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'Shameful': Millionaire senators face blowback for voting against raising the minimum wage
March 06, 2021
After eight members of the Democratic caucus joined all 50 Republicans in the U.S. Senate on Friday to kill an amendment reattaching a $15 minimum wage provision to the Senate's coronavirus relief package, progressives pointed out that nearly every single one of the lawmakers who voted against the raise for low-paid workers nationwide is a millionaire.
"Today's vote on Senator Sanders' $15 minimum wage amendment is incredibly sad," Morris Pearl, chair of the Patriotic Millionaires and author of the forthcoming book Tax the Rich, said in a statement.
<p>"$15 per hour is the bare minimum anyone in this country needs to survive," Pearl continued, "and it is baffling that any member of the U.S. Senate, much less a number of Democrats, could look at the crisis this country is enduring and decide that tens of millions of low-income workers, including millions of frontline workers who put their lives on the line every day in the midst of a global pandemic, should not get a raise."</p><p>Nina Turner, co-chair of Bernie Sanders' 2020 presidential campaign and current candidate running for election to the U.S. House in Ohio's 11th district, responded to the vote by <a href="https://twitter.com/ninaturner/status/1367896253309194240" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">tweeting</a>: "every single one of the senators who voted against raising the minimum wage is a millionaire."</p><p>Journalist Ken Klippenstein shared the net worth, <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/personal-finances/top-net-worth?year=2018" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">according to</a> the most recent financial disclosures compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, of the eight Democrats who voted against Sanders' (I-Vt.) $15 minimum wage amendment.</p><iframe src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=commondreams&creatorUserId=14296273&dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1367907032314036229&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2F2021%2F03%2F05%2Fshameful-millionaire-senators-vote-against-popular-minimum-wage-raise-would-lift&siteScreenName=commondreams&siteUserId=14296273&theme=light&widgetsVersion=e1ffbdb%3A1614796141937&width=550px" style="position: static; box-sizing: inherit; visibility: visible; width: 541px; height: 393px; flex-grow: 1;" title="Twitter Tweet"></iframe><p>While her present net worth may trail that of other lawmakers, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), was especially enthusiastic about denying a raise to millions of poorly paid U.S. workers. With her $174,000 annual<a href="https://www.senate.gov/senators/SenateSalariesSince1789.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> salary</a>, Sinema is well on her way to joining her wealthier colleagues in the millionaire ranks.</p><iframe src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=commondreams&creatorUserId=14296273&dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-1&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1367906192626831363&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2F2021%2F03%2F05%2Fshameful-millionaire-senators-vote-against-popular-minimum-wage-raise-would-lift&siteScreenName=commondreams&siteUserId=14296273&theme=light&widgetsVersion=e1ffbdb%3A1614796141937&width=550px" style="position: static; box-sizing: inherit; visibility: visible; width: 541px; height: 465px; flex-grow: 1;" title="Twitter Tweet"></iframe><iframe src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=commondreams&creatorUserId=14296273&dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-2&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1367900089063194626&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2F2021%2F03%2F05%2Fshameful-millionaire-senators-vote-against-popular-minimum-wage-raise-would-lift&siteScreenName=commondreams&siteUserId=14296273&theme=light&widgetsVersion=e1ffbdb%3A1614796141937&width=550px" style="position: static; box-sizing: inherit; visibility: visible; width: 541px; height: 245px; flex-grow: 1;" title="Twitter Tweet"></iframe><p>In his statement, Pearl said that "the Senate failed the American people today."</p><p>"Every single Republican Senator who voted against $15 today failed their constituents," he continued. "The Democrats who voted against $15 today not only failed their constituents, the decision they made—to put some ancient Senate tradition ahead of the priorities that they ran on and that they stand for—was wrong economically, morally, and politically."</p><p>Pearl was referring to the fact that Senate Democrats removed the $15 minimum wage provision from their version of the Covid-19 relief bill after the White House made clear that Vice President Kamala Harris <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/03/02/urging-senate-ignore-parliamentarian-sanders-force-vote-15-minimum-wage-amendment" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">would not be willing</a> to exercise her authority to override a widely condemned advisory<a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/02/25/im-sorry-says-ro-khanna-unelected-parliamentarian-does-not-get-deprive-32-million" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> opinion</a> of the Senate parliamentarian—an unelected official with zero constitutional authority—that deemed the proposed pay hike a violation of budget reconciliation rules.</p><p>Sanders' attempt to use the amendment process to add a federal minimum wage increase to the coronavirus relief legislation came in the wake of that decision.</p><iframe src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?creatorScreenName=commondreams&creatorUserId=14296273&dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-3&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1367897116845211653&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.commondreams.org%2Fnews%2F2021%2F03%2F05%2Fshameful-millionaire-senators-vote-against-popular-minimum-wage-raise-would-lift&siteScreenName=commondreams&siteUserId=14296273&theme=light&widgetsVersion=e1ffbdb%3A1614796141937&width=550px" style="position: static; box-sizing: inherit; visibility: visible; width: 541px; height: 368px; flex-grow: 1;" title="Twitter Tweet"></iframe><p>"It is despicable and unacceptable," <a href="https://twitter.com/JamaalBowmanNY/status/1367898091731488771" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">said</a> Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), "that there is not unanimous support among Democrats in Congress for a $15 minimum wage."</p><p>"There is no excuse," Pearl added. "Senator Kyrsten Sinema, Senator Jon Tester, Senator Joe Manchin, Senator Chris Coons, Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Senator Tom Carper, Senator Maggie Hassan, and Senator Angus King failed both their people and their party. Neither those voting next year nor those reading the history of the next generation will appreciate those senators who could have changed the course of history—but chose not to."</p><p>Undeterred, Sanders<a href="https://twitter.com/SenSanders/status/1367893419771785224" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"> said </a>Friday that "if any senator believes this is the last time they will cast a vote on whether or not to give a raise to 32 million Americans, they are sorely mistaken. We're going to keep bringing it up, and we're going to get it done because it is what the American people demand and need."</p><p>Joining Sanders was Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), who <a href="https://twitter.com/RepJayapal/status/1367896160799780866" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">tweeted</a> that she "will never stop fighting to make the minimum wage a living wage."</p><p>"It's long overdue that we give 32 million workers a raise and lift a million people out of poverty," Jayapal added.</p>
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After winning a lawsuit to take possession of all of the 2020 presidential ballots and election equipment in Arizona's most populous county, Arizona's Republican-led Senate is poised to take 2020's post-election brawls into new territory where investigating unproven claims of electronically stolen votes, not widespread illegal voting, will be center stage.
Many Republicans, including Arizona legislators, have voiced their belief that former President Trump was unfairly denied a second term, citing various vote-centered conspiracies. In 61 out of 62 post-election lawsuits filed by Trump's allies across the country, scores of federal and state judges rejected those assertions as groundless and lacking proof.
<p>But now that Arizona's Senate has affirmed its authority to investigate the accuracy of 2020's presidential vote count in America's <a href="https://www.maricopa.gov/5539/Voting-Equipment-Facts" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">second-largest</a> election jurisdiction—Maricopa County, where Phoenix is located—the focus has shifted from legislators <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfC2T7UpxkI" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">fanning</a> unproven claims of stolen votes to whether Republican lawmakers will conduct a credible evidence-centered inquiry.</p><p>"The Senate has and is doing a 100 percent audit, which is why we fought so hard to have access to all the data and documents," Arizona Senate President Karen Fann <a href="https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=2038601889620645&id=100004125614914" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">wrote</a> on Facebook on March 2. "We are doing extensive research, interviewing, and background checks to make sure we find the best team available… This is and has always been about election integrity and getting answers to our constituents' questions and concerns."</p><p>The exercise will not change the election results, which have been certified. Trump lost Arizona by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/11/03/us/elections/results-arizona-president.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">10,457 votes</a>, a closer margin than in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/11/03/us/elections/results-georgia-president.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Georgia</a>, where that GOP-led state conducted a manual hand count of all of its presidential election ballots, and then electronically recounted those same paper ballots. It twice confirmed Joe Biden's victory over Trump before certifying the result. The investigation that is taking shape in Arizona could be as thorough as what was undertaken in Georgia, or it could descend into political theater to placate Trump's base.</p><p>"As you know, there is no credible evidence for any of the conspiracy theories that have abounded about the 2020 General Election," <a href="https://independentmediainstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Fann-Letter-3_3_2021.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">wrote</a> Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, to Fann and Sen. Warren Petersen on March 3. "If your goal is truly to rebuild public confidence in our democracy, it is imperative that you establish and abide by clear procedures and parameters for the security and confidentiality of the ballots and election equipment while in your custody and ensure independence and transparency should you proceed with any further audit."</p><p>A Closer Look at 2020's Closest Swing State?</p><p>Immediately after Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Timothy Thomason's February 25 <a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/20492775/maricopa-county-v-fann-superior-court-ruling-2-26-21.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ruling</a> authorizing the state Senate's subpoenas, the county's supervisors—where <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maricopa_County_Board_of_Supervisors" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">four out of five</a> are Republicans—said that they would not appeal. Its election staff began transferring the election materials, starting with 11 gigabytes of activity logs from its hundreds of voting machines.</p><p>What soon became apparent was that the senators had been more focused on winning in court than on planning the investigation that they hoped to take on. For example, the Senate had <a href="https://www.12news.com/article/news/politics/21-million-ballots-packed-with-nowhere-to-go-arizona-senate-gop-not-prepared-for-election-materials/75-ecabeb6e-a9c8-424a-a260-1442124f3690" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">not yet</a> secured a site for truckloads of materials, starting with 2.1 million paper ballots in sealed boxes on <a href="https://www.azmirror.com/blog/senate-searching-for-place-to-store-subpoenaed-ballots/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">70 pallets</a>, <a href="https://www.azmirror.com/2021/02/26/judge-sides-with-senate-says-maricopa-must-turn-over-election-materials-for-audit/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">hundreds of voting machines and tabulators</a>, vote count management systems and the related data—digital images of every ballot cast, machine activity logs, and more.</p><p>As the first week of March began, election experts in Arizona were skeptical that the exercise would be a serious effort to examine the accuracy of Maricopa County's 2020 results.</p><p>"In this case, Sen. Fann and House members are chasing down a rabbit hole that was <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfC2T7UpxkI" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">proposed</a> by Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell back in November. Now they're trying to find the evidence," said Benny White, a longtime Republican Party election observer in Pima County, which is not far from Phoenix. "I don't want to talk poorly about my legislators, but I don't know what the hell they are doing. They don't understand election administration at all. They don't understand how these machines work. They don't understand how votes are calculated and aggregated. They are in a political position where they think they have to do something [to respond to Trump supporters]. So they're trying to do something."</p><p>Some of White's skepticism came from Fann's <a href="https://www.azmirror.com/2021/02/03/fann-picks-trump-allied-firm-with-history-of-false-election-statements-to-audit-maricopa-election/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">prior endorsement</a> of a proposal by a Texas firm, Allied Security Operations Group (ASOG), that had made unfounded claims about the process in Michigan and Arizona. ASOG's "<a href="https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/20470041/asog-scope-of-work.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">scope of work</a>" said it would "hand count approximately 550,000 of the following paper ballots and scan approximately 55,000 of the following paper ballots… over a 7-10 day period on site in Arizona for a firm, fixed price fee of $10,000."</p><p>White and others said that proposal was not serious. A precise audit does not cherry-pick what ballots to examine, he said, and its fee was unrealistically low. Fann later <a href="https://www.azmirror.com/2021/02/26/judge-sides-with-senate-says-maricopa-must-turn-over-election-materials-for-audit/#td_uid_1_60426f9712169:~:text=considering%20several%20potential%20auditors%2C%20though%20she%20said%20ASOG%20likely%20will%20not%20be%20one%20of%20them" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">distanced</a> herself from ASOG. While neither Fann nor other Senate Republican spokespeople would speak on the record to Voting Booth, several background interviews suggested that the enormity of the actual task before the Republicans was dawning on them.</p><p>"My concern is I'm not sure if they know what they're looking for—or looking at," said <a href="https://democracyfund.org/bio/tammy-patrick/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Tammy Patrick</a>, who, for 11 years, was the federal compliance officer for Maricopa County's elections department, has served on a presidential commission for election reform, and now is the senior adviser for elections at the Democracy Fund, a philanthropic organization. "I also don't think they understand the volume of materials they are talking about. You're talking about at least one semitractor load for the ballots alone. What are their security protocols going to be?"</p><p>Most of Hobbs' letter to the Senate Republican leaders concerned maintaining a catalog of security and inventory controls for the ballots and machinery, as well as urging the Senate to plan for bipartisan teams to count ballots and be as transparent as possible as it proceeded.</p><p>"I implore you to treat your responsibility for the custody, security, and integrity of those items with the same level of vigilance that election officials across this State treat that responsibility," the secretary of state wrote. "I again urge you not to waste taxpayer resources chasing false claims of fraud that will only further erode public confidence in our election processes and elected officials."</p><p>What Will They Do? Who Will Do It?</p><p>Maricopa County, and Arizona as a state, both have reputations for well-run elections. While no election is error-free, election officials have <a href="https://azsos.gov/about-office/media-center/documents" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">extensive protocols</a> that test their voting system hardware and software, their voting machine performance, and the vote count's accuracy before and after Election Day—before results are certified. While vote count audits don't review every vote cast, the process includes political parties choosing samples of ballots that are examined by hand, which <a href="https://azsos.gov/sites/default/files/2020_General_Maricopa_Hand_Count.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">was done</a> following November's election. In response to Trump supporters' claims of secret manipulation of vote counts—and GOP legislators encouraging those claims—the county hired two national voting system testing laboratories to examine whether their hardware or software had been hacked or hijacked. They <a href="https://maricopacountyaz.medium.com/auditing-elections-equipment-in-maricopa-county-3955445c1712" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">found</a> no breaches.</p><p>"What's wild in all of this is that all of the voting equipment had logic and accuracy tests, and those logic and accuracy test reports could be reviewed," Patrick said. "The machinery has also undergone the [post-election] forensic test that was done by two federal testing labs. The challenge that I've had with some of this is that voting systems are not just like every other electronic device that's out there. There are some very specific things that you need to understand about voting systems in order to know what you're looking at and what it means."</p><p>"There's not a lot of point to what they're proposing," she said, assessing the Senate's probe. "They wanted a forensic report, and they got one. And now that's not enough. Even if they bring in their own specialists, they're not going to find anything, because there is no 'there' there."</p><p>As the week progressed, background interviews with reputable experts advising the Republicans said that the Senate investigation, ideally, would have three focal points.</p><p>Like Georgia, there would be a full manual hand count of every paper ballot—a massive operation involving potentially hundreds of workers in a giant warehouse. Unlike Georgia, but like the state of <a href="https://elections.maryland.gov/voting_system/ballot_audit_plan_automated.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Maryland</a>—whose electorate is larger than Maricopa County's—there would be an <a href="https://elections.maryland.gov/voting_system/ballot_audit_plan_automated.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">independent audit</a> of all of the digital ballot images created by scanners. Even though voters cast paper ballots, digital images of every ballot card are what is counted by Maricopa's voting system. Third, there would be an analysis of the system's software and activity logs—detailing every operation by each voting machine—to ensure that the ballot images were correctly read and counted.</p><p>These steps, if all undertaken and not marred by predetermined conclusions, would arguably be more comprehensive than what Georgia did to verify its 2020 presidential vote. Where politics would re-enter is when Arizona's Republican legislators have to stand by the results of their process that, in all likelihood, will affirm Trump's loss. Thus, in 2020's two presidential swing states with the closest 2020 margins and histories of electing Republicans for president, the evidence would show that Biden won.</p><p>But before that assessment can occur, the Senate has to hire credible contractors and a reputable audit manager—possibly a former state election director <a href="https://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/elections/2020/12/08/detroit-elections-fraud-misconduct-allegations-senate-hearing/6489804002/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">like Detroit did</a> before its 2020 general election. Additionally, the legislature's investigation will have to demonstrate the same level of security and inventory controls that are required of local election officials—a point underscored by Hobbs in her letter to the Senate Republican leaders.</p><p>"You have stated previously that you believe a further audit by the Senate is critical for the people of Arizona to be able to move forward and trust the 2020 General Election results. I respectfully disagree," she wrote. "But I believe we can agree that proceeding without clear procedures for the security of the ballots and election equipment when they are in your custody, and clear procedures to ensure the integrity, independence, and transparency of the audit itself and the auditors selected, will only open the door to more conspiracy theories and further erosion of voters' confidence in Arizona's elections processes."</p><p><em>Steven Rosenfeld is the editor and chief correspondent of <a href="https://votingbooth.media/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Voting Booth</a>, a <a href="https://independentmediainstitute.org/voting-booth/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">project</a> of the Independent Media Institute. He has reported for National Public Radio, Marketplace, and Christian Science Monitor Radio, as well as a wide range of progressive publications including Salon, AlterNet, the American Prospect, and many others.</em></p><p><em>This article was produced by </em><a href="https://votingbooth.media/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Voting Booth</em></a><em>, a </em><a href="https://independentmediainstitute.org/voting-booth/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>project</em></a><em> of the Independent Media Institute.</em></p>
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When Emily Brimmer's family dentist sent out an email that they were administering vaccines, she jumped at the opportunity. Brimmer is certainly entitled to get one: though only 36 years old, she has type 1 diabetes, lives with family and helps to take care of her 101-year-old aunt. But once inoculated, Brimmer wasn't prepared for one of the unexpected side effects: guilt.
<p>"When you say, 'I got a shot,' there's automatically this kind of perceived feeling of judgment that is like 'Why did you get a shot, and how did you get a shot?'" Brimmer told Salon. "There's just this need to justify the entire thing."</p><p>Technically, as a type-1 diabetic, Brimmer is in the "high risk" category. Her primary care doctor wrote her a note affirming this, which she used to get her vaccine. The caveat was that she had to travel from New York, where she lives, to Pennsylvania.</p><p>"So that kind of made me feel guilty," Brimmer said in reference to having to cross state borders. "But it's not like I cut any lines, or dressed up like grandmothers and tried to sneak in. . . everything I did was by the book, and on paper I shouldn't feel guilty."</p><p>But Brimmer does. And far from being an isolated anxiety, vaccine guilt is actually quite common. Psychotherapist <a href="https://mailtrack.io/trace/link/531340e247a022e3ede37112c5ffdf959b25cfda?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbermancenteratl.com%2Fteam%2Falyza-berman-lcsw-rrt-p%2F&userId=6233590&signature=24bdc03fbf19ea89" target="_blank">Alyza Berman</a>, founder and clinical director of <a href="https://mailtrack.io/trace/link/4a06a60d1498145eb44bd32038a65c48b9f30d1c?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbermancenteratl.com%2F&userId=6233590&signature=9de80c00c0213656" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Berman Center</a>, told Salon via email that such feelings emerge from a variety of factors: situational comparison, survivor's guilt, and fear of criticism or retribution. And certainly the piecemeal vaccine rollout, and arcane tiered system of eligibility, factor into that guilt when patients appear to sidestep the rules — even if they aren't actually doing so.</p><p>"Given the severity of this pandemic and continued rising death toll, people feel guilty when they qualify to be vaccinated before others who've already suffered great losses during the pandemic, or could stand to lose even more as COVID goes on," <a href="https://mailtrack.io/trace/link/531340e247a022e3ede37112c5ffdf959b25cfda?url=https%3A%2F%2Fbermancenteratl.com%2Fteam%2Falyza-berman-lcsw-rrt-p%2F&userId=6233590&signature=24bdc03fbf19ea89" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Berman</a> said. "As human beings, we have an intrinsic nature to want to quantify and compare ourselves to others, whether for good or bad reasons."</p><p>Berman said that this can create "an enormous mental toll on people and weigh heavily on someone's psyche when they're trying to evaluate if they're doing the right thing."</p><p>Hence, feelings of guilt.</p><p>Berman said the phenomenon is "more common than you'd think" and that it's "affecting many people in very similar ways." In other words, something is happening sociologically.</p><p>Rick Patterson told Salon via email that he and his wife were able to receive their vaccines "substantially early." She was volunteering at one of the vaccination sites, which <a href="https://www.salon.com/2021/01/17/volunteers-help-out-at-covid-19-vaccine-centers-in-exchange-for-an-early-vaccine/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">often</a> is a way for volunteers to get a vaccine early.</p><p>"It was complete luck we were able to obtain our vaccinations when we did, and I feel that there are so many people who need this more than we do right now," Patterson said. He added that it was an "overwhelming thought," that there were "still so many who have not and might not be able to get it anywhere in the near future." Indeed, the inequity troubled him.</p><p>Patterson said he feels that his wife, as a <a href="https://www.salon.com/2021/01/17/volunteers-help-out-at-covid-19-vaccine-centers-in-exchange-for-an-early-vaccine/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">vaccination site volunteer</a>, deserved the shot more than him.</p><p>"But as her husband, what really gave me the obligation to have one too?" he asked.</p><p>Many bioethicists and mental health professionals agree that feeling guilty isn't beneficial to anyone. If you're offered a vaccine, you shouldn't feel guilty. But if you are committing fraud to get a shot early — say, dressing up like an elderly person — then that is something to feel guilty about.</p><p>"There is a difference between accepting and even taking advantage of unfairness that exists, and creating unfairness," Dr. <a href="https://www.cuanschutz.edu/centers/bioethicshumanities/facultystaff/matthew-wynia" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Matthew Wynia</a>, director of the Center for Bioethics and Humanities at the University of Colorado, told Denver-based Magazine <a href="https://www.5280.com/2021/02/vaccine-guilt-is-real-heres-how-to-deal-according-to-local-ethicists/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">5280</a>. "We all have an obligation to try not to create unfairness."</p><p>So what are the guilty to do?</p><p>"The main advice I can give someone suffering from vaccine guilt is to give yourself a break," Berman said. "We've been put through an impossible situation over the past year, the likes of which no one has ever seen before." That's inarguably true. <br/></p>
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