CALIFORNIA FOCUS
FOR RELEASE: TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2021, OR THEREAFTER
BY THOMAS D. ELIAS
“TAXING THE UNVAXXED: IT’S WORKING”
Two months ago, California was in the middle of the pack among
states when it came to per-capita COVID-19 caseloads and death rates. The same
for its vaccination rate.
Then this concept sunk in: It was time to tax the unvaxxed. This
meant higher payments for the unvaccinated populace in some cases; many
companies – for just one type of “tax” – compelling unvaccinated employees to
pay more for group health insurance than those who are fully vaccinated because
Covid hospitalization costs were endangering the insurance plans.
But it’s not just money that’s moving the California numbers.
It’s also threats to careers, promotions and basic livelihoods, forms of
taxation not easy to measure with cash numbers.
The
idea took hold not merely among government agencies, many of which set
deadlines for their employees to get vaccinated, some making vague threats
against recalcitrant vaccination delayers or refusers.
The
San Diego Police Department is one of these. As many citizens expressed reluctance
to interact with unvaccinated officers, the department had to do something.
It set
a Dec. 1 deadline for officers to be vaccinated unless they can demonstrate a
legitimate religious objection or medical reason not to be inoculated, or else.
With no significant organized religion in California objecting to vaccination (even
Christian Scientists are going along), it will be difficult to establish a religious
objection.
The
department has not yet said what “or else” means; the implication is that
firing is a strong possibility. Yes, there are other police agencies in San Diego
County not yet being so tough, but there’s every reason to believe they will
have to get that way if they expect to face and serve a cooperative citizenry.
Then
there was the state’s Sept. 30 deadline for all health workers to be fully
vaccinated or lose their jobs, unless they had a verifiable medical excuse.
This
one seemed like a no-brainer, since health workers from doctors and nurses to
in-home providers like traveling physical therapists deal regularly with
patients who already have weaknesses that the virus has no compunction about
exploiting.
Since
the deadline was announced, health care systems from Los Angeles to San
Francisco and Sacramento now show employee vaccination rates well above the
statewide percentages.
The
Sacramento Bee reported the other day that the area’s three largest health care
systems – Kaiser Permanente, UC Davis Health
and Sutter Health – boasted employee vaccination rates of 97 percent, 100 percent
and 91 percent respectively. Those numbers are far ahead of statewide vaccination
figures and significantly higher than the health systems reported before
deadlines were imposed and shots made easier to get.
Nursing
home employees are also affected. One reason nursing home casualties were so
high at the peak of the pandemic was that staffers brought the virus with them
when they went to work. But vaccination rates are climbing among them now, with
caseloads in nursing homes declining commensurately.
Then
there are public schools, where the probability is high for a state mandate that
all teachers and others who come into contact with students will soon have to
be vaccinated if they want to stay in their jobs. Covid vaccines are already
part of the required panoply of inoculations kids over 12 must get before they’re
eligible for school, public or private.
When the federal Food and Drug Administration approves the vaccines
for children aged 5 to 12, they will be added in. So there’s every indication the
Delta variant of the virus that has struck hard at the young can be defeated, or
at least reduced to flu-like manageable proportions.
All this is happening here, and not in places like Florida
and Texas because officials here have not let themselves be hindered by
shibboleths that hold down vaccination rates there and in other states with similar
Covid-denying officials.
And reluctant professional basketball players like Andrew
Wiggins of the Golden State Warriors may not have liked the idea of getting
vaxxed, but the realization he would not otherwise be allowed to practice or play
in California convinced Wiggins. His “tax” for staying unvaxxed could have
amounted to more than $10 million, a pretty good-sized levy and a strong
motivator.
The bottom line: Taxing the unvaxxed has worked, is working
and will work.
-30-
Email Thomas Elias at tdelias@aol.com.
His book, "The Burzynski Breakthrough, The Most Promising Cancer Treatment
and the Government’s Campaign to Squelch It" is now available in a soft
cover fourth edition. For more Elias columns, visit www.californiafocus.net
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