CA Mandates COVID Vaccine Proof For State Employees, Health-Care Workers

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: NBC Palm Springs

All state employees and all workers at hospitals and health care facilities across California will be required to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination under a state policy announced Monday, and those who are unable or refuse to do so will have to be tested at least once a week. The vaccine-verification program for state employees is expected to begin as early as next week. The system for health-care workers will be implemented over the coming weeks, with compliance expected by Aug. 23.

It will apply to all health-care settings across the state — public and private. The policy falls short of a vaccine “mandate,” offering employees the option of undergoing regular COVID testing instead of providing proof of vaccination. Those workers will be required to undergo testing at least once a week, possibly even twice a week. The policy, announced by Gov. Gavin Newsom, comes in response to rising COVID-19 infection numbers and hospitalizations statewide.

According to state officials, there were nearly 3,000 people hospitalized due to COVID as of Monday, up from about 900 on May 15. The average daily rate of new cases is now at 9.6 per 100,000 people, up from 1.9 per 100,000 on May 15. State officials noted that the daily infection rate among unvaccinated residents is believed to be more than 14 per 100,000, compared to about 2 per 100,000 among the vaccinated population. That equates to unvaccinated residents being infected at roughly seven times the rate of vaccinated people.

In announcing the policy, state officials urged private employers in California to consider implementing similar systems of verifying vaccination and requiring testing for unvaccinated workers. Current workplace rules in the state only require employers to verify workers’ vaccination status if they want to remove face masks in indoor workplaces. Unvaccinated workers must wear masks indoors. State officials said private employers have the legal authority, if they choose, to require workers to be vaccinated.


Read more: https://nbcpalmsprings.com/2021/07/26/ca-mandates-covid-vaccine-proof-for-state-employees-health-care-workers/

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Saw a NYT breaking but wanted to throw some non-paywall stuff in.

I know NY has started doing something similar.

[MichMan]

1. Instead of testing them once a week, they should just be fired

[The Mouth]

2. And named and shamed. And audited

Fucking plague rats; no better than terrorists or at best drunk drivers.

[BumRushDaShow]

3. There might be some civil service protections

and/or union contract stipulations there that precludes it (beyond some type of disciplinary action escalation procedure).

[IronLionZion]

4. I hope the FDA gives full approval already

it seems like they should have enough data by now.

[BumRushDaShow]

5. Pfizer only submitted their application 10 days ago

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/07/when-will-covid-19-vaccines-be-fully-approved-and-does-it-matter-if-they-are

And from that article, this needs to be kept in mind -

Could FDA speed up its approval process?

Perhaps, but the agency does not want to rush. “Any vaccine approval without completion of the high-quality review and evaluation that Americans expect the agency to perform would undermine the F.D.A.’s statutory responsibilities, affect public trust in the agency and do little to help combat vaccine hesitancy,” FDA’s Peter Marks wrote in The New York Times in response to Topol’s plea for speed.

“Any claims that this is taking a long time [are] almost like saying you don’t want FDA to do the normal, complete job that it does,” Goodman says. Regulatory rigor is especially important for messenger RNA vaccines, which use an entirely new technology, he adds.

The approval process is not just based on clinical data but also on a separate review of the manufacturing process and making sure the proper controls are in place. This includes inspections of the facilities and reviews of the equipment temperature calibration records, sterility swabs, and something as simple as making sure the filling machines aren't running below something on the ceiling that could chip off and fall into the vials and kill the whole batch, etc.

[IronLionZion]

6. An FDA official claimed it could come in 2 months

Facility inspection doesn't take very long and was probably already done by now. I get that they need to be thorough and do the job correctly. But government mandates in the US are tied to full approval, not emergency use authorization. So there will be legal challenges to mandates like what VA is doing.

[BumRushDaShow]

8. Yes re: timing of a possible approval, but the full cGMP inspections CAN take time - weeks or more

Although I don't think, given the $$$$ that Pfizer is looking forward to making in the future for product sales, that the inspections will find anything significant enough to hold an approval up.

And although they may have done an inspection early on, they might still do a re-inspection just before the final meetings of the Committees, and that can be expedited as long as they get any requested info (e.g., batch/lot records) from the firm and info on any changed processes, etc., in a timely fashion.

They are primarily manufacturing in Kalamazoo, MI - https://www.pfizer.com/products/pfizer-global-supply/us-manufacturing-sites/kalamazoo but also mention 2 other sites (St. Louis, MO and Andover, MA), so i would expect inspections would apply to any of the locations that would be manufacturing and shipping product.

I know there is this desire to rush it all through but then when something goes wrong, they get blamed for - you got it - "rushing it through".

[Deminpenn]

7. There won't be vaccine mandates, per se, but one's life

will be a whole lot easier if one is vaccinated. At some point almost every unvaccinated person will just give up the fight and get a shot.

[Mr.Bill]

14. As I've said here many times,

we can't make them get vaccinated, but we can make them wish they had.

[Deminpenn]

15. +a

Could not agree more

[Skittles]

9. charge them for the tests

yup

[roamer65]

11. Yup, just like France is going to do.

[dalton99a]

12. +1

[olddad65]

10. A friend of mine had a thought on vaccinations.

Basically, offer the vaccination to each person. If they don't have a valid, verifiable reason for refusing the vaccine, have them sign a wavier, and leave them alone. But if they show up at the hospital with the virus, quarantine them but offer them no treatment, other than hospice care, if it gets down to that.

A little harsh, but perhaps something along the lines of that.
Why offer treatment for people who refuse to protect themselves from the virus?

[Mr.Bill]

13. The problem with that is

you would have a hard time getting people in the health care profession go along with that. It would go against their ethics. I'm married to a retired RN and my diughter is an RN. There is no way they would deny care to a patient intentionally. If they were forced to they would leave the profession, at least the patient care segment of it.

Not that I don't feel the same way as your friend, but then I'm not a health care professional.

[DBoon]

16. Health Care Professionals have these ethics

Health insurance providers may view this differently however, and if allowed by law I'm sure would love to charge the unvaccinated a hefty premium.

[Initech]

17. If you don't get the vaccine, you have no business working for a hospital.