The California Legislature will debate mandating workplaces of all sizes to require employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19, making it a much stricter iteration of the Biden administration’s mandate struck down by the Supreme Court.
The Assembly bill would impose financial penalties on businesses in violation of the rule, which is expected to draw ire from vaccine mandate opponents, Politico reported. Despite signs the omicron variant’s onslaught is receding, Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, the bill’s author, said the pandemic’s track record of unpredictability warrants a greater push for vaccinations.
“It has seemed like things are moving in the right direction many times before with this virus, and yet there we were with another wave,” Wicks said.
Wicks’s bill is the fourth to come out of the newly formed “vaccine caucus,” a group of seven lawmakers whose other pieces of legislation include a push to allow teenagers and preteens to get the COVID-19 vaccine without parental consent.
BIDEN OFFICIALS FALL BEHIND BLUE STATES ON MASKS
The bill would make California the first state in the United States to impose COVID-19 vaccine mandates for all workplaces. While it would not give people the alternative to get tested regularly, it would allow for medical or religious exemptions.
Wicks floated the idea for a similar measure last year but never introduced it to the Legislature. It would have required employees and customers to get vaccinated, with the option to get tested regularly instead. The question of which government entity would cover the costs of the tests made Wicks ditch that part of the proposal.
The recent push for vaccination legislation comes as Gov. Gavin Newsom begins his pandemic exit plan strategy to carry the state to endemicity. Newsom lifted restrictions on crowd sizes for large indoor and outdoor events and will let the statewide mask mandate expire next week, though local governments have the authority to set their own mask requirements.
“The pathway to endemic, for us to get back to some sense of normalcy, is through vaccines,” Wicks said.
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Nine other blue states have taken steps to loosen masking restrictions this week. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy started the domino effect on Monday when he announced schools and day care centers would no longer have to require mask-wearing. The state had not instituted a widespread mask mandate for indoor public spaces during the omicron surge.
