CA To Require Vaccines Or Testing For Health Care, State Workers

CALIFORNIA — Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Monday that health care workers and California's 246,000 state employees will be required either to provide proof of vaccination or to submit to COVID-19 testing at least once per week.

Health care workers who decline vaccination could face testing twice per week if they work in particularly high-risk settings such as nursing homes or acute care facilities and must also wear appropriate protective equipment. The same is true for workers in other high-risk facilities such as homeless centers and jails.

Newsom called California's vaccine verification plan the strongest of its kind in the nation. The policy will take effect Aug. 2 for state workers, and testing will be phased in over the next few weeks. Health care workers and those in congregate facilities must follow suit by Aug. 23.

The governor spoke Monday at a news conference in Kaiser Permanente's Oakland headquarters as COVID-19 cases continue to rise because of the spread of the highly transmissible delta variant. Newsom called the current situation "a pandemic of the unvaccinated" in a statement and said officials have seen an increase in unvaccinated people who are admitted to the intensive care unit and die. COVID-19 case rates are 600 percent higher among unvaccinated Californians.

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This comes as the state eyes "sobering projections" should current trends continue, including a significant increase in hospitalizations that could put pressure on health care systems across the state, Newsom said.

The governor said he hoped the state's action would encourage more private-sector employers to follow suit. He also underscored a desire for inoculation among more teachers to ensure students can receive the social and emotional benefits that come with full-time, in-person learning.

"As the state’s largest employer, we are leading by example and requiring all state and health care workers to show proof of vaccination or be tested regularly, and we are encouraging local governments and businesses to do the same," he said in a statement. "Vaccines are safe – they protect our family, those who truly can’t get vaccinated, our children and our economy. Vaccines are the way we end this pandemic.”

Despite harrowing projections, the governor shared some bright spots at the briefing.

• The state saw a 16 percent week-over-week increase in people getting their first vaccine dose or the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
• Vaccination rates have increased among Latinos and those in California's most disproportionately affected ZIP codes.
• 75 percent of eligible Californians have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose. That's more than any other state.

But he likened the one in four Californians who have balked at the vaccine to drunk drivers whose choice has affected the entire state in a "profound, devastating and deadly way," he said. Those decisions affect businesses and in-person learning as the delta variant spreads.

The state is tracking a dozen other variants, the governor said. He joined a chorus of officials who warned that while the three vaccines authorized for emergency use provide strong protection against COVID-19, the virus could continue to circulate and potentially mutate to an extent that the vaccines no longer offer protection.

"How do we know what the next variant is going to be like?" asked state Sen. Nancy Skinner, a Democrat who represents Oakland.

Minor flu-like side effects from the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine are a small price to pay for protection against the more dangerous delta variant, said Dr. Mark Ghaly, secretary of the state's Health and Human Services agency.

Newsom, who is facing recall, took aim at what he called the "right-wing echo chamber" perpetuating misinformation about COVID-19 despite having received vaccines themselves. He lauded Republican leaders who have decried falsehoods and chided Fox News host Tucker Carlson and U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) for using their platforms to spread misinformation, he said.

"Your choice not to get vaccinated and to listen to these pundits that are profiteering off misinformation, intentionally misinforming, comes at a real, societal cost," he said. "We need to be more clear about that and we need to call that out."

Greene fired back on Twitter, calling Newsom a communist dictator who was facing recall as a result of enacting policies such as mandating vaccines and coronavirus restrictions that temporarily shut down businesses, churches, schools and beaches.

A Fox News spokesperson referred to segments on Carlson's show in which he acknowledged "vaccines are not dangerous" and "there may well be profound benefits to the vaccine," and invited pro-vaccine guests on his show, "Tucker Carlson Tonight."

In the statement from the governor's office, Ghaly, too, spoke of a need to fight disinformation and encourage those who have been hesitant to receive a vaccine.

“The Delta variant is up to 60 percent more infectious than the Alpha strain but many times more infectious than the original COVID-19 strain," he said. "If you have been waiting to get vaccinated, now is the time.”

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Read the full statement from the governor's office.

See also: 75% Of Eligible Californians Have Been Vaccinated