The people that won’t wear masks, socially distance, or get vaccinated to slow an epidemic don’t seem very likely to voluntarily reduce water usage to help those hospitalized.
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They may actually use more water to try and own the libs and their fake pandemic.
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Ugh. Where I live the anti-maskers are plotting to flood schools with mask exemption forms.
But wait, it’s far dumber than it seems. They’re not using the actual exemption forms… they’re using a fake form that says stuff about “mah freedumb*” and looks nothing like the actual form. But they’re going to the trouble of having actual doctors sign them.
*possibly not a precise quote… I’m going from memory
I can’t imagine our pediatrician signing a form like that
My understanding is that they have found one pediatrician sympathetic to their cause and he is going to sign all (or at least most) of the forms. The parents are going to claim that he is their child’s new PCP.
If they used the actual forms, there wouldn’t be much the school could do about it. I assume that they are free to ignore the fake forms though.
School could simply close and everyone learns remotely, again.
IFYP
Do any schools actually check the signatures? Could I simply sign “Quack McQuackerston” on one of those things myself and get away with it?
The pro-maskers are apparently lining up volunteers to independently verify the phone numbers of the doctors offices and, if the district will allow it, also call the offices and verify “did Dr. Smith sign waivers for Sarah Jones and Timmy Brown and Billy Wilson?”
I kinda doubt the district is allowed to disclose the names of the kids with waivers though. But perhaps to a designated volunteer… IANAL.
They’d have to deal with HIPAA, I’m sure. Maybe FERPA too…
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Yeah, I figured FERPA for sure. I wasn’t sure if school districts were bound by HIPAA. I suppose the school nurse might be.
I do assume there’s some sort of “need to know basis” that could be extended to an adult volunteer.
Or if not a volunteer, then the parents could probably cough up the money to fund a minimum wage position and create a grant for the district to fund the employee and then pay the school district employee. No idea how likely that is though. Will the anti-maskers even get the proper forms submitted? Are the pro-maskers willing to forego the income taxes on a minimum wage position? Are there deadlines involved? School starts really soon.
I don’t know exactly where this will land.
Epstein’s Doctor
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RN
The doctors offices would be, and they wouldn’t be authorized to disclose those details to a school volunteer (IANAL)
They wouldn’t be able to verify that a doctor’s signature is valid?
Or they’d be able to verify it, but only to an employee?
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It’s stories like this that reinforce how stupidly low the bar is to be a parent.
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There is no end to stupid and apparently no cure for some. I mean we have people refusing vaccines only to turn to cow and horse deworming medicine to treat COVID. the stupid, it burns.
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Again, IANAL nor any expert on HIPAA, but “Doctor, is this your signature on this form?” seems perfectly valid & not a violation of HIPAA.
“Does this child really have condition X that ought to exempt them from a mask mandate?” seems much more murky to me. (This might also not violate HIPAA if the parent self-disclosed it on the form and the employee/volunteer is simply verifying.)
I agree with you that the anti-mask-mandate parents’ strategy seems strange or even “dumb.” If they have a doctor willing to sign forms for them, why not use the standard form? If they are making up their own forms that stress their freedoms then why get that signed by a doctor at all? Freedoms are not a medical issue - they should rather get their lawyer to sign it.
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I doubt condition X would even be mentioned. However, if they ask the doctor to share with the school, I would deem that a waiver of HIPAA,as related to the student, the condition and the school, unless, the condition is never revealed.
Where it gets murky, are there conditions where a child should not wear a mask, that should not also exclude the child from gym and team sports
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That’s what the pro-maskers in my community are proposing doing. Not accusing the doctor of lying on the form.