Got a gem from a nursing buddy who lives in the tri-state area. So a few states like New Jersey have enacted laws in which healthcare personnel will no longer be able to dodge requirements on getting vaccinated by Feb 28. Previously, non-exempt unvaccinated workers could remain employed by submitting weekly Covid tests (now at the person's expense since the only way it will be covered is through a doctor's order in preparation for a procedure or something). The current rule is that unvaccinated employees must have their first shot, and those who have had two shots to receive their booster shot by that date. Of course, the law flies in the face of increasingly available data that the booster shots have negative efficacy after 3 months.
This is in a suspicious timing to the latest SCOTUS rulings made on Jan 13 (NFIB v. OSHA (21A244) (
Per Curiam) and Biden v. Missouri (21A240) (
Per Curiam)) in which OSHA's powers to enforce vaccine mandates in companies with 100+ employees and facilities that participate with Medicare and Medicaid were stayed, respectively. While I don't believe that Jersey's new law was enacted in response to the rulings, it does raise a few eyebrows.
Now, Pennsylvania does not keep digital, app-based records for vaccination proof like Jersey does. Jersey is following in the steps of its equally retarded neighbor (although it's wholly the fault of NYC dragging everyone else down with them). New York has "Excelsior Pass" and "NYC Covid Safe", whereas Jersey has "Docket". Since the state government manages the respective apps, they will show all Covid-relevant vaccine information. This is important, because some places will now no longer accept paper cards due to ease of forgery, and will only accept the digital copy of the cards.
Now, the two aforementioned states are still pretty dumb. Theoretically, all one could do to avoid the booster (if one has been vaccinated twice) is pretend that they got the shot in Pennsylvania. This works as long as the employer doesn't bother calling the facility you supposedly had the shot at to verify if you were vaccinated or not. Lot numbers are easy enough to come by, since people still are pretty dumb and post pics of their cards with their lot numbers and vaccination dates. Even if you don't use social media like Facebook or Twitter, there are online repositories that store different lot numbers for the three main shot types, such as
this site (in which the lot #s at the top tend to have been released during the initial vaccine push in Dec 2020-March 2021). The governments have also forgotten that digital doesn't mean that forgeries can't be made (eg: edited pdfs).
I'm tired of it all. Other suggestions will be welcome.
Edit: New York and California have similar booster requirements. NY demands boosters within two weeks of being eligible for one (lol good luck), whereas California has opted for a Feb 1 deadline.