Editorial: Cops resisting vaccine mandates should seek another job

COVID-19 vaccinations offer the best available strategy for California to emerge from the pandemic.

Police, firefighters and other public safety workers who don’t want to comply with city, county and state vaccination mandates should look for another job.

The science is clear. The COVID-19 vaccines are safe, effective and save lives. They offer the best available strategy for California to emerge from the pandemic.

Cops, firefighters and public safety workers should understand the importance of front-line workers being vaccinated against COVID-19. Their work requires them to interact with our most vulnerable residents, many of whom are unvaccinated. They also frequently work in jails, courthouses and other locations where social distancing is not possible. They, of all people, should be modeling public health safety for the general public.

Yet San Jose’s police union is pushing back on the city’s vaccination mandate, which was announced last month and goes into effect Sept. 30. The change requires vaccinations and limits a weekly testing alternative only to those eligible for a medical or religious exemption.

The San Jose Police Officers’ Association says the city risks losing as many as 140 officers unless the City Council sticks to its current requirements. The San Jose Police Department has about 1,800 on-duty employees. Data collected by city officials shows that as of Sept. 17, 87% of the department’s on-duty employees — including 1,150 sworn officers — have submitted proof of vaccination.

San Jose Fire Fighters Local 230 President Matt Tuttle said that 8% of the firefighting workforce — about 50 personnel — remain unvaccinated.

A wide range of public safety workers throughout California are also objecting to vaccination mandates.

The Los Angeles Times reported Sept. 17 that a group of 500 Los Angeles firefighters filed a lawsuit against the city, saying its vaccination mandate is a violation of employees’ constitutionally protected autonomous privacy rights.

A group of Los Angeles Police Department employees on Sept. 11 filed a federal lawsuit challenging the city’s mandate. Nearly half of the LAPD’s 12,000-plus workforce remains unvaccinated, according to the Times. Ten LAPD employees have died of COVID-19 and 85% of new infections among LAPD employees were in unvaccinated staffers.

California prison guards are also fighting the state’s vaccination requirements, despite numerous outbreaks at state prisons. It’s appalling that only about half of the state’s prison employees are fully vaccinated.

A major study published earlier this month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed that people who were not fully vaccinated were more than 10 times more likely to be hospitalized and 11 times more likely to die of COVID-19 than those who were fully vaccinated.

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said, “The bottom line is this: We have the scientific tools we need to turn the corner on this pandemic. Vaccination works and will protect us from the severe complications of COVID-19.”

The question of whether public safety workers should have the freedom to refuse a mandated COVID-19 vaccine has yet to come before the Supreme Court. But in 1905 the Supreme Court backed the city of Cambridge, Mass., and its mandate that all residents should be vaccinated against smallpox in the interest of public safety.

Police, firefighters and other public safety workers should be supporting vaccination mandates as the clearest way ensure a safe environment for workers and the general public.