Saturday, October 30, 2021

Ignoring Covid in order to score some political points doesn't make the victims less dead

No matter how fervently the ignorant ones stamp their feet and insist otherwise...

From The Tennessean, dated today -

Tennessee lawmakers restrict authority of schools, local health departments over COVID-19

Following five hours of late-night deliberations between the two legislative chambers, Tennessee lawmakers adjourned at 1:34 a.m. Saturday, after passing a series of measures significantly limiting COVID-19 restrictions by businesses, schools, local health departments and even the governor.

Debate over the comprehensive package split along party lines — with advocates touting individual liberty and opponents voicing concerns of state government overreach.


Late night legislation is usually bad, as we've learned here in AZ; measures that can't stand up to scrutiny in the light of day should *never* be approved by a legislative body.


In Tennessee, the lege approved an amendment to SB9014 that not only does the things specified in the story above, but also restricts private businesses from requiring masks or vaccination of their employees and/or customers.


From their summary of the bill - 

VACCINE MANDATES AND STATUS

This amendment prohibits:

(1) A governmental entity, school, or local education agency (LEA) from mandating that:

(A) A person receive a COVID-19 vaccine; or

(B) A private business or school require proof of vaccination as a condition to access the private business's or school's premises or facilities or to receive the benefits of the private business's or school's products or services; and

(2) A private business, governmental entity, LEA, or school from compelling or otherwise taking an adverse action against a person to compel the person to provide proof of vaccination if the person objects to receiving a COVID-19 vaccine for any reason.

This amendment specifies that a medicare certified provider or medicaid certified provider is not a private business or governmental entity, but only to the extent that the medicare certified provider or medicaid certified provider is subject to a valid and enforceable medicare or medicaid condition of participation that imposes a requirement contrary to the newly created Title 14.

"School" means a public elementary or secondary school operated by a local education agency or by the state with public funds, including a charter school; a publicly-operated child care agency, child care program, preschool, or nursery school; and a public postsecondary educational institution.

FACE COVERINGS GENERALLY

(1) This amendment prohibits:

(A) A private business that receives grant funds or tax credits from this state (a "publicly-funded private business") or governmental entity from requiring a person to wear a face covering as a condition to access the publicly-funded private business's or governmental entity's premises or facilities or to receive the benefits of the publicly-funded private business's or governmental entity's products or services unless severe conditions exist and the requirement is in effect for no more than 14 days. "Severe condition" means that the governor has declared a state of emergency for COVID-19 and a county has an average rolling 14-day COVID-19 infection rate of at least 1,000 new known infections for every 100,000 residents of the county based on the most recent data published by the department of health;

(B) An employer that receives grant funds or tax credits from this state (a "publicly-funded employer") from requiring an employee to wear a face covering as a term or condition of employment or taking an adverse action against an employee for failing to wear a face covering unless severe conditions exist at the time the requirement is adopted and the requirement is in effect for not more than 14 days.; and

(C) A publicly-funded private business, governmental entity, or publicly-funded employer from requiring a person to wear a face covering if the person provides documentation from the person's healthcare provider that wearing a face covering is contraindicated for the person, or if the person objects to wearing a face covering because of the person's sincerely held religious belief.

(2) This amendment authorizes a publicly-funded private business, governmental entity, or publicly-funded employer to renew its face covering requirement for additional 14-day periods if severe conditions continue to exist each time the face covering requirement is renewed. If, at the end of a 14-day period, severe conditions no longer exist, then the publicly-funded private business, governmental entity, or publicly-funded employer must not renew its face covering requirement or otherwise require a person to wear a face covering as a condition to access its premises or facilities; to receive its products or services; or as a term or condition of employment.


From Mayo Clinic's Covid page (OK, mostly, I like images :) ) -













For those who prefer numbers, from Johns Hopkin University -












1. Wear a damn mask.

2. Get vaccinated.   

3. Stop voting for pro-death candidates for public office.

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