Will LA cops and firefighters pay the price for refusing the beatings?

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If you needed more evidence that cultural and political chaos reigns, or that scientific scholarship is neither valued nor trusted, I bring to your attention the lawsuits filed on behalf of thousands of Los Angeles police and firefighters. Angeles who refuse to be vaccinated.

The first responders, whose oath is to serve and protect, and to run into danger in the interest of public safety, instead turn and run.

The lawsuits argue that the city’s mandate that all employees be vaccinated by Oct. 5 is unconstitutional and a violation of their due process rights. Another argument is that those who have recovered from COVID-19 are protected by natural immunity and do not need vaccines.

Around 3,000 LAPD members are expected to seek medical or religious exemptions, and hundreds of firefighters, calling themselves “freedom fighters”, are pushing for more resistance.

“Advised to encourage all members to join the fight for freedom,” said a bulletin that was sent to firefighters Thursday night.

LA City Atty. Mike Feuer does not seem worried.

“The United States Supreme Court and courts across the country have upheld the government’s vaccination warrants and they did it because they said the greater good required it,” Feuer said.

And yet, it’s unclear what will happen if employees refuse to get bitten, regardless of the outcome of the lawsuit. Will they be made redundant? Suspended? Placed on indefinite leave?

There is going to be a price to pay, because we cannot issue an order without serious consequences for those who ignore it. And sources say everything is on the table right now as city officials and union leaders discuss it.

“We are hiring labor, as we are required to, and hopefully this process will lead to the vaccination of our employees, period,” said Matt Szabo, city administrative officer.

County officials may also have to make a choice about what to do with the Sheriff’s and Fire Fighters’ resistance. On a private social media site that was shown to me by a county source, county firefighters shared information on discredited COVID-19 remedies, strategized on how to fight vaccination warrants and attacking the county supervisory board.

“All those MFs on BOS must be thrown away! Said a post, which suggested the supervisors were in camera so they could kiss Gov. Gavin Newsom’s backside. “They are ALL ENEMIES OF FIRST RESPONDERS!”

In fact, politicians and the general public tend to be anything but enemies of first responders, who are often referred to as heroes. But vaccine resistance fighters are squandering that goodwill by rejecting the simplest, safest, and most effective remedy to limit the spread of COVID-19 and save lives.

An argument I have received repeatedly from firefighters is that they survived COVID-19 and their natural immunity is as good or better than that provided by the vaccine, so why take the risk of side effects? Along with this argument is the claim that this is a case of government overshoot.

But Dr. Timothy Brewer, a UCLA medical epidemiologist, has answers.

“As far as government overbreadth is concerned, every one of them who went to public school had to be vaccinated,” Brewer said. “So, it’s a bit silly to say that I’m going to get the shot to go to public school, but the government is exaggerating to tell me to get the COVID-19 shot. “

While there are some side effects of vaccines, Brewer said, they are statistically minimal and overwhelmed by the extraordinary benefits of vaccines “which are among the most intensely tested vaccines ever” and have prevented millions of cases of serious illness, hospitalization and death.

As to the natural immunity argument, Brewer cited many studies and growing evidence that vaccination offers additional protection to those with natural immunity. He said that “not only strengthens their immune response, but protects against variants that they may not have had and protects them from infection, which will reduce transmission and protect those around them.”

It is also well established now that the vast majority of people who become seriously ill, require hospitalization and die are not vaccinated. One would think that with already 10 deaths from COVID-19 among LAPD employees and thousands of infections, the whole force would have already understood the message. But at LAPD and LAFD, about half of the members are not fully vaccinated.

The good news, you might say, is that thousands of first responders have had their fill of the juice. I asked a vaccinated firefighter if it might help this group of trying to persuade the freedom fighters, who are actually fighting for freedom to keep this virus alive, to prevent businesses from fully reopening, to to put students in danger, to spread disinformation, to discredit science and send more people to the cemetery.

“Those who are vaxed are not very loud and the rest are loud, and no one wants to fight,” he said. “It’s polarized along political lines and it makes no sense to try to talk to them.”

I asked him when and why he had been vaccinated.

“I got mine as soon as it was available. I wanted to protect my parents and my family. … It was obvious, ”he said, adding that he was stressed during the height of the pandemic to contract the virus at work and pass it on to others. As a first responder, he said, he believed it was prudent to act in the interests of “the greater good.”

Another firefighter told me he got the shot as soon as he was available, and he bristled at resistance from his colleagues, which took him by surprise.

“I never realized that people wouldn’t actually get it and risk contracting COVID and giving it to other members of the organization or the public,” he said. “We’re setting a bad example… People look to us for advice, to keep them safe and to take care of themselves and their belongings when needed. We willfully ignore this duty because of these weirdos who are… misinformed. “

A retired police and firefighter told me he felt lucky and privileged to work for taxpayers in the interest of public health and safety. Those who resist the vaccine have taken an oath and “they betray these same citizens whom they have sworn to protect”.

Hopefully the sentiment will prevail and there will be a heavy penalty for breaking the oath.

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