# Share your Covidiot stories **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [April 29, 2020, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-covidiot-stories/852854 "2020-04-29T22:21:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 64
**Author:** ![eschrodinger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschrodinger/32/122_2.png) [@eschrodinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschrodinger)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2021, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-covidiot-stories/852854/1262 "2021-10-02T00:14:59Z")
I was in a Ross store. A guy one aisle away wearing a neck gaiter was asked politely by a worker to “please pull up your mask, sir.” He said, loudly, “I don’t care.” (Which doesn’t quite make sense as a response, but whatever.) The worker said, again, politely, “Well, we do.” The jerk says, “You can contact my supervisor at the police department,” as he starts walking away from the worker. It’s not the way the police in this city refer to themselves – it’s getting weirder and I’m paying more attention now. The store security guard walks over and says, “Sir, please pull up your mask.” Jerk walks away from him saying, “No, there’s no mandate!” The security guards says, “There is here.” The jerk says, “Not in Florida!” He goes toward the escalator. The security guard says, sternly, but with a tiny bit of bewilderment in his voice, “Well, you’re not in Florida.” The jerk pulls his gaiter up and starts riding up, and says, “stop following me, please.” Security guard makes a calculated decision and lets him go. (With his mask up.) Same store when I went to check out, a customer at another register has her mask below her nose. I look up a minute later, and it’s all the way up – I figured maybe it slipped and she fixed it. A minute later, it’s all the way under her chin. WTF. I’d overheard the manager talking about them having to open late because they were short staffed. No wonder. They’re almost certainly not paid enough to deal with that. ---
**Author:** ![JaneDoe42](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janedoe42/32/14104_2.png) [@JaneDoe42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JaneDoe42)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2021, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-covidiot-stories/852854/1263 "2021-10-02T02:20:38Z")
I worked retail for about 10 years and it sucked. My last employer went under and I ended up on unemployment. While I wasn’t making a lot on UI, it was enough that we didn’t feel that stressed for money. This allowed me to have time to apply for non-retail jobs and I have never looked back. Things were getting bad for employers before the world ended, COVID was just the final straw. ---
**Author:** ![eschrodinger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschrodinger/32/122_2.png) [@eschrodinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschrodinger)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2021, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-covidiot-stories/852854/1264 "2021-10-02T02:46:37Z")
Yeah, I’ve had customer service jobs before, and it can be really awful without a politicized pandemic on top. There’s no mystery to me about why lower level jobs are having trouble attracting employees right now. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2021, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-covidiot-stories/852854/1265 "2021-10-02T02:54:49Z")
Agreed. Many service positions are unfilled on my campus, such that cafes weren’t open and there wasn’t food in the fridges at the bookstore on opening day. ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2021, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-covidiot-stories/852854/1266 "2021-10-02T03:33:34Z")
> [@solost](#): > > When I left I saw a camo-painted Jeep in the parking lot with a big yellow “Don’t tread on me’ flag, y’know, the one with the snake on it that a certain contingent of trumpy anti-masker, anti-government types have adopted. I thought, I can sure guess who that vehicle belongs to. So he was allowed to remain even though he had no mask? ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2021, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-covidiot-stories/852854/1267 "2021-10-02T09:35:22Z")
> [@nelliebly](#): > > So he was allowed to remain even though he had no mask? Almost certainly. I say this as someone who works in corporate for a company where this happens literally thousands of times a day. Stores have made the calculated decision that trying to enforce mask mandates (whether municipal or corporate) beyond “reminders” is hazardous. Where the cops in multiple states are very happy to remove a person, even arrest them, for trespassing if they’ve been banned for shoplifting, but will often side with a person who says they are being asked to leave for not masking. Even if they are being asked to leave because the threatened even physically assaulted other customers or staff. Anti-mask is a magic word for some LEOs. Hell we have had cops who have threatened to arrest our security folks for assault for attempting to physically remove people who refuse to wear a mask or maintain social distance and then physically resist removal. We call the cops and they sometimes side with the anti-masker. There are a huge number of Covidiots among the police. Far more than the general population, I’m guessing because there are far more rabid Trumpets in uniform. And this has become a tribal thing. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2021, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-covidiot-stories/852854/1268 "2021-10-02T12:40:47Z")
> [@nelliebly](#): > > So he was allowed to remain even though he had no mask? Well, as I said I was called in before I could see the outcome of the altercation, so I don’t know how it was resolved. Maybe they caved and let him stay without a mask, or maybe they offered him a mask and talked him into wearing it. It’s also possible that the camo Jeep with the Gadsten flag was not his, but I’d be willing to bet that it was. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2021, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-covidiot-stories/852854/1269 "2021-10-02T12:53:45Z")
> [@Rebo](#): > > These people are morons. I understand they THINK the vaccine will make them sick or something worse - but come on! Death does NOT become you, believe me. At least many of them are now complying with social distancing, 6 feet away from everyone else. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2021, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-covidiot-stories/852854/1270 "2021-10-03T18:53:38Z")
I stopped to get gas today and some Covidiot had slapped a sticker on the gas pump that said something like: > [@](#): > > _Anti-vaxxer_ (noun) > > 1. A person who trusts their own immune system over career politicians, big pharma, and corporate media. > (See also: **critical thinker** ) So while my car was filling up, I reached in and grabbed a pen and added: > [@](#): > > 2. A plague spreader ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2021, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-covidiot-stories/852854/1271 "2021-10-03T22:36:29Z")
Man, people just find new ways to emphasize their idiocy. If I ever see one of those, I’m going to mark out “anti-vaxxer” and write “sheeple”. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2021, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-covidiot-stories/852854/1272 "2021-10-03T23:08:45Z")
Alaska, place of my birth, is apparently becoming the New Florida. Alaska now has the highest infection and death rate in the entire country. The hospitals are full and people in outlying areas are dying because they can’t get treatment for emergencies. Of course, they’re mostly brown-ish people so don’t really matter. Meanwhile, idiots have taken over the city assembly meetings, where the assembly members are trying to determine if they should impose a mask mandate on city businesses. “Testimony” has pretty much been limited to people yelling, cursing, waving signs about their “rights”, and even wearing yellow stars of David because, you know, Nazi. The person who brought the stars is a rightie wack-a-doo who once ran for the assembly. At one point someone yelled “Cocksucker!” at the one gay assemblyman, and others there laughed and applauded. After this disgraceful display, the mayor of Anchorage declared some nonsense about how he will never have a mandate and that the assembly is trying to take away the mayor’s power. He also said that he didn’t see a problem with the yellow stars and that he thought the people wearing them were “honoring the Jews of the Holocaust”. The following day he made a half-assed retraction. Day four of testimony will happen on Monday. In Juneau, the governor has stated that he will not abide by any restrictions imposed by the president. Additionally, he has denied the legislature’s request to adjourn the special session. Seems they don’t want to end up in a hospital corridor gasping out their last breaths, the big sissies. I can’t tell you how glad I am to have moved away from that fucking cesspool of morons, half-wits, bigots and racists, but it makes me sad that the place of my childhood and part of my adulthood has become such a sad caricature of what it once was. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2021, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-covidiot-stories/852854/1273 "2021-10-04T04:25:10Z")
A pair of Covidiot stories in the news – nurses getting fired because they won’t get the vax. This one presumably isn’t asking for a religious exemption: > **[A New York healthcare worker who was just fired for refusing the COVID-19...](https://news.yahoo.com/healthcare-worker-just-fired-refusing-205608649.html)** > > "God could come down and say to me, 'You must take this vaccine.' And I'd be like, 'Sorry, Charlie,'" said Karen Roses, who was fired after New York's mandate went into effect. The full headline: **A healthcare worker who was just fired for refusing the COVID-19 shot says she wouldn’t get it even if God said ‘you must take this vaccine’** This story mentions another – actually several others. It points out that these fired nurses are still much in demand at other health care places that don’t have the mandate: > **[A few skeptical U.S. hospital workers choose dismissal over vaccine](https://news.yahoo.com/few-skeptical-u-hospital-workers-100919268.html)** > > Jennifer Bridges loved her job as a nurse at Houston Methodist Hospital, where she worked for eight years, but she chose to get fired rather than inoculated against COVID-19, believing that the vaccine was more of a threat than the deadly virus. ... ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2021, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-covidiot-stories/852854/1274 "2021-10-04T19:01:17Z")
It’s truly horrifying to hear of medical people (who have, supposedly, had at least SOME scientific training) being so moronic about vaccines. I suspect that if smallpox were still out there, there would be just as many people refusing that - and smallpox vaccination a) has been around for several hundred years, and b) could occasionally have some pretty nasty side effects. My husband was on a walk the other day and some jackass going by in a car screamed at him to take off his mask. My response when hearing that was “Well, if I leave my mask on, people won’t be able to look at my face and know I’m a moron. If I take it off, they’ll know it for sure”. I suspect a response that would result in a well-justified (in the eyes of the maskhole) beating. On the positive side: I went to Costco yesterday - and nearly everyone I saw was wearing a mask. Costco strongly encourages them, but does not require them. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2021, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-covidiot-stories/852854/1275 "2021-10-04T22:14:27Z")
New conspiracy theory: Facebook was only down for people who aren’t vaccinated. [![](https://i.redd.it/hmnuubqfmgr71.png) ](https://i.redd.it/hmnuubqfmgr71.png) ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2021, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-covidiot-stories/852854/1276 "2021-10-04T22:18:35Z")
^ \*who are vaccinated ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2021, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-covidiot-stories/852854/1277 "2021-10-05T00:46:35Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > I suspect that if smallpox were still out there, there would be just as many people refusing that Well, yeah. It came with a gnarly scar, right, who’s gonna look good on Insta with an arm scar? ---
**Author:** ![psychobunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/54ee81/32.png) [@psychobunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychobunny)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2021, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-covidiot-stories/852854/1278 "2021-10-05T05:10:32Z")
What I don’t understand is this “religious exemption” claim. What religion do they follow? If their problem is with the use of aborted fetal cells in the development of the vaccine then they just need to avoid the J&J vaccine. In addition, if that is their concern, do they avoid all other medications developed with the use of fetal cells, such as acetominophen (tylenol), ibuprofen, TUMS, claritin, benadryl, sudafed etc. > **[Arkansas hospital lets staff seek vaccine exemption, as long as they don’t...](https://www.kark.com/news/health/coronavirus/arkansas-hospital-lets-staff-seek-vaccine-exemption-as-long-as-they-dont-use-other-meds-tested-on-fetal-cell-lines/)** > > A vaccine exemption form from an Arkansas hospital is asking employees claiming a “sincerely held religious belief” to not getting a COVID-19 vaccine to also abstain from using many oth… Here is a summary of what the various relgions have stated about the Covid vaccine: > **[Where do major US religions stand on the COVID-19 vaccination? - East Idaho News](https://www.eastidahonews.com/2021/08/where-do-major-us-religions-stand-on-the-covid-19-vaccination/)** > > SALT LAKE CITY — A recent report from the Public Religion Research Institute says 53% of Americans agree with the statement: “Because getting vaccinated against COVID-19 helps protect everyone, it is a way to live out the religious principle of... ---
**Author:** ![Bootb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e19b73/32.png) [@Bootb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootb)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2021, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-covidiot-stories/852854/1279 "2021-10-05T05:19:49Z")
> [@psychobunny](#): > > What I don’t understand is this “religious exemption” claim. What religion do they follow? The US alone has more than 200 Christian denominations. In short, there is **plenty** of room for people to have religious objections of various sorts to vaccines. > **[Crow: Why are there so many Protestant denominations?](https://journalnow.com/news/columnists/crow-why-are-there-so-many-protestant-denominations/article_a8aecece-e4fc-11eb-ae77-7f4c945d42af.html)** > > On a visit to Anytown, USA, one would find a main street. There are over 7,000 Main Streets in America. (https://www.nlc.org/resource/most-common-u-s-street-names/) ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2021, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-covidiot-stories/852854/1280 "2021-10-05T12:43:16Z")
A more sensible religious view: > …They disdain the use of medicines; they do not avoid places and persons infected by the plague, but lightheartedly make sport of it and wish to prove how independent they are. They say that it is God’s punishment; if he wants to protect them he can do so without medicines or our carefulness. This is not trusting God but tempting him. God has created medicines and provided us with intelligence to guard and take good care of the body so that we can live in good health. > > If one makes no use of intelligence or medicine when he could do so without detriment to his neighbor, such a person injures his body and must beware lest he become a suicide in God’s eyes. By the same reasoning a person might forego eating and drinking, clothing and shelter, and boldly proclaim his faith that if God wanted to preserve him from starvation and cold, he could do so without food and clothing. Actually that would be suicide… > > –Martin Luther, " Whether One May Flee From A Deadly Plague", 1527 ---
**Author:** ![DMC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dmc/32/18049_2.png) [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)\ **Post date:** [October 5, 2021, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-covidiot-stories/852854/1281 "2021-10-05T21:39:11Z")
> [@Bootb](#): > > The US alone has more than 200 Christian denominations. In short, there is **plenty** of room for people to have religious objections of various sorts to vaccines. Interesting, but I have yet to see a link to any specific denomination’s bylaws that tells their followers they should not be vaccinated. Until I do, I have no reason to believe that any of the 200 take issue with it. I happen to know for a fact that the Christian Scientists aren’t telling their members they can’t participate, and they’re the one everyone tosses out as an example. If the argument is that their own personal interpretation of (insert holy book of choice here) leads them down this path, as opposed to official doctrine, we tell them to fuck off if that interpretation tells them to sacrifice virgins, take LSD, or even have multiple legal wives. I’m okay with telling them their personal interpretation doesn’t overcome the social good in regard to vaccines as well. Edit: And @Steve_MB, 👍 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-covidiot-stories/852854.md?page=63) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/share-your-covidiot-stories/852854.md?page=65)