High school teacher. TLDR a coworker recently lost her husband. He was in his early 50s and had an "extremely aggressive cancer". Months within diagnosis, he was dead.
Caught her completely off guard, etc etc etc, nothing to do, "ultra-fast spreading cancer," "he was in perfect health before," etc etc etc.
So anyway, funeral has just concluded last week-end, and she's telling her sob stories in the teacher lounge.
I turn around and ask:
"Did he get vaccinated against Covid?"
She replies right away: "Yes, he had all his doses, plus the boosters..."
Then... I smirk. Not smile, just a tiny, tiny smile on the bottom of my right lip. In my mind, I thought "mystery solved."
So anyway, she... I don't know, she completely flips out, starts screaming, "why are you asking me this, what is your problem" typical pre-menopause hysteria, etc.
Well apparently she filed a complaint with HR against me, and now I have to meet HR to discuss "something." Union rep will be with me LOL okay.
Did I really go too far? I mean, I just asked ONE question...
...if said person, and society at large, were in complete denial of the link between the two and actively hiding correlations.
Not at all. It is an attempt to wake people up to the fact that blindly trusting authorities with your health can lead directly to your unnecessary death. Same as DDT, thalidomide, and yes, smoking. We know powerful interests intentionally hid those links and caused many more deaths than would have occured otherwise. We know they're doing it now. This is as much for her good as for OPs in that it just might make her reconsider doing such a foolish thing in the future.
The coworker introduced a personal issue in a professional environment; totally unnecessary. OP responded with his personal beliefs. Was that unprofessional? Sure, but she opened that door when she decided to force her coworkers to listen to her personal problems (something therapists get paid good money for).
Then she went crying to HR.
If I were OP, I'd inform HR that the discussion of turbo cancer triggered my own trauma around Covid and suggest that such a sensitive conversation is not appropriate to have in the break room. If they press, I'd suggest that OP going to HR over this matter suggests that she may be lashing out as a result of trauma and needs to take more berevement leave so she can leave her personal issues at home.