To say you have the right to spread disease willy nilly across this country so you can drink alcohol at a bar is infuriating. When you get down to it, by not following orders you’re participating in negligent homicide. So how about we make a law to codify this so people are forced to take personal responsibility? And also have this apply to anti-vaxxers. Obviously there would be exemptions for those who can’t have them, but no stupid religious exemptions, and people making an honest effort would not be penalized. But the blatant assholes doing this stuff? Like the Militia who showed up on the steps of the Michigan Capital? Hold them responsible financially for spreading it to their communities.
You want to open against scientific protocal? Sign an expolicit waver saying you accept PERSONAL liability for the risk taking place at your church/bar/restaurant/nail salon/hairplace.
It’s one of those things that’s hard to prove at the end of the day.
HIPAA is going to keep you from knowing if someone spread it to you, so proving that in court is going to be next to impossible.
Then there is the whole vague and nebulous “bio-terrorism” angle. Which if you infected, say, a cop, might pan out, but if you infected some regular fuck at Walmart isn’t likely to happen.
I’m not opposed to it, but I think it’s a legal can of worms that you’d be hard pressed to prove unless they’re bragging about it on Facebook, in which case the bio-terrorism angle is the side more likely to bite them.
The more realistic legal attack might be employers and the like. You can’t sue Dave for bringing the Covid to work and infecting you but you can probably sue your employer for not stopping him from doing it, or the store that let him walk in without a mask and cough all over the place. Which is why the GOP has such a hard on to remove all liability from employers and businesses.
Yea, I could see someone suing an employer who refused to take adequate safety measures.
I am looking at getting called back to work in an environment with maybe 1,000+ employees in each shift. If my employer (the federal government) doesn’t supply space and disinfectants I think it would be easy to argue that they were part of any disease transmission that happens afterwards. At the least they should supply masks, wipes and guarantee the common areas are cleaned every day. But how do you do that with only a half hour between shifts on an area the size of a football stadium?
At least working the swing shift I can just go home and take a shower. If you work days and get off at 2:30 are you going shopping, or visiting your grandparents or in-laws?
As much as I dislike the idea I can see removing liability from necessary jobs. With a tight definition of what that is.
I could see it in some scenarios with very defined limits. Too many places would do absolutely nothing otherwise.
We saw as much with meat packing plants.
If you sue someone, then you can gather evidence during discovery. HIPAA may prevent casual disclosure of medical records, but it won’t stop a subpoena.
But you’d have to prove they had it and transmitted it to you. I think that’s where you’d run into issues. Reasonable doubt that you got it from some other person or vector would end nearly every case.
Maybe if you recorded every interaction with people or the like, but again, if they’re asymptomatic it would be nearly impossible to prove they even had it, much less gave it to someone else.
I’m not opposed to the idea, for the record, I just think it would be near impossible to nail anyone other than a dude captured on film screaming into your face or the like. And even then you’d only get him if he was hospitalized because he’s not going to let you test him, etc, etc.
The idea would be to make people pause. Right now these idiots feel it’s their “right” to spread diseases that kill. They are so selfish they don’t care about anyone outside of their own snowflake crybaby attitude. If they realize there are (or could be) actual consequences for once, maybe it would change the perception of what’s a god given right. Sure it’s their right to kill, but if you want to go that route, expect there could be repercussions.
Idiot parent was into leukemia ward with her chicken pox laden kid and exposes immune comprised children. one of my Aunt’s and Uncle’s say if they do this it’s “their problem not ours”. I’d like to make it “their problem” beyond social shaming.
The people I have talked to just don’t see it as anymore of a problem than the annual flu. They haven’t known anyone who died from it and they are seeing their income disappear. I those who view the disease as “fake” or that they have a right to go mask less are a pretty small minority.
Groups like those idiots in Michigan who protest with rifles and no masks aren’t common everywhere.
My favorites are the people who think we should lock away everyone that’s “at risk” and go on with shit as normal.
When they’re at risk in like 3-4 categories and so are their family members.
“Us healthy people should get back to work.”
Motherfucker you’re obese and have diabetes. Your kid has asthma and so does your wife.
They also believe that going into a store without a mask or gathering in large groups are their ‘constitutional rights.’ I guess I didn’t read that part of the constitution.
You go to a big event (church) when you’re not supposed to, against restrictions and end up in ICU? You pay the bill yourself. Private Insurance and Medicare/Medicaid do not foot your selfish stupidity. You’ll pay for the rest of your life like most students stuck in indentured servitude from student loans.
They’ll just bankrupt out of it. People not paying their bills is just everyone else paying those bills, one way or another.
You’ll drive yourself nuts trying to punish people who believe freedom is defined by having to wear a mask and not by say getting a bullet in your back for doing… nothing. Even if they wore them, they’d probably wear them wrong anyway, and then you couldn’t prove they were doing any malicious, just idiotic, careless and you know, just as deadly vs having them stay at home like they should.
“big event” could be any sporting event in the near future where they allow people in, it could mean a busy grocery store or hardware store, it could mean almost anything.
And in your example it would still be harder than crap to prove where you got the disease.
Face it, your third cousin gets sick after she meets someone who met someone who met someone who met someone who saw you at the store and said hi. Did they get it from you? Would you even know if you are carrying it? Sometimes shit happens.
Using health care to punish people is always a bad idea.
In terms of risky behavior, attending a public gathering is probably still safer than getting a motorcycle license, buying your first pack of cigarettes, not using insulin as directed, or getting pregnant over the age of 45. Are we also going to deny all those people health insurance too?
The proper way to punish this group of people is to beat their candidates in every possible election, and thus remove or reduce their political power. Right now, they are a minority of voters who is wielding a majority of political power in the US, a literal tyranny of the minority, which is the reason they are not just annoying but actually harmful. Reduce or remove their political power by beating them silly in every possible election… That’s the proper way to respond.
