Rant #2,746: Stuck In a Moment You Can't Get Out Of

Good morning everyone.
 
Get your COVID shot yet?
 
I put up the following comment at a few places on Facebook, and yes, I did it because I wanted to see the response that I would get, and yes, I got plenty!
 
Although I find New York State Governor Kathy "The Yokel" Hochul's coronavirus shot mandate completely reprehensible—that people in the health care field are being forced to get the shots to keep their jobs—and the same goes for New York City Mayor Bill deBlasio's edict that everyone who works in the city schools needs to get the shots to keep their jobs--those directly impacted had better make sure that their decision is the right one for themselves and their families ...
 
And since I don’t really think that those who are astutely against the shots, and would dump their professions to abstain, really and truly understand the quicksand that they are getting themselves into, I would tell them the following right to their faces:
 
“Don’t be a prick, and get the prick.”
 
Here is exactly what I put up on Facebook, and again, I personally do not agree that people should be forced to get these shots.
 
However …
 
"Sometimes you have to do things you do not want to do.
 
Teachers and hospital workers are faced with a conundrum; get the shot, not because they believe in all of this forced nonsense, but to save their jobs and livelihoods, or not get the shot, and lose everything.
 
It is not worth losing everything.
 
If they don't get the shot, it will have a domino effect on their lives.
 
Not only will they not get unemployment, but it will greatly impact their future retirement and Social Security. They also will eventually lose their health insurance.
 
And what business will hire them when they find out why they lost their jobs?
 
The whole approach by our government is reprehensible. However, getting the shot to protect yourself and your family from career destruction and all of its after effects is not agreeing with the mandate in any way.
 
For these people, get the shot, because let me tell you from personal experience, when you are kicked to the curb from your livelihood, you aren't going to be getting up anytime soon.
 
Getting the shots protects yourself and your family not necessarily from the virus, but from career destruction. Is it worth it to give up 10, 20, 30 or more years that you put in, only to end up with nothing?
 
Getting the shots does not show compliance for these people, it demonstrates foresight.
 
And when the time comes, vote out 'Hochul the Yokel' and all officials who are forcing people to choose between their livelihoods and getting these idiotic shots."
 
That is what I believe, but as you can imagine, not everyone agrees with me … nor did I think they would.
 
Many people said that it was compliance and obedience when these people decide to get the shots, and that they would never get the shots.
 
Others said that they are sure that these people knew the financial risks that they were undertaking by refusing to submit to the shots.
 
To those answering this way, I say “balderdash,” these people have no idea the fires they are setting for themselves by not giving in … and yes, it is giving in.
 
It is not political, it is practical.
 
You—and if you don’t care about yourself, then your family—will lose everything by not getting the shots.
 
The courts have proven that these edicts, as reprehensible as they are, are LEGAL, and can and will be enforced.
 
Some people in these fields are somewhat lucky. They have only been suspended and/or furloughed. Some have even retained their health insurance through their unions.
 
But others …
 
Northwell Health, the largest health provider on Long Island and one of the largest in New York State and the country, has fired--will repeat that, FIRED—thousands of workers because they have not received and refuse to receive their shots.
 
Northwell Health is an interesting situation, because they set up their own shot protocols way before Gov. Hochul made her edict, and they are a lot more stringent than what the governor laid down, so their workers knew weeks ago what they were going to face if they went shotless—
 
And Northwell simply axed them. Period.
 
Maybe these workers can manage for a few weeks on savings, but the bigger picture is that it will eventually foul up their retirement and their Social Security.
 
Take it from me: you don’t understand how important this is until you reach that period in your life that you are of retirement age.

You do not want or need any blips on your record when this time comes, and this will be the most major of blips.
 
So the bottom line is this: personally, I think what Hocul, deBlasio and others are doing to force people to get the shots is horrid. Nobody should be forced to get these shots.
 
However, if the mandates are in, if the mandates have been found to be legal by our court system, then getting the shots is not compliance, as some would say.
 
It is survival in this rough world we live in.
 
My advice to these people would be to get the first shot. You will have three weeks to see if it kills you to do so.
 
And when you come out of it squeaky clean, you get the next one, see how that goes, and you are done …
 
Hopefully, as we now have booster shots to perhaps contend with, but at least for now, only the first regimen of shots are mandatory for these people to keep their jobs.
 
Let’s not put the cart before the horse.
 
Get the shots, because as I said, while these shots might not protect you from getting the coronavirus, they WILL protect your livelihood.
 
And right now, that protection is paramount, even more important than protection against the virus is.