Veterans Affairs mandates Covid vaccine for workforce

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A Covid-19 vaccine mandate that will apply to about 115,000 workers in the U.S. Veterans Administration will go into effect in eight weeks.

Denis McDonough, the secretary of Veterans Affairs, said all Title 38 VA health care personnel — including physicians, dentists, podiatrists, optometrists, registered nurses, physician assistants, expanded-function dental auxiliaries and chiropractors — who work in Veterans Health Administration facilities, visit VHA facilities or provide direct care to those VA serves must have a completed vaccination.

Alaska has about 650 VA workers, although not all of them are part of the mandate.

“We’re mandating vaccines for Title 38 employees because it’s the best way to keep Veterans safe, especially as the Delta variant spreads across the country,” McDonough said. “Whenever a Veteran or VA employee sets foot in a VA facility, they deserve to know that we have done everything in our power to protect them from COVID-19. With this mandate, we can once again make — and keep — that fundamental promise.”

In recent weeks, the VA has lost four employees to Covid-19, the VA reported. All were unvaccinated. At least three of those employees died due to the Delta variant. There has also been an outbreak among unvaccinated employees and trainees at a VA Law Enforcement Training Center, the third such outbreak during the pandemic.

Beginning Wednesday, those VA health care workers will have eight weeks to get fully vaccinated or face penalties including possible removal, he said.

The Veterans Administration has about 8,600 job openings around the country, even without the vaccine mandate, which may open up other jobs in a worker-controlled job market.

33 COMMENTS

    • Wow! Your standardized test scores in reading comprehension must have been…hopeless. The employees were UNvaccinated, Ryan.

  1. The only thing that will do is compromise their natural immune systems. It is not a “vaccine” and we need to stop calling it that. Right now the only people that I know that are getting Covid19 are those who’ve been “vaccinated.” That is the truth that the media is now suppressing. They call it breakthrough and many people that I know and care about who’ve had the injection are now sick and not just from Covid19. It’s like their immune system really isn’t working anymore.

    • Yes, I am seeing that too in many of the people I know who are vaccinated. It’s like their whole systems are going haywire and they suspect it’s the vaccine they took months back but the doctors are too cowardly to help them. It’s like all my vaccinated family and friends who suffering from migraines, heart inflammation, neurological issues and spasms are just being brushed off by their doctors as not being related to the experimental vax. Every time I am in close contact the vaccinated my autoimmune disorder goes haywire so my Doctor has told me to avoid the vaccinated at all costs. These walking lab rats need to be masked and kept away from the rest of healthy society. And these infected spike protein factories are allowed to give blood. They are contaminating the entire blood supply. This whole shot is so criminal.

  2. My government employer is also requiring vaccination, even while very short on professionals and paying large sign on bonuses. I easily found different employment.

  3. As a VA patient and one who is fully vaccinated I don’t believe in mandating this particular shot because it is experimental and has not been fully tested.

    I remember in the 50’s and 60’s the FDA approved a drug for women for nausea and it turned into a disaster for pregnant women and their babies causing horrible permanent disabilities.

    It was a result of not sufficiently testing of the drug. That drug was “Thalidomide“ and was approved for use.

    There are other instances of approved drugs after dissemination were found to be harmful. I am not trying to scare anyone but pointing out forcing someone to take an untested vaccine or drug can have unforeseen consequences for the individuals. The people pushing and mandating this vaccine will never be held accountable if they are wrong. I know the government has the Supreme Court decisions and the law on their side.

    As a VA patient and an American this like all the other decisions and mandates the government has forced on us is incomplete and smacks of politics not science or the interests of the individuals.

    It only covers the smallest population of employees and not all VA employees. Why not the nurses, and all VA employees including political appointments. If it is good for the individuals and the patients why not everyone. Why doesn’t the President issue an order mandating the vaccination of everyone physically in this country or visiting.

    Why are illegal immigrants not screening or vaccinated at all. Why hasn’t the order been given to vaccinate every member of the DOD including the military. I served 25 years in the Army and received many vaccinations and orders to take medications to protect us from worldwide diseases NEVER once was I given a choice nor did anyone in command say it was my choice.

    This disease has to effect military readiness and the the one Navy Commander who did right for his crew was fired by his political leadership.

    Bottom line is the government has been manipulating us for the very beginning. Masks and no masks, lockdown and no lockdown, travel and no travel, herd immunity or no herd immunity, this group and not this group, protection vs no protection, vaccine will protect you except for new strains and then you may get it but odds you will survive! Ooh unless you don’t. It is still and should be the individuals choice at least until everyone in this country must get it by law!

    They have made this a disaster for our Country not by inaction but by so many confusing actions, political manipulations, the whole thing looks like the “Three Stooges” are in charge. If your to young to recognize the group above your young enough to check the net for who I mean.

    Tell the President and Congress to take charge and protect our Country or drop this farce and do something positive to help our Country!

  4. The pharmaceutical companies are class action proof thanks to congress.
    Employers who mandate employees participate in rnma research and “medical” trials as a condition of emloyment need to be sued.

    • Brian, it’s actually mRNA. It stands for “messenger RNA” Scientists developed it to deliver its message (STOP) to the protein spikes of the coronavirus attacking the human body.

      All workplaces have health and safety rules. Some are on a case-by-case situation and handled through HR and an Employee Assistance Program using a base of escalating evaluations. Other health and safety rules are bright line requirements, pilots shall not consume alcohol within eight hours of scheduled tour of duty; We just saw an Olympian lose her almost certain gold medal in track because she didn’t adhere to the bright line the night her Mom died. She smoked legally. She was tested after the trials in Eugene. Cannabis is still a banned substance and she knew it. So — she’s out. Yet, like the adult she is, this 21-year-old accepts responsibility for her fate. Her name is Sha Carri Richardson.

      Now — with life-altering stakes of that magnitude on the table — if Sha Carri
      accepts that rules are rules like a grown-a**woman, why can’t you do likewise?

      • The biggest thing that pisses me off about this is there’s another athlete who has sexually assaulted a woman and he’s still competing, but with a safety plan to keep women away from him. Disgusting.

  5. If you are willing to work without the ‘required’ shot in the arm/head, try Safeway. $750 signing bonus, health care, not as much money by the hour as most feel they deserve but you can get by, it is a commercially oriented occupation and a great, socially connected (meet lots of people) job with no forced experimental drugs. This is what America is coming to under communism/socialism. The other option is to become dependent on gov’t and get the ‘shot’ heard around the medical/scientific world. The ‘free money’ only works out for dark skinned Americans and ultra poor, at the ‘light’ skinned American workers’ tax expense (I think it’s called CRT). It won’t work in the long or even short run. The half of Americans whose taxes pay, at the point of a gun (by the gov’t) if necessary, will refuse to carry the other half sooner or later. Hell to pay in our near future.

    • Ben, what “free money” are you talking about? The people required to get shots in THIS particular situation have jobs.
      If, by “free money” you happen to be talking about the 2021 Monthly Child Tax Credit Payments — I had no idea that $149,999.99 was “ultra poor.” That’s the eligibility ceiling for a married couple with children to receive “free money” from the government!

      I suppose you thought you would just take this opportunity to free-associate some wrong as the day is long, racist-a** bullish**. You go ahead. I’ll check you as the spirit moves me.

  6. As a veteran I don’t want them shedding the GMO spike proteins and prions the Death Jab makes their bodies produce onto me. I will go elsewhere.

  7. I might be in the minority, but what is wrong with this? Trump developed this vaccine in RECORD TIME and it is our best chance at defeating the China Plague. I wonder if all of the anti-vaccine (anti Trump vaccine) comments are really coming from the Chinese Communist Party to weaken America… possibly for an upcoming war

    • If patting TheFormerGuy on the back for finally saying the word “pandemic” and giving the OK for development of a vaccine gets more of his cult members vaccinated — so be it. Just remember: Donald John Trump has the blood of 610,951 souls on him for every denial of
      the pandemic; his delay in allowing masks; his delay in authorizing development of vaccines; his refusal to mandate quarantines and lockdowns from the Federal level to the states and localities.

      So — Who CARES if he initiated development of the vaccine IF HE LET THE PLAGUE WREAK WIDESPREAD DEATH AND CHAOS THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY. Too bad he doesn’t actually read the Bible or Torah. Otherwise, he would know how Pharoah’s story ends after the plague. Just in case you forgot: Pharaoh lost.

      • Sophie, you swallow every bit of the corporate media and political establishment’s Kool-aid, I see.
        .
        Firstly, anyone with any sense and any critical thinking ability knows that there is NO COVID-19 vaccine — there are merely gene-therapy treatments that (supposedly, partially) provide immunity to the SYMPTOMS of COVID-19,. But those receiving those treatments (so-called “vaccines”) are just as likely to contract AND transmit that disease as those not so treated.
        Secondly, anyone with any sense and any critical thinking ability can clearly recognize that all the hysteria generated by the corporate media and the political establishment has been part of a control agenda unconnected to any public health concerns. The numbers of deaths have been wildly inflated, by including everyone who died while testing positive for COVID-19, using a gene amplification method (polymerise chain reaction) that is NOT an actual test, that it’s inventor has strenuously argued CANNOT be legitimately used as a diagnostic tool, and that can essentially find, with enough replication cycles, almost ANY stray gene in any test subject.
        Thirdly, anyone with any sense and any critical thinking ability will immediately see and understand that the number of supposed cases of COVID-19 have also been vastly overinflated, both due to the inapplicable “test” used to determine those cases, as well as by the fact that “cases”, in every past epidemic, were actually determined by those who became ILL with the disease and exhibited clear symptoms of the disease. But that is not the case with this manufactured panic surrounding COVID-19.
        .
        So all you sheep who blindly swallow all the propaganda of the corporate media and the political establishment are actually NOT following “the science” by any stretch of the imagination — you are doing exactly the opposite, in fact, by unquestioningly accepting the POLITICAL agenda of those pushing for ever-more controls, and ever-less freedom.

        • All of that wasted time just cutting and pasting from discredited RussiaToday-sponsored anti-vaxxer propaganda sites. Oh, and it’s p-o-l-y-m-e-r-a-s-e, not “polymerise.” So much for “following the science,” Jefferson.

          • Sophie, yes the science… This Treatment is not a vaccine, a vaccine works with ones immune system to create antibodies. This is an experimental concoction that you know nothing about and yet you are trying to convince others to take the risk. Do you ever think before you spout off?

          • So, Sophie, because I mistyped one letter, you feel that negates the inarguable truth of everything else I stated above? Logic and reason, not to mention intelligence and good faith, are clearly not your forte.

      • Wow. Didn’t put much thought into this reply, did you? Donald Trump didn’t unleash a virus on the global population. China did. Donald Trump wanted to close the borders; Biden called him xenophobic for it. Donald Trump didn’t delay anything; he got the vaccines going faster than anyone believed possible.

  8. God bless and protect you if you believe there is no virus, no vaccine and only lies. What’s you plan when the experimental status is dropped next month? End all masks now.

    • I still will refuse this shot! I will take a bullet to my head before I will EVER put this into my body. PERIOD! FDA approved or not and there are tens of millions around the world that share my view. So if that is where you vaxxed pharmacological cash cows want to take it so be it. At least then you all will be exposed for the murdering eugenics monsters that you are. NEVER WILL I TAKE THIS SHOT!

  9. The Nuremberg Code

    1. The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential.

    This means that the person involved should have legal capacity to give consent; should be so situated as to be able to exercise free power of choice, without the intervention of any element of force, fraud, deceit, duress, over-reaching, or other ulterior form of constraint or coercion; and should have sufficient knowledge and comprehension of the elements of the subject matter involved as to enable him to make an understanding and enlightened decision. This latter element requires that before the acceptance of an affirmative decision by the experimental subject there should be made known to him the nature, duration, and purpose of the experiment; the method and means by which it is to be conducted; all inconveniences and hazards reasonable to be expected; and the effects upon his health or person which may possibly come from his participation in the experiment.

    The duty and responsibility for ascertaining the quality of the consent rests upon each individual who initiates, directs or engages in the experiment. It is a personal duty and responsibility which may not be delegated to another with impunity.

    2. The experiment should be such as to yield fruitful results for the good of society, unprocurable by other methods or means of study, and not random and unnecessary in nature.

    3. The experiment should be so designed and based on the results of animal experimentation and a knowledge of the natural history of the disease or other problem under study that the anticipated results will justify the performance of the experiment.

    4. The experiment should be so conducted as to avoid all unnecessary physical and mental suffering and injury.

    5. No experiment should be conducted where there is an a priori reason to believe that death or disabling injury will occur; except, perhaps, in those experiments where the experimental physicians also serve as subjects.

    6. The degree of risk to be taken should never exceed that determined by the humanitarian importance of the problem to be solved by the experiment.

    7. Proper preparations should be made and adequate facilities provided to protect the experimental subject against even remote possibilities of injury, disability, or death.

    8. The experiment should be conducted only by scientifically qualified persons. The highest degree of skill and care should be required through all stages of the experiment of those who conduct or engage in the experiment.

    9. During the course of the experiment the human subject should be at liberty to bring the experiment to an end if he has reached the physical or mental state where continuation of the experiment seems to him to be impossible.

    10. During the course of the experiment the scientist in charge must be prepared to terminate the experiment at any stage, if he has probable cause to believe, in the exercise of the good faith, superior skill and careful judgment required of him that a continuation of the experiment is likely to result in injury, disability, or death to the experimental subject.

    Even if the government took it off experimental status, it hasn’t had a COMPLETE trial period.

    • Brian, I’ve one question:

      Why didn’t you make reference to the complete evolution of ethics in human research?  Is there a point the Nuremberg Code makes —  noting that it is not law — that the other bioethics instruments do not?

      In 1964, under the Declaration of Helsinki, the World Medical Association established recommendations governing international biomedical research ethics and defined rules for “research combined with clinical care” and “non-therapeutic research.”

      The United States Department of Public Health’s infamous Tuskegee Study and the resulting National Commission for the Protection of Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research? The National Commission for the Protection of Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research drafted the Belmont Report, a foundational document for human subjects’ research in the United States. The Belmont Report was subsequently publishedin 1979. The Belmont Report established three basic ethical principles – respect for persons, beneficence, and justice – which are the cornerstones for the regulations involving human subjects.

      The Common Rule, a set of regulations adopted by many research agencies in the United States and elsewhere.

      The main elements of the Common Rule include:

      requirements for assuring compliance by research institutions

      requirements for researchers obtaining and documenting informed consent

      requirements for Institutional Review Board (IRB) membership, function, operations, review of research, and record keeping

      additional protection for certain vulnerable research subjects – pregnant women, prisoners, and children

  10. So predictable… this Delta Variant is being used to exaggerate Covid AGAIN, to further instill more irrational fear for increased fear and control.
    Right out of the communist playbook.
    Respectfully, if others think differently, please reevaluate your history, all “factual” medical & scientific info. to date and overall thinking about this ongoing issue.

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