5 ms·

I would be with you if it weren’t for the “or test” part. “You must get vaccinated” would be problematic, but “you must do a COVID test once a week if you’re no

I would be with you if it weren’t for the “or test” part. “You must get vaccinated” would be problematic, but “you must do a COVID test once a week if you’re not vaccinated” is totally reasonable IMO.

furgooswft13 5y ago
Give it a few months. First they will pass the costs onto the employee, then they will take away the option altogether. Mark my words.
- putnambr 5y ago
  With a $14k fine per violation, I doubt most employers will give employees the option to test weekly. That's too much of a liability.
  - lax4ever 5y ago
    Especially considering the load this will put on laboratories.
    - loonster 5y ago
      The people that need the test to determine proper course of treatment will get results days after it matters. It will be just like 2020.
      - loonster 5y ago
        In June of 2020, I waited over 2 weeks for the results of my test. A delay that long makes the test more than worthless for preventing transmission and determining best course of action.
Ekaros 5y ago
I think more reasonable stance would be to require employers offer sufficient protective gear for unvaccinated employees. Gas masks aren't that expensive. And any private person can at their own cost also buy such device to fully protect themselves.
- tomrod 5y ago
  That's pretty unreasonable unless you can't medically receive the shot and there are active infections. We require vaccinations for schooling and for healthcare already (e.g TB). This is no huge stretch.
- steverb 5y ago
  Actually having had to wear a gas mask in the military for hours... I would LOVE to see this. If you think an N-95 grade mask is hard to breathe though, try wearing an NBC mask for 8 hours a day. :-)
native_samples 5y ago
It's "reasonable" in the sense of being slightly less draconian but completely unreasonable from a health perspective. Think about it: two people enter a workplace. One is unvaccinated but recently tested, so it can be said with good confidence they are not infected. The other is vaccinated but may well be sick and spreading it, especially as effectiveness wanes quickly. The other is waved through, the first is penalized with constant charges. Who is making other people the safest here? It's not the vaccinated guy.
- wccrawford 5y ago
  "Recently tested" doesn't mean you definitely don't have the Covid. It could that you weren't far enough along in your sickness at the time you were tested. It's all about risk. Someone who has been vaccinated has a very low likelihood of being sick with Covid. Someone who has recently been tested also has a low likelihood. IMO, though, if the tests are a week apart, that's a lot of opportunity for Covid to slip through. There's a reason that 72 hours (and sometimes 48 hours, I think) is the time limit for tests for traveling. Even that isn't a guarantee, though. I can't find the chart now, but Covid progresses pretty rapidly, so if someone gets tested on Friday and was exposed 1-2 days before that, they can pretty much spread it for an entire week before they get tested on the next Friday. And even if they were tested on Mondays, they could still be spreading it before the weekend. Tests prevent someone from spreading it for weeks, but not days. Vaccines are much more likely to prevent the spread at all.
  - vibrato2 5y ago
    Preventing the spread of an infectious respiratory virus is a fools errand and we’ve known this forever. No amount of authoritarianism is enough to stop the spread. The mitigation efforts were always to avoid overrunning the hospitals, which we have managed easily.
    - tomrod 5y ago
      Measles Mumps Smallpox SARS1 MERS Chickenpox Tuberculosis To name a few. Not a fools errand. Important to get vaccinated to prevent worse variants.

furgooswft13 5y ago

Give it a few months. First they will pass the costs onto the employee, then they will take away the option altogether. Mark my words.

putnambr 5y ago
With a $14k fine per violation, I doubt most employers will give employees the option to test weekly. That's too much of a liability.
- lax4ever 5y ago
  Especially considering the load this will put on laboratories.
  - loonster 5y ago
    The people that need the test to determine proper course of treatment will get results days after it matters. It will be just like 2020.
    - loonster 5y ago
      In June of 2020, I waited over 2 weeks for the results of my test. A delay that long makes the test more than worthless for preventing transmission and determining best course of action.

Ekaros 5y ago

I think more reasonable stance would be to require employers offer sufficient protective gear for unvaccinated employees. Gas masks aren't that expensive. And any private person can at their own cost also buy such device to fully protect themselves.

tomrod 5y ago
That's pretty unreasonable unless you can't medically receive the shot and there are active infections. We require vaccinations for schooling and for healthcare already (e.g TB). This is no huge stretch.
steverb 5y ago
Actually having had to wear a gas mask in the military for hours... I would LOVE to see this. If you think an N-95 grade mask is hard to breathe though, try wearing an NBC mask for 8 hours a day. :-)

native_samples 5y ago

It's "reasonable" in the sense of being slightly less draconian but completely unreasonable from a health perspective. Think about it: two people enter a workplace. One is unvaccinated but recently tested, so it can be said with good confidence they are not infected. The other is vaccinated but may well be sick and spreading it, especially as effectiveness wanes quickly. The other is waved through, the first is penalized with constant charges. Who is making other people the safest here? It's not the vaccinated guy.

wccrawford 5y ago
"Recently tested" doesn't mean you definitely don't have the Covid. It could that you weren't far enough along in your sickness at the time you were tested. It's all about risk. Someone who has been vaccinated has a very low likelihood of being sick with Covid. Someone who has recently been tested also has a low likelihood. IMO, though, if the tests are a week apart, that's a lot of opportunity for Covid to slip through. There's a reason that 72 hours (and sometimes 48 hours, I think) is the time limit for tests for traveling. Even that isn't a guarantee, though. I can't find the chart now, but Covid progresses pretty rapidly, so if someone gets tested on Friday and was exposed 1-2 days before that, they can pretty much spread it for an entire week before they get tested on the next Friday. And even if they were tested on Mondays, they could still be spreading it before the weekend. Tests prevent someone from spreading it for weeks, but not days. Vaccines are much more likely to prevent the spread at all.
- vibrato2 5y ago
  Preventing the spread of an infectious respiratory virus is a fools errand and we’ve known this forever. No amount of authoritarianism is enough to stop the spread. The mitigation efforts were always to avoid overrunning the hospitals, which we have managed easily.
  - tomrod 5y ago
    Measles Mumps Smallpox SARS1 MERS Chickenpox Tuberculosis To name a few. Not a fools errand. Important to get vaccinated to prevent worse variants.