On August 9, 2021, Washington governor, Jay Insley, signed a proclamation mandating all state employees be fully vaccinated against COVID by October 18. The order survived legal challenges. And vaccination became a condition for state employment.
Two days before the proclamation went into effect, State Trooper Robert LaMay, resigned after 22 years as a cop. LaMay was an anti-vaxxer who refused to save his job by getting a vaccination that could save his life. On Friday, he died from COVID-19.
I am sure that when he signed off for the final time, sitting in the driver's seat of his patrol car, speaking into the cop radio, and demanding Governor Jay Inslee “kiss my ass”, he felt the self-satisfaction of a man who has done the right thing by his lights. And put his life on the line to stick to a sacred principle. I wonder if he was thinking the same thing as he died of COVID.
Days after his resignation, LaMay was, predictably, interviewed on Fox News because anti-vaxxers do not seem to appreciate the irony of doing interviews on a cable channel that requires all its employees to be vaccinated. He had this to say,
“When we started off this program, [the vaccine mandate] there was several hundred that were willing to get fired. Well, then they started looking at their finances. They looked at what they can do and they decided to take the vaccination.”
One side-effect these vaccine vacillators suffered was not dying. By compromising their stand, they did more than keep their jobs - they kept living. I’m not exactly sure what the downside to getting vaccinated is. John Stockton’s claim that 100+ professional athletes have died on the field from bad vaccine reactions seems tragic. Except he’s keeping the evidence for his proposition to himself. And no one else can find it.
Which is SOP for anti-vaxxers. For all their hyperbole, they have presented no scientific evidence showing any significant side effects from the COVID vaccines. And while there have been a small number of minor side effects, they have been, in every case, far less harmful to people than getting the disease.
I want an anti-vaxxer to produce, just once, a story where someone, who received a COVID vaccine, is lying on their deathbed desperately unhappy that they got vaccinated. But all I can find are the non-vaccinated crushed by the stupidity of their decision not to get a simple, safe, life-saving medicine.
Let us bring LaMay’s tragic tale to an end. Washington State Patrol Chief John R. Batiste said of the trooper’s death.
'This agency's prayers and remembrances are with his family and loved ones. Rob served honorably for over two decades, and we were disappointed to see him leave the agency this past October. His service to this state and agency will be long remembered and appreciated. Let us now remember our old friend.”
This points to one final irony. The people who knew him will remember him. But among the people who didn’t know him, the ones who will forget him the fastest are the anti-vaxxers. Because his death does their narrative no favors. And you will not hear it mentioned on any of the anti-science sites because the truth is to an anti-vaxxer what garlic is to a vampire.