First It Was Seat Belts. Now It's Vaccines - All In - MSNBC

[Rhiannon12866]

Chris Hayes looks at how the backlash politics of the Covid vaccine echo the seat belt debate of the 1980s. “We have actually been here before,” says Hayes. Aired on 07/23/2021.

[magicguido]

1. Stop Playing Games. Mandatory Vaccinations; or JAIL.

[Rhiannon12866]

2. I wouldn't say jail, but I would support employers requiring it as well as entering any business

Like Chris said, people will get used to this in time, but initially it's proven that it's going to have to be mandated. My friend told me that a woman she knew who worked at a local cancer center for 20 years was let go after she refused to vaccinate. They need to do the same thing at hospitals - since they do treat active Covid cases. The local paper said that there were currently 36 positive cases just in this New York county - and 2 deaths in the past week. Anyone working at the local hospital needs to be vaccinated!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

3. Interesting.

I'd forgotten how many people were still resisting seat belts in the 1980s, given that the "Buckle up for safety" theme song was out there a good twenty years earlier.

[Rhiannon12866]

4. I'd forgotten, too.

Seems impossible that we ever didn't "buckle up" before starting the car - my current car chimes if anyone forgets. But I do remember - as a little kid - the Romper Room Do Bee song which said "Do be a car sitter, Don't be a car stander!" And I can remember riding with my Dad, standing up in the back seat and leaning on the back of the front seat. There was one time when he hit the brakes to avoid a dog and I ended up on the floor under the dashboard on the passenger side. I thought that was a great adventure, told my mother all about it, and couldn't understand why my parents were upset...

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

5. My sons were of the car seat generation.

Meaning car seats were essentially mandatory for them. And of course, as they got older, seat belts were mandatory. Personally, I'm more than grateful for the car seats. And seat belts for us adults.

Any time I read about a car accident where someone was ejected from the car and died as a result, I'm in despair. Wear the fucking seat belt! It's not rocket science! It saves lives!

[Rhiannon12866]

6. I do remember the advent of seatbelts.

My mother's 1971 Plymouth Duster had a separate lap and shoulder belt - and I inherited that car 10 years later after I learned to drive and got my license. I remember always using te lap belt, but not always the shoulder belt. I can't imagine going anywhere without a seatbelt today.

And I know that my present car chimes if it's running and someone isn't belted in since I used to give an elderly lady a ride and she'd always forget.

As for car seats for babies and small children, what did we ever do without them?? I can't even imagine - though, as I said, I was once one of those small kids who was "a car stander."

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

7. I grew up long before seat belts.

One of six kids, and so you can imagine how we simply crammed in together in the car. Honestly, it never occurred to us that there was any kind of safety issue. Looking back, I'm horrified. We did all survive, which I suppose says a lot about the statistics of car accidents.

But if you look up car fatalities, the continued decline over the years is striking. I recall all too well in years past when right before any of the holiday weekends, numbers of expected traffic deaths was made public. And all too often that number was exceeded. These days, there simply isn't a huge increase in traffic deaths on a holiday weekend. Which is quite nice.

[Rhiannon12866]

8. Oh, I remember it too from when I was a kid, though I only have one brother.

But growing up I went to summer camp and I can remember my entire cabin riding into town with a counselor - for pizza or something - and sitting on each other's laps. One trip sticks in my mind when I happened to be sitting in the front and noticed the speedometer - the counselor was going 90! I didn't dare say anything at the time, just held my breath, but I did say something after we were stopped and he said he wasn't aware of it!

It's hard to believe now that anyone objected to seatbelts. The first time I was overseas - in Ireland with that same camp group - and there was a terrible accident involving 2 of my friends. I was riding in another car and we came upon the accident. Both friends survived, but one got the glass from the windshield and the other was thrown from the car and was in a coma. If that wasn't an argument for seatbelts, nothing is. It's been a few decades, but it made a lasting impression on all of us.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

9. Oh, my. I never had any such experience, just the sitting

on laps thing. I do recall when I was in high school in the early 1960s, a classmate or two being in some bad accident. They all survived, but still.

I have never been in any kind of serious accident. Heck, only a fender bender or two. But still, I shudder to think of the consequences of an accident.

My father-in-law was unaccountably opposed to mandatory seat belts. And this man was a doctor. I think his issue was the bullshit "Nobody can tell ME what to do" mindset. My personal rule is that if I'm driving, you wear a seat belt. Period. Non negotiable.

[Rhiannon12866]

10. Oh, I feel the same way, I don't feel safe until I'm belted in

I was in only one *knock on wood* accident myself. It was when I was first driving - 1981 - my mother's Plymouth Duster. My friend and I were going to pick up lunch when a middle aged guy in a hurry ran a red light and my friend, the car and I ended up going the other way. We were very lucky, I've often wondered if they still make cars as sturdy as that one. My friend ended up under the dashboard and my head cracked the windshield on the passenger's side.

My mother's insurance guy gave me a hard time because my friend wasn't belted in, but it was lucky that I was since my head hit the windshield as it was. I've been a cautious driver ever since, for a long time I couldn't drive on highways, but you can bet I always put on my seatbelt first thing ever since. If I hadn't been wearing it, I don't want to think what might have happened. BTW, my Dad had me take the guy who hit us to court and the judge found him at fault, though that wasn't a lot of consolation.