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Intel Medicine

Intel Tells Unvaccinated Employees They Face Unpaid Leave (apnews.com) 227

An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Associated Press: Intel has told workers that unvaccinated people who don't get an exemption for religious or medical reasons will be on unpaid leave beginning in April. The California-based semiconductor company told employees last month they had a Jan. 4 deadline to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or seek an exemption, citing a government mandate for federal contractors.

In a Dec. 7 memo to employees, Chief People Officer Christy Pambianchi told employees the Jan. 4 vaccine deadline remains in place. She wrote that employees who aren't vaccinated must seek a medical or religious accommodation and submit to weekly testing, regardless of whether they are still working remotely. Intel will review employees' exemption requests until March 15. Pambianchi said employees who don't receive an exemption will begin unpaid leave on April 4 for at least three months but "will not be terminated." She said Intel will continue providing health care benefits to unvaccinated employees on leave.

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Intel Tells Unvaccinated Employees They Face Unpaid Leave

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  • At will employment (Score:4, Informative)

    by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Wednesday December 22, 2021 @05:15PM (#62107303)

    Well you wanted at will employment so companies can fire anyone for any reason. So enjoy!

  • I expect that this is 100% about insurance costs. And that Intel is not the first and will not be the last company who will institute this kind of policy as a requirement to keep their insurance premiums from sky rocketing and affecting the bottom line/shareholder value.

  • Religious reasons? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Tomahawk ( 1343 ) on Wednesday December 22, 2021 @06:01PM (#62107425) Homepage

    I really don't understand why anyone should be exempt for something as superfluous as "religion". Doesn't this effectively mean everyone who wants to be exempt can claim exemption?

    Why can't it just be left at "medical reasons" only, and remove the magic man in the sky (or whatever ones mythology is) entirely?

    • by ffkom ( 3519199 ) on Wednesday December 22, 2021 @07:16PM (#62107669)
      It is indeed mind bending how the same public ridicules believers in some weird theories that tell them not to get vaccinated while at the same time privileging believers in some weird theories about super-natural deities - beliefs that have triggered bloodshed and wars throughout history, and up until today.

      So I guess Intel just wants the anti-vaxxers to claim that a god or some angel or holy Mary spoke to them, delivering the message that just like in the book of Job they need to proof their faith by suffering (from Covid-19).
    • In most workplaces, people requesting religious exemptions have to explain the request. They have to be a member of a religion that actually forbids vaccination. Most religious exemption applications are denied, because the person turns out to be a Southern Baptist or something.

    • I really don't understand why anyone should be exempt for something as superfluous as "religion". Doesn't this effectively mean everyone who wants to be exempt can claim exemption?

      Why can't it just be left at "medical reasons" only, and remove the magic man in the sky (or whatever ones mythology is) entirely?

      The reason is that we live in a multicultural society premised in universal liberalism and the existence of intrinsic human dignity and rights.

      For those who hold their faith sincerely, it is an immutable characteristic of their person. And it's a pointless cruelty to punish them for it. If your objective, is, e.g., to raise a bigger army, threatening to imprison Quakers who won't fight will not help meet that objective, it will just result in having to imprison a bunch of Quakers.

      If your idea is to just kee

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      The medical reasons option seems to be widely abused. I was looking for some ear-savers on eBay the other day, typed in "mask" and the suggestion box offered half a dozen variations on "mask exemption lanyard".

      Problem is you can't ask people to give their medical history to justify their exemption, you can only take their word for it.

  • by Paxtez ( 948813 ) on Wednesday December 22, 2021 @06:05PM (#62107435)

    Every major religion has come out in support of the vaccines. There is nothing in it that would be objectionable to anyone who takes any medication or over the counter pain med (Tylenol, aspirin, etc.).

    Even the US Army has given out zero religious exemptions

    • by ffkom ( 3519199 )

      Every major religion has come out in support of the vaccines.

      Like in https://www.npr.org/sections/g... [npr.org] or https://www.ucanews.com/news/k... [ucanews.com] ?

    • Every major religion has come out in support of the vaccines. There is nothing in it that would be objectionable to anyone who takes any medication or over the counter pain med (Tylenol, aspirin, etc.).

      You know what gets me they didn't have to do it but they went there and did it anyway with predictable results in the mostly religious crowd that could have been avoided.

      Saying there is nothing in it to some is analogous to saying we murdered this person in cold blood and stole their cellular phone. There is nothing objectionable in the cellular phone of this murdered person or the information extracted from it.

      Tylenol came out in the 1950s and aspirin in the 1890s predating fetal lines from abortion.

      Of co

      • by Paxtez ( 948813 )

        Saying there is nothing in it to some is analogous to saying we murdered this person in cold blood and stole their cellular phone. There is nothing objectionable in the cellular phone of this murdered person or the information extracted from it.

        Tylenol came out in the 1950s and aspirin in the 1890s predating fetal lines from abortion.

        Of course most people will just find religion for their exemption anyway but this was an avoidable problem for the people who actually care and might otherwise elect to get vaccinated.

        I'm not exactly sure what you're talking about but there are no fetal cells in the vaccines. Yes cells from the fetal lines have been used in testing, but that goes for the same thing for pretty much every other medication, Viagra, high blood pressure, flu vaccines, cold medications, etc.. Aspirin and Tylenol have since been tested on the fetal cells.

        So unless they also forgo all other medications they don't have a leg to stand on. It is obvious that they are just using it as an excuse, and I'm glad more

    • by Junta ( 36770 )

      The problem for companies is they have to face the risk of denying someone's claim of religious belief, which some companies are reluctant to do.

      We are faced with an area church, for example, writing that it is their congregations belief that the vaccine is the mark of the beast. Being a protestant Christian church, there's no higher authority to say "your leader says that's not the case". So it's not simply a matter of finding that the medicine itself does not run afoul, they still have material they can t

      • by Paxtez ( 948813 )

        True. Luckily more and more are challenging them or requiring significant documentation to support such claims.

        But even so, who cares. Just because they find a priest from Q-Church to fill out a form, doesn't mean a business has to allow it. I think it is time to no longer consider these wacky religious exemptions as "reasonable accommodations". "I appreciate that your Church of The Naked Man doesn't allow you to wear clothes and cover God's Devine work, but need to wear clothes in the office. If not f

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      Pastafarians can get a letter exempting them from working with or around unvaccinated people. Would be interesting to see how that works, two people with religious exemptions in conflict with one another.

  • by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Wednesday December 22, 2021 @06:12PM (#62107455)

    The Fox tabloid has told all its employees they must show proof [yahoo.com] of receiving at least one covid vaccination by Monday, December 27th. There are no longer any exceptions to be tested.

    It will be interesting to see if the talking heads will stand up and walk away for being "forced" into being sheeple.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • Trump admitted he's had two shots and the booster, which has led to epic levels of cognitive dissonance among his worshipers, err, I mean "followers".

    • by edwdig ( 47888 )

      It will be interesting to see if the talking heads will stand up and walk away for being "forced" into being sheeple.

      They were all vaccinated at the first chance they had. Their on air personas are all an act. They don't believe any of the stuff they say. Every time they get sued over something they say on the air, their defense in court is "The show is entertainment. No reasonable person would believe what they say is true." And that defense works.

  • by nicolaiplum ( 169077 ) on Wednesday December 22, 2021 @06:44PM (#62107579)

    Allowing "religious" exemptions from vaccination is simply allowing someone to avoid vaccination as a matter of personal opinion, if they use the right form of words.

    Religion is a personal opinion, nothing more. It has no place in public health policies.

  • by dskoll ( 99328 )

    Aw, come on. It's time to push back against this "religious exemption" bullshit. Various and sundry beliefs in a mythical sky-creature should not be a get-out-of-jail-free card for anything someone disagrees with.

    • by raind ( 174356 )
      I actually know a guy who was calling baptist preachers to right a letter for him. smh!
    • Aw, come on. It's time to push back against this "religious exemption" bullshit. Various and sundry beliefs in a mythical sky-creature should not be a get-out-of-jail-free card for anything someone disagrees with.

      Well said. It's ridiculous that anyone still believes in this horseshit.

      They're welcome to wallow in their kooky beliefs but they're NOT welcome to fuck up my life, safety, or health in the process.

  • "Intel Tells Unvaccinated Employees They Face Unpaid Leave"

    Good. They shouldn't have waited this long but better late than never.

    I work for a healthcare company. EVERYONE is required to show proof of vaccination, and the ones who want to stand on their principles and say no are welcome to GTFO.

  • It's all about biasing the odds, but weekly testing seems inadequate especially for omicron. We have only preliminary estimates but it might be as short as three days. That's quite a window for an infected employee to pass it on to several other employees, who would then have a great chance to be contagious before their next test.

    That's what a pair of professors of medicine thought even before omicron:
    https://www.washingtonpost.com... [washingtonpost.com] (paywalled). They like testing, but not as an alternative to vaccination

  • The FSM church provides the needed exemption letters to anyone :
    https://app.spaghettimonster.o... [spaghettimonster.org]

  • Neither side of this debate s much grounded in reality anymore, and I can demonstrate it through two simple statements. These are two sentences which are both factually true, yet everyone will find one highly aligns with their beliefs, and the other does not. They will argue one of the statements is just stating a simple fact, while the other is misleading because it lacks critical context which results in "all those other idiots" out there to believe in something that's not true (notice in the abstract b
  • They cannot enforce the govt contractor mandate. A court in Georgia barred all states from enforcing the mandate.
  • by AmazinglySmooth ( 1668735 ) on Thursday December 23, 2021 @09:36AM (#62109199)
    Everyone needs to ask themselves if they should be afraid of getting covid. I had it. It was hardly even a cold for me. Having gotten it (before vaccines were available) made me wonder why I was afraid for so long. I suspect the data we have access to doesn't allow us to make rational choices. Instead, we are forced to weigh probabilities based on anecdotes and averages. At this point, we should be able to have a website where we can enter our vitals and see the real risk. I suspect most people would be shocked to find out how little they have to fear.
    • I've never been afraid for myself personally. I've been afraid for the at-risk people among my friends, family and community. Getting vaccinated and social distancing has always been primarily about protecting the vulnerable, so whether I am personally afraid for my own safety has fuck all to do with it.

      That said, I know several young, healthy, low-risk people that have gotten long COVID. A scientist and a lead software developer who are both severely (and possibly permanently) limited in the degree and dur

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