I know what you're saying, "cool portmanteau". Thanks. Time for another installment of the covid saga. We're getting a little more clarity on Omicron; more transmissible, maybe less severe (to vaccinated people?), the cause of a measurable bump in cases and professional sports cancellations.

The new meta

This weekend I caught an NPR interview with a doctor who had data and/or experience with vaccine hesitancy. One of his patients refused to get a covid immunization because of "vaccine mandates".

Like what? First, I'm fairly certain the first widely available doses preceded any mandate by at least six months. Then there's the willingness to endure an agonizing death just because... well what mandate are we talking about here? Nobody's been going door to door forcing needles into arms. Here are the mandates I can think of:

• Healthcare workers. I haven't followed this one closely, but I think the executive order is in legal limbo while employer-initiated policies have been upheld. This one has ample precedent and overwhelming public interest concerns. And it's optional, since employment is optional.
• Govvies. Again, precedent. More generally, requiring vaccines falls within the rights of the employer, right?
• Employees at all large companies. This one is considerably more far-reaching and less critical to public health. I can't see this one sticking and I'm inclined to believe it was never meant to stick. It was just the next level of pressure (after voluntary vaccination and giveaway vaccination) that was probably asked for by industry.

Is the large company mandate the one that people are talking about when they say, "I'm not anti-vaccine, I'm anti-mandate"? Or are they anticipating the bottom of a slippery slope? Because there are no forced injections and there won't be. What's weird is the extent to which the anti-mandate has allied with the antivax crowd. Cause there are only two sides to anything.

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