Prompted by concerns about Jefferson PUD moving last week toward firing uninjected workers, I made the following public comment to the Jefferson Board of County Commissioners at their October 11 meeting:
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News roundup:
The Seattle Times reports “a chronic crew shortage at Washington State Ferries suddenly became a transportation debacle [forcing reduced] service on seven of its 10 routes. [Rep. Barkis said] ‘ferry cancellations are the bow wave of crises to come in government services as … workers recoil against mandates. … The governor has created a state of emergency, within a state of emergency.'”
This is personal to me. A friend working for the ferries successfully filed for and received a religious exemption, then was summarily fired with no benefits because his services were no longer required. His family is now selling their home and moving to another state.
In Seattle, while “already facing a staffing crisis, the Seattle Police Department is bracing … for mass firing of officers as hundreds have yet to show proof of vaccination.”
In New York, its deranged new governor stood up in church and proclaimed God wants her to fire doctors and nurses – previously named heroes for risking their lives during the initial Covid crisis – because in their considered medical judgment the experimental injections are too dangerous to risk taking. She then awarded herself new emergency powers – justified by the medical staffing emergency she herself created – to replace these healthcare workers with unvaccinated National Guard. Incredible!
In Los Angeles, one in four firefighters are filing a lawsuit against the city for their vaccine mandate. Of the 871 city firefighters asking for $2 million each in damages, some say they already had Covid and have immunity, others do not want the risk of adverse reactions from the shot. A loss of these personnel will mean the “entire firefighting system would collapse; there just wouldn’t be enough to protect the City of L.A.”
Last Monday two-thirds of our own county PUD commissioners voted to risk infrastructure disruption and electrical outages by firing employees who won’t risk these Emergency Use Authorization injections.
Your choice to participate in this push can only lead to chaos, loss of essential services, human rights violations, wrongful terminations, and (I’m afraid) wrongful deaths – all of which you may find yourself in court defending, as L.A. now faces from 1 in 4 firefighters suing for $2 million each. Kiss your federal Covid relief windfall goodbye!
These emergencies being created are self-inflicted. Please take charge, cease taking bad advice, and back off from the cliff of these illegal EAU injection mandates before it is too late for you and our county. |
Annette Huenke likewise commented:
| On the ferry system: HR Department is struggling to count all the people who got fired before October 1. … Lawsuits are dropping around the country regarding this EUA situation. Comirnaty is not available; it is the only product that’s been approved, and the EUA still applies to everything you are considering requiring in this community. |
Commissioner Kate Dean responded:
| As I said last week, I’m getting tired of falling into the usual debate about vaccination and mandates. We know that the vaccinations are really effective. We know that they’re not perfect, as anticipated.
The crew shortages that we are experiencing on the ferries are worse right now certainly, but they were really bad before because a lot of ferry crew members were getting Covid and getting quarantined. We can’t have folks who could potentially be carriers working with the public, and I do see this as a fitness-for-duty issue. The tricky part of this virus is that it spreads largely before it becomes symptomatic.
And so, while we are not considering a mandate for our employees at this time, awaiting word whether the federal mandate will apply to us or not, I do feel that for many working with the public – and especially those who work in public safety and first responders – that it is a fitness-for-duty issue.
Just like knowing that you are not going to catch TB and hepatitis, there are other conditions for employment related to fitness for duty when it comes to health and safety. |
Regarding the federal Covid relief windfall I mentioned, Beth O’Neal asked:
| Kate Dean said last time how the Feds have been pouring money into the economy due to Covid, and also into the direct coffers of the county. I’d love to know how much that is, and does it come with any strings attached to having certain kinds of mandates? |
In response, Administrator Mark McCauley detailed that the county received $3,129,000 in CARES funds in May and will receive another $3,129,000 next May. Additionally $1.5 billion has been appropriated for revenue sharing in counties, from which McCauley anticipates our county will receive $2 million by September 30, 2022 and another $2 million the following year. He concluded:
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So total ARPA anticipated will be $10 million, maybe more. … the $6 million does have conditions. The revenue sharing money has no conditions except you can’t use that money for lobbying.
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This may sound like a chunk of change, but it pales compared to the costs of emergencies that state and county officials may be creating by their new wave of mandates. Loss of essential services, loss of tourism as ferries become undependable, expensive wrongful termination lawsuits… the list goes on.
Have PUD and county commissioners calculated the financial risk to the county that they as public officials are creating? Do they expect to win all the lawsuits that will inevitably come?
Stephen Schumacher
Stephen Schumacher graduated with honors in Mathematics from Harvard College and programmed funds transfer systems between Wall Street banks and the Federal Reserve before moving to Port Townsend in 1983. He has served as an officer for various community organizations such as the Food Co-op, Jefferson Land Trust, and the Northwest Nutritional Foods Association. He co-created The Port Townsend Leader's original online newspaper and programs ship stability software used by naval architects.
The hysteria abounds without letup on citizens, compliant or not.
Kate Dean: ” We know that the vaccinations are really effective. We know that they’re not perfect, as anticipated.” “We can’t have folks who could potentially be carriers working with the public, and I do see this as a fitness-for-duty issue. The tricky part of this virus is that it spreads largely before it becomes symptomatic.”
Has she not been informed that the vax only masks the symptoms, it does not prevent infection and the infected “spread” the disease vaxed or not.
The only truth she utters is ” We know that they’re not perfect, as anticipated.”
The hysteria causes unconscious ignorance of the fact that we all have been or will be exposed.
“The primary endpoint is to prevent clinical disease, to prevent symptomatic disease, not necessarily to prevent infection,” Dr. Fauci said in the interview. “The primary thing you want to do is, if people get infected, prevent them from getting sick. And if you prevent them from getting sick you will ultimately prevent them from getting seriously ill, so that’s what we want to do.”
“If the vaccine also allows you to prevent initial infection that would be great,” he said. “But what I would settle for, and all my colleagues would settle for, is the primary endpoint, which is to prevent clinically recognizable disease. That’s what we hope happens.” And if that does happen, “that will go a long way to diffusing this very difficult crisis that we’re in,” Dr. Fauci said.
If any Jefferson County employee, fired for not taking these worthless vaccinations, files a lawsuit against the county, the county had better hope I am not selected for jury duty.
Thank you Stephen for your detailed and poignant article. Where Kate gets that the vaccines are safe and effective shows her lack of investigation. And, that she is tired of talking about vaccines, shows her lack of comprehension of the serious harmful effects her support of mandates is having on people’s lives.
“This is not America
Shalalalala
Little piece of you
The little piece in me
Will die (this is not a miracle)
For this is not America.
……………………………………………
Kate Dean’s statement is a perfect example of the ignorance and hubris that is bringing down our society.
… Or perhaps it is malice and hubris?
KATE – you might like to know that the vaccinated can carry and spread just as the unvaccinated can. It’s common knowledge and not even under debate.
Hope you will support and highlight bill HB 1305. Medical freedom- right to refuse vaccines and health -related measures.