California mulls strict vaccination bill
For all state employees, independent contractors
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California would mandate that all businesses require their employees and independent contractors to receive the COVID-19 vaccine under legislation announced Friday by Democratic state lawmakers that was immediately criticized by Republicans as government overreach.
Employees or contractors who qualify for medical or religious exemptions would have to be regularly tested under a planned amendment to the bill. New employees would have to get at least one dose by the time they start work and the second dose within 45 days of being on the job.
Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks introduced her bill months after delaying an original proposal last fall.
The previous version would have allowed workers to submit to weekly testing as an alternative to getting vaccinated, but that is not an option in her new proposal.
Vaccine mandates are highly controversial and there have been many rallies at the state Capitol in Sacramento opposing such requirements.
Wicks and other supporters said the mandate is needed even as California moves to ease other requirements and anticipates moving into a new “endemic” phase that accepts the coronavirus is here to stay but is manageable as immunity builds.
“That’s fundamentally what this bill is about,” she said. “Getting back to some sense of normalcy so we can go on with our lives, and we don’t have these constant interruptions and outbreaks and all these things that we’ve been experiencing for so long.”
The mandate would stay in place unless the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention decides that COVID-19 vaccinations are no longer needed.
Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher said he is vaccinated and urges others to also get their shots.
“But telling people they can’t feed their family unless they get the vaccine is just wrong,” Gallagher said. “I trust Californians enough to treat them like adults who can make their own health care decisions. It’s unfortunate that a few Democrats in the Legislature don’t.”
The proposal drew similar concerns from Jonathan Keller, president of the conservative California Family Council advocacy group, who said that “Government should not force employers to fire people over personal medical decisions.”
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom last year ordered all of the state’s roughly 2.2 million health care workers to be vaccinated or lose their jobs.
He also required state workers and teachers to either get vaccinated or submit to weekly testing. And California’s schoolchildren by summer must be vaccinated to attend in-person classes.