by: kelly egan
when it comes to mandatory vaccination — and we are right there, everywhere, aren’t we? — what to do, with the stubborn few?
even if we reach the lofty goal of 90 per cent coverage for double shots, this still leaves one in 10 without the full jab. in a city of a million, in a public sector of 150,000-plus, the math is easy — the remaining quotient, hard.
a panicky administrative worker at the university of ottawa called last week. she is not following the university’s mandatory vaccination policy for students and staff, which kicks in tuesday, and she says several colleagues are also in defiance.
she has refused to be vaccinated, can’t do her current job only from home and doesn’t want to be regularly tested on campus before going to her work station. (“then they’ll know i’m not vaccinated.”) the citizen agreed not to name her because of her fear of repercussions if identified.
she turned to her union, which had no magic answer. “i think we have the right to control what’s being injected in our bodies,” she offered as a defence.
so, while hunting for a lawyer, she is coming to terms with the possibility she will lose her job, a sacrifice she is willing to make.
well and good, some are no doubt muttering. let her not be a menace to the student population and her fellow workers.