In the 490-page workplace vaccine mandate document released by President Joe Biden’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) last week, the phrase “grave danger” appears 212 times. Meaning that at least every other page or so, the lawyers who wrote this monstrosity of unconstitutional tyrannical overreach were careful to assure readers, over and over again, that Covid-19 poses not just a workplace risk, but a “grave danger” to workers’ lives.
“The problems addressed by this ETS for COVID-19 are national in scope,” the document reads. “As explained in Grave Danger (Section III.A. of this preamble), employees face a grave danger from exposure to COVID-19 in the workplace. Employees across the country face the danger of exposure to COVID-19 at work, and as explained in Need for the ETS (Section III.B. of this preamble), a national standard is needed to protect workers from the grave danger of COVID-19 by strongly encouraging vaccination and limiting the presence of COVID-19 positive workers in the workplace through testing and to ensure that a clear and consistent baseline approach is taken across the country to protect them.”
And so it went, in place after place throughout the document, to the extent that the Shakespearian phrase “methinks thou dost protest too much” came immediately to mind. As legal pundits have opined, the legality of this absurd mandate clearly rests on the assumption that Covid-19 poses such a “grave danger” to workers that their draconian, burdensome measures are absolutely necessary in order to “save” lives. In fact, they write that this measure alone will “save over 6,500 worker lives and prevent over 250,000 hospitalizations over the course of the next six months,” and they write it presumably with a straight face, unironically, unashamedly, as if they really believe it’s true.
To these idiots, even the naturally immune - despite the ever-growing list of studies that clearly show otherwise - are about to drop dead of the Wuflu unless they take a shot that does little to nothing to prevent contraction or transmission and only helps with hospitalizations and deaths for a few months at most. “OSHA determined that workers who have been infected with COVID-19 but have not been fully vaccinated still face a grave danger from workplace exposure to SARS-CoV-2,” they write, presumably again with that straight, unironic face. Nevermind that the reinfection rate is around 0.2% and the vast majority of those have super mild cases that do not result in death or hospitalization.
A “grave danger” so urgent, don’t you know, that workers need to be protected from it two months from the document’s release and almost four months since Biden’s initial announcement. But only workers at companies that employ more than 100, mind you, because obviously the virus knows not to infect workers at small businesses.
As with all aspects of Covidstan, it’s all a giant farce, of course. Nevermind the fact that most Covid spread happens in households, the workers OSHA are presumably ‘protecting’ aren’t anywhere close to being in any “grave danger” from SARS-CoV-2. In fact, those overwhelmingly at risk from this virus aren’t working at all, but rather are already towards the end of their lifespans. The median age of the US labor force is 42. Of the 160 million people currently working, only ~31,000 in the 40-49 age group have died of or with Covid-19. That’s less than 0.02%, a figure that isn’t anywhere close to being “grave danger.”
And even if this “grave danger” were real, what good would their measures do? The vaccines are close to useless and masking doesn’t do a thing to stop spread. Indeed, it’s difficult to escape the conclusion that this entire garbage mandate is nothing more than a troll on red-state America and the left’s political opponents. The constant testing and workplace masking requirements have nothing to do with health, but rather are meant to be a punishment for disobeying their nonsensical dictates. In the document, OSHA gives lip-service to their measure “protecting” the unvaccinated - who ironically don’t need or want their ‘protection.’
Clearly, evil like this can’t be obeyed, but rather must be opposed with every possible measure at our disposal. Legal challenges have ensued in several federal courts and a temporary stay is already in effect with the 5th Circuit knowingly or unknowingly trolling the Biden administration by stating that the petitions “give cause to believe there are grave [emphasis mine] statutory and constitutional issues with the Mandate …” Thankfully, several state attorneys generals are on our side, and Senate Republicans are trying to force Democrats to vote for or against this tyranny so it can ride them like an albatross in 2022.
But, what if the courts don’t go our way? Most judges are, after all, old men scared out of their wits who likely think the Covid death rate is 20%, or something. Typically, they’ve been more than happy to rubber-stamp nonsense like this, being that we are in a “deadly pandemic” and all that. “Civil liberties be damned, so long as I can have a slightly better chance of playing golf for another few years,” they reason, probably.
From there, it gets murky. Will big businesses stand up and say no? The fines are ridiculously high. Wouldn’t it be something if even one state defied the feds and even promised to pay the fines of any business affected by this? OSHA doesn’t have the staff to enforce it nationwide, but if they make examples of a few, the rest will fall in line.
Will states that have their own form of OSHA, like Tennessee’s TOSHA, implement the rule? If they don’t, OSHA could presumably take over, as they threatened to do in Arizona, South Carolina, and Utah for failing to adopt the June healthcare setting rule. Arizona and South Carolina quickly consented, but the jury’s still out on Utah.
Indeed, tension between the states and the federal government is what federalism is all about. The 10th Amendment to the Constitution reserves most power to the states, but the last few decades have done away with all that. The tide must turn, or what could happen could be far worse than anything any living person has ever seen. Under Trump, California and other blue states pushed back on immigration and drug laws. Now, under Biden, we need red states to push back in a way that hasn’t been since in over 160 years.
The “grave danger” of losing our freedoms, our way of life, and our Republic is far worse than any “grave danger” posed by Covid to middle-aged workers. Let’s prevent that.
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