspend and fire those that don’t.

Already, at some workplaces, workers are being suspended without pay even if they have extenuating health problems that prevent shots.

So, will we accept permanent unemployment for those without vaccines? Will we accept that health care companies will no longer waive hospital co-pays for COVID-19 treatment for the unvaccinated? Is it okay to let people die while they stay at home sick because they know the high medical bills will bankrupt them?

Giving the bosses a whip to use on any worker will give them that same whip to use on us all. The bosses have no final goal but to exploit us all for profits. They will take us all to the bottom if we don’t wage a determined fight to get rid of them and their profit system.