Story submitted by The Pilot News Managing Editor James Master
MARSHALL COUNTY — On Friday, Dec. 31, 2021, the Marshall County Commissioners held one final meeting of that year. Among passing minutes from the previous meeting and the final claims for 2021, the commissioners were also asked about the federal mandate concerning vaccinations.
County Clerk Deb VanDeMark asked if there was any discussion being started. “Every time it pops into the news, we have a lot of employees talking about it. I have a lot of concerns because I’m not sure some of my people will get vaccinated if it’s required.”
According to Commissioner Kevin Overmyer, there was some discussion started earlier in December with County Attorney James Clevenger.
“Then, that stay was put in and so we just kind of stopped at that point in time,” Overmyer said. He also stated that he didn’t know the status of the mandate. “It comes and goes.”
On Nov. 3, 2021, President Joe Biden announced that a COVID-19 vaccine mandate would apply to all private companies with 100 or more employees. On Nov. 30, a federal judge issued a temporary injunction, but later in December an appeals court reinstated the vaccine mandate setting the start date at Jan. 10. If the employees aren’t fully vaccinated, they would have to provide negative COVID-19 test results weekly. The U. S. Supreme Court will be hearing arguments regarding the vaccine mandate on Friday, Jan. 7.
“What the employees would like to know is what’s going to happen if this goes into effect with the ones that don’t get vaccinated,” said VanDeMark.
Overmyer said the commissioners wanted to know that as well. “I’m sure we’ll have to have another discussion sometime next month (January).”
“Personally, I don’t think they should mandate such a thing,” VanDeMark said.
“We don’t control the mandate,” said Commissioner Mike Burroughs.
“I understand that, but we have to have some things in place,” VanDeMark replied.
Overmyer said that the county was being “cautious” due to the changes in quarantine times. “It changes every day.”
“Even the term ‘fully vacc’d’ is changing,” commented Commissioner Stan Klotz.
On the topic of vaccines, County Coroner John Grolich urged the commissioners to try to better educate employees. “People are dying with this disease. They don’t inject a microchip to track you. They can use your cellphone to track you,” he said. “I think folks that are resistant to the shots need to be informed. I think they’ve heard a story and it’s not validated. The bottom line is people are dying with this disease. And if there’s something we can do to educate those folks, we need to do that,” Grolich said.
He informed the commissioners that since Christmas, there have been eight COVID-19 related deaths in the county. “I will tell you since Christmas, I think I’ve had eight COVID deaths and not a one of them have been vaccinated. There is a trend, it seems to be going, that folks are being put on blood thinners, prophylactively, and they’re ending up with very, very significant brain bleeds and they’re dying from that. That’s an ugly death,” he said.
