Commentary
Every Human Resources in corporate America got the memo and started the implementation, cutting many people out of a job. At first it did not matter as much for many because people were still working at home. But as people started coming back to the office, the mandates got tighter and tighter, and the mask mandates alongside them. Sometimes there were exemptions for people who agreed to be constantly tested but even those started to dissipate over time.
The frenzy for mandates got extreme by year’s end. The city of New York shut down all its public accommodations to the unvaccinated. You could not go to a restaurant, even fast food, without proof of vaccination. You could not have a beer in a bar. You could not go to the library or theater. Concert tickets required them and so did comedy clubs. The idea was that this would help business because it would make people feel safe. The opposite happened as the unvaccinated ended up avoiding the city entirely.
With New York City as the example, other cities got on board. The idea of medical segregation spread to Boston, Chicago, Washington, D.C., New Orleans, and Seattle. Those who declined to get the untested shot, either because they feared side effects or simply believed that they did not need them, were limited in their travel options. They were the great excluded.
These mandates disproportionately harmed minority populations. The lowest uptake of the vaccines was among the black community, which distrusted them based on a long and egregious history of medical experimentation. Major media took it upon themselves to claim that the refuseniks were disproportionately living in red states, failing to mention that within these states, it was the blue voters who refused them the most.
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Many people in these cities found it easiest to forget a piece of paper since the venues did not really care anyway, and only vaguely looked as a formality. We still have no idea just how many of these fake IDs were issued. Was it 20 percent, 50 percent, or more? We’ll probably never know but the Biden administration did in fact prosecute people for fake IDs, so doing so came with some risks. And one would never upload a fake card to any digital media source for purposes of travel or otherwise.
Finally the legal challenges started taking hold. On Jan. 13, 2022, the Supreme Court ruled against OSHA’s mandate on private business and contractors but kept in place the mandate on health-care workers who were more likely than others to have natural immunity from exposure. In any case, the businesses that had already imposed them were unphased by this decision and were slow to let them go, simply because so many had already made enormous sacrifices to comply.
At some point during the closure of New York City, I needed to be in town to meet a possible donor for a nonprofit. The people who I was meeting found a restaurant that would allow us in even without showing proof of vaccination. We came in the back way and sat at a table near the back to avoid possible detection from the police who were going venue to venue to enforce the rules. Many restaurants were forced to decide between compliance and profitability.
All of this came following a year in which closures had deeply harmed the bottom line. When they were opened, it was only at half-capacity and many had to build outdoor sections because it was widely believed at the time that the virus lived indoors but not in outdoor areas. The mask mandates also applied to all servers while the customers could sit maskless while eating. None of it made any sense but it all happened anyway.
While all of this virus chasing was going on, complete with the segregation and mask enforcement, basic functions of government like protecting the border were sidelined. This led to a migrant crisis in major cities and towns all over the country. That is still going on today, as there is no willingness on the part of those in charge to deport the millions who took advantage of the COVID-19 chaos to hop over the border (with no checks on their vaccine status).
As we look back, it seems almost hard to believe that any of this happened but it did. And then to top it off, it had become increasingly clear even from the spring of 2021 that the vaccine was not protective against infection nor transmission.
It was widely recognized that the virus posed no significant medical risk to healthy adults and children. However, even for those who were at risk, the vaccine did not offer the expected level of protection typical of vaccines.
Despite this knowledge, advocates for mandates continued to push for them. People from overseas, including family members of U.S. citizens, were required to show proof of vaccination to enter the country. This mandate persisted for years and is still in place today for those seeking citizenship.
The insistence on universal vaccination stemmed from the belief that only when everyone is vaccinated can a disease be controlled. While this may have been true for diseases like Smallpox, polio, and measles, these new vaccines did not possess the same sterilizing properties. Therefore, there was no valid basis for the mandates. This push for mandatory vaccination was a clear example of irrational use of force.
The exact number of individuals who lost their jobs or faced professional displacement due to these mandates is not known, but it is likely in the millions. As reports of injuries from the vaccine increased, it became evident that this was one of the most dangerous pharmaceutical products ever released. However, the companies responsible were shielded from liability, leaving victims with no recourse.
This marks the third anniversary of the executive order that initiated this divisive and destructive campaign. It is a painful reminder of a time that disrupted the social contract and eroded trust in official institutions, akin to the conscription mandates during the Vietnam War. The impact of this period will not be forgotten by those who lived through it.
Despite the passage of time, we are left to ponder if any lessons have been learned from this experience.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
