Photo via @RonFilipkowski/Twitter
October 22, 2021, 10:42 am
A Washington State Republican recorded a video of himself being unable to access the building where he does the majority of his work because his keycard had been deactivated after the deadline for state employees to submit proof of vaccination passed. Representative Jim Walsh, known as one of the most right-wing legislators in Washington, complained that this failure to follow public health rules by a deadline that was announced several weeks ago resulted in consequences.
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After explaining that the building in front of him is where he works most often, Walsh shows the camera how his keycard no longer opens the door for him.
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“Normally my keycard will open this door,” Walsh says. “It doesn’t open this door today. What’s happened? Well, the House Executive Rules Committee has come up with what they call an ‘interim policy’ that prevents members from getting into the buildings on the Capitol campus if they don’t present COVID vaccine papers. And I have not presented COVID vaccine papers.”
Sounds about right and appears that everything is in order, Jim.
Washington Governor Jay Inslee announced months ago that all state employees, including legislators, police, and all other government workers, would have to either submit proof of full COVID-19 vaccination or a legitimate medical or religious exemption by October 18. According to reports, close to 1,900 of these workers left their jobs or were fired over their failure to comply, making up about three percent of the total government workforce in the state.
Unfortunately, you can’t just fire state representatives like Walsh, who can be counted among those who wore yellow Stars of David in protest of vaccine mandates — a bad and antisemitic comparison of a public health expert to the Holocaust. Therefore, the rules committee came up with an alternative and wonderfully simple way to keep unvaccinated people out of the Capitol buildings.
In the video, Walsh goes on to complain that the policy proved effective.
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“I can’t access my office,” he says. “I can’t access the floor, the main chambers, under the (capitol building) dome. I can’t do work from the Capitol as a legislator in this state. This is unusual.”
Actually, it’s not that unusual anymore. Because of the pandemic, many government employees who typically work in the Capitol have been working from home so as to limit spread of the severely contagious virus. The vaccine is also effective in this effort, but if Walsh doesn’t want to do the latter, he can keep doing Zoom calls from home in a suit jacket with no pants like everybody else.
I suppose they could set up a tent outside & move all his office staff and equipment outside. If a tent is good enuf for hospital workers it’s good enuf for him.
pic.twitter.com/Qs0qZneJW2
— GreatGrey (@GreatGrey) October 21, 2021
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*First Published: October 22, 2021, 10:42 am
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