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Thomas Hobson was an entrepreneur who lived from 1544-1631. He rented horses. What he told prospective customers was that he had a stable of 40 horses available. This gave the impression that they could select from any one of those horses. In reality, customers found out that they could only take the horse in the stall closest to the door. This choice-that’s-not-a-real-choice has become known as a “Hobson’s Choice”.
Hobson was essentially telling his customers that they can “take it or leave it”. But those people who really needed a horse would be left with no option but to take the one offered. Regardless of how bad that option, or in this case horse, was.
Hold on to that thought, I’ll come back to it in a few minutes.
Let’s say that your employer was mandating vacksinations for every employee and contractor. You either provide proof of vacksination or you lose your job.
Once you’re fully vacksinated, you’re provided with a little sticker you can put on your ID badge indicating that you’ve been vacksinated.
Now, if your employer called your doctor to find out your vacksination status, they’d be informed the doctor isn’t authorized to release your medical information without your consent. It’s not illegal for your employer to ask for the information, but it’s illegal for your doctor to share it.
And, it’s perfectly legal for your employer to force you to provide personal medical information. The catch is that your employer can’t tell anyone else what they learned about you.
And it’s also perfectly legal for your employer to force you to get vacksinated, even if you don’t want to.
Here’s where it starts to get weird.
Remember the little sticker I mentioned earlier? You know, the one that indicates that you’ve been vacksinated? Well, guess what. Your employer can’t force you to display the sticker. Because that will disclose your personal medical information.
In case you’re not following along, allow me to summarize. Your employer can legally coerce you to get injected with a drug you don’t want, but it’s illegal for them to force you to put a sticker on your ID badge.
How fucked up is that?
If you think this is just another one of Mikey’s thought exercises, think again.
Essentia Health is a healthcare system in Minnesota, Wisconsin and North Dakota. They have a mandatory vacksination policy. Employees have just a few more weeks to get vacksinated or they’ll lose their jobs. This applies to all employees and contractors.
Once vacksinated, employees and contractors will receive a “COVID-19 Vaccine Clip” that they can attach to their badge if so desired. The clip is an indication that they’re fully vacksinated. But Essentia can’t force employees to display the clip on their ID badge. Because that would be forcing employees to disclose personal medical information. Which is illegal.
I’ll bet no one else has considered this next part. Let’s say that an employer successfully either convinces their employees and contractors to get vacksinated. Or, they fire them. Let’s say one way or another, they reach the point where everyone remaining has been jabbed.
Here’s the thing: They can’t tell anyone.
There are only three reasons why a company would force vacksinations on everyone. The first is that the people making the decision are idiots. The second is that the company is being financially rewarded for full compliance. And the third is that the company wants to “virtue signal” and use the vacksination status as a marketing tool.
As long as they’re below 100%, they can claim that they’re “working to obtain a 100% vacksination rate”. But, the instant they tell anyone that all their employees are vacksinated, they have just released personal medical information for every single one of their employees and contractors. Which is illegal.
Because it’s legal for employers to force people to get vacksinated, but it’s illegal for them to tell anyone that they did.
Now, some people are going to say that no one is forcing anyone to do anything. An employee can either get vacksinated or not. It’s their choice. That may be true, but how many people can actually afford to lose their job? How many of us have the wherewithal to just walk away? After this last year, with so many people out of work and burning through their savings, I’d bet not many.
For most people, deciding to either get vacksinated or fired is a Hobson’s Choice. It might appear like they have a choice, but they really don’t. They have mouths to feed and bills to pay so not having a job isn’t an option. Which leaves only one choice. The Hobson’s Choice of “take it or leave us”.
Which isn’t really a choice at all.
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