It’s My Private Medical Information!

Time is Wasted

It’s My Private Medical Information!

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This post will get a bit ranty and very spicy. You’ve been warned. If you’re an anti-vaxxer and the best shit you can come up with is “my private medical information is being violated” then enjoy the sweet embrace of a COVID death. You only have yourself to blame.

Also, before you rant at the next image and say “OMG, but someone could forge it using that screenshot”… ABC News, amongst many others, has already got a perfectly good version online you could also use to forge it.

I am vaccinated. I don’t consider this stupid certificate to be sensitive personal information either. It is a document that states that I received the 2 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. It isn’t scary, it isn’t like my insurance premiums are going to rise, it isn’t like my world will collapse around me because the internet knows that I got the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Now, if you are one of the people who are concerned about personal medical information and think this is an absolute breach of your privacy, then you have no grasp on reality.

When an employer asks (or requires) your vaccination certificate, they’re doing so because they either feel they have an obligation to everyone that works for the company, or they literally have a legal obligation to do so.

In states and industries that require mandatory vaccinations, it is the law they see this. They are legally obliged to ensure their workforce and customers are vaccinated under threat of penalties and closure.

As for companies that simply mandate the vaccine without requirement from state or federal government, these are companies who feel they have an obligation to ensure employees and customers are safe from the spread of disease. They’re not doing it to help Bill Gates get more microchips in to you, or to stop you from breeding (that said, it probably isn’t the worst idea if the anti-vaxxers couldn’t procreate). It is because they actually consider you and others health to be important.

No business is taking this information and selling it. Why would they anyway? Other than to ensure compliance with the law and vaccination rules, why would they care about the “personal medical information” provided by these vaccination certificates anyway?

Big Data

There’s far better data out there for them to use anyway! Woolworths, many years ago, utilised the data collected from it’s loyalty program and compared it to motor vehicle insurance data. They have the required access to that information thanks to the terms and conditions.

Through the examination of this data, they were able to determine who best to advertise insurance services to based on their shopping habits. This could easily be tailored to health insurance also.

Also think about data you are posting, or data you are voluntarily giving up. Google, for example, knows most of your search history, and if you use Google Maps on your phone, likely knows where you’ve been without your express knowledge. Being an advertising company, they do actually sell this data.

Lets say you spend a lot of time at Steamworks, or Wet on Wellington. Use Grindr a lot. Combined with your shopping data that seems to never show you buying condoms. This is useful information that’s equally, if not more powerful than the information you want to hide away from businesses. Through this information, it could be determined that you are at a higher risk for certain STDs and used to adjust health insurance premiums.

This is information you give up all the time. No secrets, no hiding.

ACROD and Licensing

What about other private medical information? People with disabilities who have an ACROD parking permit literally have some piece of “private medical information” displayed on the front of their car whenever they park. To use a disabled bay, it is the law to display the permit.

To even get the permit, you need to submit pretty significant medical information to a government authority to do an assessment on your eligibility. The doctor doesn’t give you a permit. They simply provide the information to the authority to do the assessment. This includes signing a waiver that allows your GP to talk to said authority.

We are not talking about a certificate that says you received a couple of vaccine doses. We are talking X-rays, documented history, treatment plans, how the disability occurred. All so you receive a shiny permit that lives on your dashboard for all to see.

There is no option of “do your own research” or “I know I need this disabled bay, why should I have to give up my personal medical information just for a permit”. It is a matter of do it, or don’t get access to the disabled bays.

While we are at it, you are also obliged by law to let the state vehicle licensing department know if you have any medical condition that may affect your ability to drive. You are obliged to let them know something that actively gives them authority to place restrictions on your drivers license, and is both printed on your license and stored on your file that the licensing department, as well as the police, can access and view.

In Summary

Claiming vaccination status as highly privileged private medical information is an absolute joke. It shows how out of touch some people are with reality. It is hardly scary private information that you shouldn’t tell anyone and there’s no valid reason why it should be protected and that businesses shouldn’t have the right to know see it to provide employment or services.

Using it as an excuse to hide that you’re an anti-vaxxer fuckwit is beyond stupid. It shows how desperate the anti-vaxxers are to hold on to their precious values.

Being an anti-vaxxer is a selfish idea based on crap, debunked science, woo, fear and stupidity. I’m genuinely sad and pissed off that these idiots will be clogging up the healthcare system when they do inevitably get sick. I’m sad for all the collateral damage that they will do to those who have genuine medical reasons that they cannot be vaccinated, or where vaccination may not be as effective.

But COVID has proven to be both extremely deadly and extremely good at spreading. There is at least one upside to this. Those who choose not to vaccinate are also those who choose to ignore rules and guidelines and are now the absolute most likely to catch COVID. Which means that these absolutely disgraceful people will soon thin themselves out and die.

For that, I’m not sad and I’m not sorry. If you choose to risk death because of your own stupidity, please pre-pay the funeral. Don’t expect anyone to cry when you’re gone.

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