Government

Did You Know The Justice Department Was Anti-Vax Now?

I can't say I'm surprised Justice has another aggressively dumb opinion, but there just doesn't seem to be a limit on the stupid.

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The Department of Justice has taken up the case of an anti-vaxxer in Wisconsin… because the night is dark and full of terrors.

Barnell Williams isn’t the chemtrail/vaccines-cause-autism/vast-government-conspiracy flavor of anti-vax foolishness. She’s the religious/body-is-temple/pray-the-flu-away kind of nut. This distinction doesn’t matter to the viruses, but probably does to the Justice Department. Anywhere somebody’s deeply held religious belief is in the position to hurt or humiliate others, the United States Department of Justice is there to provide legal cover.

It’s fashionable to think that anti-vaxxers are only hurting themselves and their children, but that’s not how communicable disease works. Williams refused to get a flu shot, which seems like a de minimis exercise of personal stupidity… until I tell you that she WORKS IN A NURSING HOME. In terms of natural predators for old people, the flu is right up there with step-ladders and the QVC channel. You shouldn’t be allowed to bus tables at Denny’s, unless you’ve had your flu shot.

Nonetheless, the Ozaukee County’s Lasata Care Center, which is owned by the county, had a process for objecting to the flu shot. Essentially, you had to get a letter from your clergy that you have so much Holy Ghost Power that the flu is afraid of you. Then they fold the note into the shape of a SARS mask and you’re good to go. OR SOMETHING. I swear to Christ if I tried to store a family member in a nursing home and they died from the flu because some Jesus-freak didn’t get their shot, I’d sue the county for the rest of my natural life.

Williams couldn’t get a note from her clergy-person because she’s not affiliated with any church. No no no, the Martin Luther of infectious disease over here has come up with her very own Biblical interpretation that prevents her from putting “certain substances” into her “Holy Temple,” and those substances include the flu shot and also basic freaking facts.

The nursing home told her to get the damn shot or they would fire her. So she did. But then sued.

And the Justice Department shows up in Wisconsin on HER side! From Courthouse News:

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Williams felt threatened by immediate termination, the government’s lawsuit states, and reluctantly agreed to get the flu shot but “became emotionally distraught and cried uncontrollably” upon receiving it.

“Williams suffered severe emotional distress from receiving the flu shot in violation of her religious beliefs, including withdrawing from work and her personal life, suffering from sleep problems, anxiety, and fear of ‘going to Hell’ because she had disobeyed the Bible by receiving the shot,” according to the complaint.

If the county nursing home can’t fire her for putting the lives of all their clients at risk, can they at least fire her for being the kind of person who lies awake at night worrying about eternal damnation for taking a flu shot?

But this is who the Justice Department is fighting for. Not the county nursing home that is just trying to safely take care of old people — old people who probably have no savings or options because the country has gutted its social safety net. No, the DOJ wants to stand with the anti-social biohazard because she wants to use the Bible to frustrate secular norms.

One imagines this would all be going very differently if she said that the QURAN prevented her from taking the flu shot, but she still wanted to work in a government-run facility.

I don’t know how the case will turn out because this country is a theocracy flanked by Sodom on the right coast and Gomorrah on the left coast. The bitch of it is that when all these anti-vaxxers get us killed with their mutated Eagle-MAGA flu that is currently evolving in their unprotected bodies, they’ll decimate the major cities first. I feel like the lesson of the Trump era is going to be that if you are stupid enough for long enough in a sufficiently uncompromising way, eventually you win because it’s so much easier to destroy than build.

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Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.

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