Hello ***CEO*** (name removed),
You know me. You trust me. You hired me to be a leader at this company and you value my contribution. I trust and admire you. However, I must write this letter to you anonymously for fear of reprisal– not fear of you, ***CEO***, but fear of the company’s decision. This is the sad state of our society, where matters that should be able to be discussed openly and honestly in good faith dialogue, must now be clandestinely communicated for fear of losing one’s livelihood. It’s insane to me that, in a country founded on freedom of speech and expression, I feel it’s necessary to take these precautions. While I would hope I am courageous enough to sacrifice my livelihood for personal convictions, I feel strongly obliged to do everything I can to stand up for both. Someday, I hope to thank you personally for your very tough decision on what concerns me most right now– the possibility of ***COMPANY*** requiring vaccines as a condition of employment.
If ***COMPANY*** requires vaccines I will have moral qualms about spending my precious days on the earth here and adding my value at this company. While I can only speak for and represent myself, I know I am not alone, as evidenced by conversations I’ve had and by the sheer visibility of those who are making the same stance I am.
I’m concerned our already challenging staffing issues will only compound, making it even harder to delight customers and operate profitably. Not to mention, making people choose between their livelihoods and taking experimental drugs, is morally wrong. Especially ones that have been proven to be unreliably effective, have caused adverse reactions up to and including death, and for which we do not yet understand the long term health implications. Especially with a virus that has a 99%+ survival rate. Life has always been and will always be “live at your own risk.” Welcome to being human.
Everyone at this point has chosen to receive the vaccine, has had COVID (and has antibodies), or has been offered the vaccine and yet, based on their individual risk profile, trade-off calculations, and personal human autonomy, have chosen not to take it. It seems the moral superiority of “my body, my choice” only applies to certain choices. If ***COMPANY*** requires vaccines for all employees, at a minimum, I would expect generous exemption clauses for remote workers, medical reasons, and religious reasons. For remote workers, what’s the point? For medical reasons, some people are more at-risk taking the vaccine than not taking it. For religious reasons, all of the COVID vaccines available on the market today were developed or tested using aborted fetal tissue. For some of us, this is a bridge too far. We wouldn’t be able to sleep at night, knowing we had allowed the product of the violence done to the unborn to course through our veins. Devout Christians like me believe we will stand before God one day and must give an account for that.
If more and more companies make vaccines mandatory, then the politicization of everything has achieved its coup d’etat. It signals to me the slippery slope has been greased. It’s only a matter of time before those of us with “wrongthink” outside the “3×5 card of allowable opinion” come under pressure, persecution, and expulsion from polite society. This would significantly impair our ability to exchange our labor for the means to provide for our families. It sets the stage and precedent. It speeds the day when the undesirables will be excised from the ability to purchase the basic necessities of life– banking, food, housing. Cleanse the infidel. The unvaccinated become the scapegoat class for society’s ills. Please don’t be let ***COMPANY*** be a part of building that future.
***COMPANY*** has every right to require its employees to be vaccinated, as it is a private company. Yet this decision has moral consequences that our company’s leaders must wrestle with, and this letter is my plea to them to consider not making this a requirement. Just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should. Whenever I am in a plant I dutifully wear my PPE and consider that a reasonable condition for employment. However, the vaccine is not simply another piece of PPE. There are apples and oranges moral considerations here.
We talk about how we embrace and celebrate diversity, and I agree these are worthy values to embrace. Does this not apply to diversity in thought? I fear that individuality and diversity of thought will be eclipsed by top-down decision-making. That is a cultural shift with huge implications, both inside and outside the company. Those that resort to orders like this are essentially admitting to themselves that they are either unwilling or incapable of using persuasive methods and they are communicating to their subordinates that they are potentially undeserving of receiving persuasive methods. Groupthink will reign. Innovation will stifle. Decision makers will look for top-down central edicts supported by yes men. I implore you to not take this dangerous step. It will not end how you think it will end.
Back in March 2020, I think we were all willing to do “2 weeks to slow the spread.” But we knew by Summer of 2020 there was no containing the virus. No amount of mask wearing was going to kill it. No vaccine was available in time. Even the vaccine we have now is incapable of stopping the spread. Herd immunity was the only option for us then and it is the only option for us now. I’ve had COVID and by God’s grace, I recovered with no more than a severe cold.
Nearly everyone has lost someone to this virus. It’s a tragedy. Do we honor their memory by continuing our society in this fashion? Are they looking down on us now, glad to see how we are futilely trying ineffective, life-and-society-altering intervention after intervention? The answer was always something akin to “focused protection” as outlined by the unjustly ballyhooed Great Barrington Declaration. Let us practice focused protection at ***COMPANY***. I would gladly contribute to a fund to this end.
I will not take the first dose. I will not take the second dose. I will not take a booster shot. I will not take Booster Shot #374 in the Year 2036.
The pandemic is now endemic. It’s here to stay. There’s no going back. Today it’s Delta, tomorrow it’s Epsilon, next year it’s Beta Phi Omega. Believe whatever you want to believe about the “why”. China, Democrats, Republicans, Trump, “Anti-vaxxers”, “Anti-science” bumpkins. Blame whoever you want to blame, but nothing can change that now. We must learn to coexist with the virus.
One cannot casually turn complex supply chains on and off with a switch, expecting to profitably and consistently serve customers. Planning, capital investment, and economic calculation become a fool’s errand. This is no way to run a society or a company. Let us not add to the prevailing zeitgeist by embracing this method or thinking.
If the already single-party, authoritarian, collectivist, communist China cannot contain the virus with its heavy-handed response and total information control, what makes us think we can here in America with the Bill of Rights, free speech values, and western individualism getting in the way? Zero Covid was and is never attainable.
Enough with the social distancing. What if they make it 12 feet? 40 feet? Will we redesign our factories to accommodate this? Enough with the masks. Is it not clear by now they don’t work? They must be single-use, N95 masks to have a chance at stopping the droplets that transmit the virus. Our reused paper and cloth masks are not effective. Countless examples of this have been shown. In areas of mask mandates with high compliance we still see spread. Hand sanitization was always a good idea, but we’ve known surface transmissions have not been a vector of transmission since spring of 2020. It’s safety theatre. Time to drop the act. Say no to vaccine requirements and passports. What’s the point if the vaccines aren’t reliably effective?
Resist any government mandate pushed down upon ***COMPANY***. Only the leadership and shareholders of this company have any right to tell us what we can and can’t do with OUR property. We have the unelected bureaucrats at the Center for Disease Control making law about property rights! Where does it end?! Where are the great leaders who will stand up to this madness? We need brave, articulate, business leaders like you, ***CEO***, to say enough is enough. Will you be one? I will stand with you. At least don’t let them co-opt our great company into an extension of a totalitarian state.
Science involves more than just dictates from on high by “revered scientists,” and very rarely is science “settled” in a single year. Just as we learned in May 2020 that wiping every square inch with four gallons of bleach was useless, scientists will be wrong, and people should be free to wait out what they feel is a confusing and complicated issue.
1984 was supposed to be a warning, not an instruction manual.
But it’s still not too late. You know we can just stop all this, right? It’s time. ***COMPANY*** should lead.
I believe you will make the right decision. If we terminate people for their decisions to not inject substances in their bodies, how many will pursue wrongful termination legal recourse? It could cost the company dearly. Let’s apply that money instead to serving our customers better every day with industry-leading products. That’s what I’m here for. Let’s put this behind us and focus on what really matters and fight for what is right.
I love working at ***COMPANY***. I believe in our mission, vision, and products. I think we are on our way to true Premiere Performance. I believe I am a key player in achieving this. I have a great team and we are making major improvements. I really want to stay at ***COMPANY*** and continue to plow my thinking, effort, and strategy into making us the vendor of choice for ***OUR PRODUCTS***. I don’t want to leave. I want to add my value here. I beg you, please do not make vaccines mandatory.
Thank you,
Your Sincere ***COMPANY*** Team Member
