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Election roundup: Wu, Essaibi-George want paid leave for city workers who feel ill after getting a Covid-19 shot
By adamg on Wed, 02/03/2021 - 8:56pm
They may be running against each other for mayor, but at-large councilors Michelle Wu and Annissa Essaibi-George said today they are seeking a measure that would give city workers up to three days of paid leave should they feel ill after getting a Covid-19 shot. Feeling like you're coming down with the flu is common after the second shot in particular; health experts say that shows the shot is working to stimulate the immune system.
The councilors said that by granting such leave, they hope to convince other employers in the city to follow suit.
The two also teamed up on a resolution asking Gov. Baker to get teachers and other school workers moved up higher on the state's vaccine priority list. Essaibi-George, herself a former teacher, said ensuring school workers are safe should be critical to the governor's goal of re-opening schools. The third councilor running for mayor, Andrea Campbell (Dorchester, Mattapan, Roslindale) agreed and said early-education providers should be included.
Speaking of at-large councilors, the Dorchester Reporter reports that, yes, Althea Campbell is running for one of the four at-large council seats. After decades of annual running, she finally made it to the council for 2019 after at-large Councilor Ayanna Pressley was elected to Congress - which meant that Garrison, the fifth runner-up for an at-large seat in 2017, got onto the council.
WBZ interviews Alex Gray of Jamaica Plain, who has worked for Deval Patrick and Marty Walsh, hopes to become the city's first blind councilor, with a bid for one of those four at-large seats.
Campbell and at-large Councilor Julia Mejjia, want the council to formally request information from BPD on the state of its investigation into whether a BPD officer went down to Washington for the failed Jan. 6 Capitol coup.
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Comments
Thank you women officials for
Thank you women officials for finally showing a refreshing example of common sense in government.
Anyone who argues this is only doing it because he's got a hair across his ass. Common sense is not to common. Stop the chatter and listen to your instinct. That's common sense.
You don't actually get ill,
You don't actually get ill, right? Just feel tired, as when you think about actually performing your responsibilities.
Define ill? Slight fever, or
Define ill? Slight fever, or chills, exhaustion, soreness? You aren't coughing until you pass out on the bathroom floor because you also feel like vomiting your empty stomach, if that's how you define ill.
Symptomatic
Side effects that are consistent with being infected.
People are not required to be one of those superspreader aholes that works until they are physically incapacitated by illness after lovingly infecting everyone around them. That isn't responsble, that isn't valorous, it is stupid and reckless.
Always was.
Who knows?
None of the Covid vaccines are FDA approved, so discovering the side effects is an adventure we can all go on together!
The first half of your
The first half of your statement is factually correct, but misleading, as the FDA has authorized their usage after review of completed phase 3 clinical trials.
Between Pfizer and Moderna, 36,905 people received the actual vaccine in those clinical trials (the sample size in these RCTs being twice that number.) Those are significantly large phase 3 trial sample sizes and will have given a good sense of the side effect profile of those vaccines.
Please point me to one of
Please point me to one of these "completed" phase 3 clinical trials.
Fine. They aren't "completed"
Fine. They aren't "completed" but reached their benchmarks for applying for their EUAs. The trials will remain active until their completion dates, but they are not recruiting new participants. In this article, we are talking about side effects in the few days after receiving each dose, and we have long passed that time point in each of the clinical trials.
Antivaxxer bullshit
Smear it around and around. Doesn't make it true.
And that nurse in Alabama is very much alive.
pubmed
google
Not an antivaxxer
Absolutely not an antivaxxer. Vehement pro-vaxxer. I support the elimination of religious exemptions for vaccinating kids. Vax 'em all!
I do, however, have big problems with how the covid vaccines are being handled.
Edit: I Googled "Alabama nurse" but I guess I don't understand your meme. Unless the news is wrong and Betty Grier Gallaher walks among us.
Fainting nurse
The nurse who fainted after her shot, and the reports of whose demise are greatly exaggerated, is in Tennessee.
My very elderly grandmother
My very elderly grandmother felt fine after the moderna shot.
My s/o had a sore arms and mild cold symptoms from pfizer.
YMMV
My niece is one of these "never gets sick" ER nurses who was among the first in her state to be vaccinated.
Shot #1: That was easy - see my band aid!!!
Shot #2: OMFG I feel like shit! (leaves work early; takes two days off to recover)
The second shot WHAMMO is common enough that MA is recommending that places like large hospitals stagger the second shots a bit to avoid staffing shortages:
Another reason to give people time off: the side effects mimic the disease (see link, below).
I'm definitely not one to badmouth vaccines and I know the antivaxxer shitstains overblow every little thing (THOUSANDS OF DEATHS ALREADY!!!!!!), but this second shot effect is real, is documented, and I agree that if you are being vaccinated due to job exposures you should be paid to sit out if you get smacked.
Link for more info
See slide 22
"Ill" is a red herring. The question is: What is sick time for?
Is it about being able to stay home so you don't spread pathogens to your coworkers?
Is it about being able to stay home because you're constantly sweating, needing the bathroom, vomiting, or blowing your nose, and your coworkers don't need to see that?
Is it about being able to take time off to rest and recuperate when your body is hit with fatigue or similar?
Is it about the employer recognizing that it is inevitable that there are days when employees will not be able to perform their duties, and formalizing this reality?
(I'd say it's all of those, and more.)
But let's also talk about illness.
Pathogens can make you sick in different ways.
One pathogen might produce toxins that directly damage your body and cause symptoms. Very simple.
Another might have a more indirect route, such as how your body raises its temperature and pumps out antiviral chemicals to defeat the influenza virus -- the virus isn't doing that. Your body is doing that to itself, because the alternative is worse.
And some pathogens trick your body into producing symptoms that *benefit* the virus. I believe some of the respiratory viruses induce coughing so that the coughing can spread the virus.
Vaccines shouldn't cause the first thing, which might be what you're thinking of as "illness", but they can trigger some of the body's reactions against pathogens. It's an unpleasant side-effect and varies by person, but it's part and parcel of your body learning to defend against the pathogen -- the vaccine fools your body into thinking this dangerous virus is present, so your body puts all the defenses up, and some of them suck. But of course it's less dangerous than the real thing, and you can't spread the virus that isn't there.
(The picture is different for attenuated and recombinant vaccines, but that's the basic idea.)
So yes, vaccines can make you "sick" for a bit. Just not as badly as the real thing.
Keep scaring the population
Keep scaring the population who are already afraid to get the vaccine.
Great idea, There's plenty
Great idea, There's plenty of our money to support this.
The pre-election giveaways
The pre-election giveaways are off to a fine start.
SEE SLIDE #22
SEE SLIDE #22
Hard no.
Take a vacation day, use a sick day, or schedule your vax when you've got a few days off in a row (e.g. M-F staffer). That's what they're for. No reason to just give away extra benefits to the unions without getting something back.
Another anon spew
Devoid of facts.
If you are receiving vaccinations in the work place as part of your job, you aren't able to schedule it on your day off, honey. That isn't how the vaccination distribution is currently happening. You go when your employer has it or has arranged for it.
This is an occupational exposure related vaccination. If these people did not work in exposed positions, they would not be getting vaccine now.
Again - this is about occupational protection. It isn't about SEE MY IMMUNE SYSTEM TROPHY.
Collective responsibility.
What about existing sick time
I can't imagine city workers don't already have sick leave benefits for when they are sick. Why do they need three additional days off specific to Covid vaccines? And not just one, but three? Give me a break. Pandering pure and simple. So basically she wants to give every city work up to six additional paid days off.
What about workers' comp?
If you are sick or injured as a result of actions taken as part of your job responsibilities, that is usually covered under workers comp - at least if you have a private employer.
I'd say it is much easier for the city to pay up front, as this is definitely "sick as a result of job responsibilities" territory.
The unspoken truth is that
The unspoken truth is that most city employees (and most employees everywhere) have abundant sick/vacation balances right now, because people couldn't take vacations in 2020.
It would be reasonable to grant a sick day to someone holding 0 sick days, but not to most employees who accumulate a stash sick days to cash out when they retire.
"unspoken truth"
I think that's a rumor.
Even without people being sick, this pandemic has been difficult for some given that any tiny sniffle or cough means kids home from school - or people not working at home having to stay home.
Althea Campbell
Hi Adam - You have a typo there
Is it a typo? You never know
Is it a typo? You never know...
Nicely done Anissa
It’s just wonderful to have a woman of color advocating for the rights of regular workers. Workers who have pulled us thru this pandemic I might add.
Althea GARRISON
Typo:
That should be Althea Garrison...
Just do the right thing.
Once people figure out that the BFD is giving days off if the recipient feels ill then I'm sure they'll understand if such a period of convalescence is adequate for other city employees as well, and pretty much for everyone if we're all in this together. I'm sure the haters will hate and demand that some punitive measure be taken against people who are easily and often maligned because of their chosen field of employment but it's high time we sunset those knee-jerk reactions and focus on getting people vaccinated and the city reopen with some semblance of normalcy.
If it takes someone a day or two to feel 100%, I'm sure we can come to grips that they've gone through a lot in the past year and an extra day on the couch isn't going to infringe on anyone else's ability to enjoy life.
In other news, my eye doctor had her shot yesterday that left one of her arms achy and unable to tie a pony-tail yet somehow made it to my appointment this morning so I'm grateful that she not only received a vaccine but declared my eyesight to not be as bad as I thought it was.
Second Shot Blues
From the Atlantic Monthly: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2021/02/second-vaccine-side-e...