I've been away from this thread for a while, but I'm back with a vengeance.
Just in the last few days, we here at work have been forced to take some "training" about COVID-19. And this "training" apparently includes future plans that are forcing me to think about drawing some new "lines in the sand" about what I will put up with.
(Note: I live in Sacramento County, CA, USA and work for a sewer district there. What I share here was sent to everyone in the sanitation district, which includes over 1,000 people. Mods: If you feel more identifying information needs to be removed, I will understand. But I want to give as clear a picture of what is going on here as possible.)
Here is the e-mail I received two days ago, slightly redacted. It's a video I have to watch, with an accompanying test I have to take and pass in order to continue working here. Note the bolded, italicized, underlined sentence with the different font in the third paragraph below. I will discuss this later:
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
From: Sanitation Districts Training (deleted)
Sent: Wednesday, July 8, 2020 1:04 PM
To: (deleted)
Cc: (deleted)
Subject: SASD and Regional San COVID-19 Awareness and Prevention Plan Training
Importance: High
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the State of California require COVID-19 awareness and prevention training for all employees before reopening. As a part of our reopening plan, the Pandemic Response Team and the Training Section have created an online SASD and Regional San COVID-19 Awareness and Prevention Training (link deactivated). This training takes approximately 15 minutes to complete and does NOT require a course completion page to be submitted.
Please complete this training by Friday, July 31st.
This training is viable for anyone with an internet connection and does not need to be completed with SASD/Regional San network access. This training can be accessed on any device with an internet connection, i.e. cell phone, on a work laptop in the field, on a home computer/laptop/tablet, etc. Please be sure to use your legal name as recorded for employment purposes and your work email address.
You must watch the online video training until the end (100% watched) and have 90% accuracy on the questions to receive credit for this training. There are 11 questions asked throughout the video. If you do not get at least 9 correct, please retake the training. If you do not retake the training, the training section will send you and your supervisor email requesting that you retake the SASD and Regional San COVID-19 Awareness and Prevention Plan training.
Please note, the SASD and Regional San COVID-19 Awareness and Prevention Plan Training is
in addition to the COVID-19 training published by Sacramento County. Additionally,
the Temperature Monitoring stations will be deployed as part of the re-opening/implementation plan.
As the pandemic continues to evolve, please be sure to review the SASD and Regional San
COVID Resource page and the
CDC COVID-19 website to stay up-to-date. We greatly appreciate your continued dedication to protecting public health and ensuring the safety and well-being of all staff and their families.
(Author name deleted)
Training and Development Specialist II
Sacramento Area Sewer District &
Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District
10060 Goethe Road
Sacramento, CA 95827
(phone #deleted)
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
I took that test just now, and wrote down the questions that I had to answer. I won't list them all, just a few that are relevant.
Question #3: "Quarantine keeps someone who was in close contact with someone who has COVID-19 away from others" - TRUE...
even if they are asymptomatic. So right there, with the contact tracing that is now in evidence in California, all I have to do is pass close to someone who has "tested positive" for COVID-19 as determined by anyone with a cell phone that has installed the contact tracing application (which is done now automatically, without alerting the owner, for anyone who uses their phone to access the internet - I checked)
at any time in the last three weeks ("symptoms appear up to 21 days after exposure") and I can be forcefully made to "quarantine", even if I test negative. And this is being programmed into the heads of everyone who works for the county as "necessary".
Question #4: "Isolation keeps someone who is sick or tested positive for COVID-19 without symptoms away from others, even in their own home" - TRUE. So, they are doubling down on the "positives" who are asymptomatic being forced into quarantine, just because of the
FEAR. Which basically means that anyone, at any time, can be forced off the street "justifiably" even if they only caught a whiff of a passing motorist on the freeway who happened to test positive -
just because you were in the general vicinity. And if you don't answer "TRUE" on the test, you have to re-take it until you are properly brainwashed -
or you can't return to work.
And the last question, but the one that makes me fear for my own future: Question #10: "Having your temperature checked at one of the temperature check monitoring stations is optional" -
FALSE.
I haven't yet talked to my supervisor about this, and I haven't seen a station set up yet in my lab, but I fully intend to ask her this on Monday because this crosses a line for me. At that point, I am no longer in charge of my own reaction to this virus. When I let someone with a temperature gun decide for me whether or not I can work, or that I need to be "confined", then I no longer can decide my own fate. And I already know there are a few people at work who think I am a monster for not wearing masks the entire time, and for having spread doubts about this HOAX since the beginning. If one of them were to be holding the "gun" at my head, I don't know that I can trust them.
So I am now considering my next move. I could apply for early retirement, but I would not get enough money from it to pay all of my bills. I recently had to sign a year-long lease which still has ten months to go, so I am hamstrung in my ability to move without financial difficulties. But if I am made to take that temperature test, I still think my best bet is to refuse it and risk losing everything, just to keep my sanity - and freedom...even if that means living under a bridge. I do have a lot of cardboard, though...