My granddaughter is six months pregnant and the entire family, naturally, is looking forward to the new member in April. About two weeks ago, however, my granddaughter was presented with a horrible dilemma. As a health care worker and in accordance with Joe Biden’s dictates, her employer informed her she must receive a booster shot or be fired. Keeping in mind that she had previously contracted COVID, that she had also been fully vaccinated, that her job required no contact with either patients or co- workers, and that there is little or no data regarding the possibly adverse effects of vaccines on unborn children, my granddaughter sought to do the reasonable thing and request a three-month delay of the booster. Her employer, based on Biden’s guidelines, said no unless she had a medical exemption!
So, she went to her doctor with an exemption form, but the doctor refused to sign, mumbling something about how she was in more danger from COVID than from the shot. My granddaughter tried to point out that that argument is ridiculous since, in addition to her natural immunity and her fully vaccinated status, the booster has been shown not to work against the prevailing Omicron variant and there is no data about the danger to the unborn. The doctor still refused to sign. We suspect that this has more to do with the California medical bureaucracy threatening to de-license doctors who do not adhere to the Biden dictates than any reasoning on her part.
So, my granddaughter is stuck in a dilemma between the proverbial rock and a hard place. On the one hand she can refuse the shot and lose her job along with her medical insurance and possibly her house and her financial future. On the other hand, she can take the shot and risk an unknown level of harm to her unborn child. I honestly do not know, at this point, what path she will choose and can only pray that it will be the best one.
But I do abhor the very idea that such a personal choice has been so unfairly influenced by a bunch of faceless, unaccountable, uncaring and arguably unscientific federal and state bureaucrats. So should everyone who is reading this. When did we give up this control over our own health? How long are we going to tolerate it?
John Weaver
Valencia