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With nearly a fifth of its firefighters and emergency medical technicians still unvaccinated for COVID-19, Menlo Park Fire Protection District board members on Tuesday night said they will consider whether to mandate vaccinations or daily testing. The board unanimously voted to refer the matter to the district’s Human Resources Committee for study.
Director Chuck Bernstein had asked for a staff report on the issue to be submitted at Tuesday’s meeting. Fire Chief Mike Shaffer in his report said 77 personnel are vaccinated and 19 are not. The district hasn’t regularly tested its employees. Instead, an infection control officer advises if someone can come to work based on a flow chart of symptoms and exposure.
Three firefighters have tested positive since the pandemic began, he said. None of the infected firefighters were traced back to being exposed within the district.
Bernstein said firefighters and EMTs are a public safety agency in close contact with the community. They could, if infected, expose district residents to the virus.
“To allow those people to be in the midst of clients would be irresponsible for us and subjects us to significant liability,” he said. “I don’t want us to get sued by the family of someone who dies or is disabled” by the transmitted infection, he said.
There had been an employee complaint early in the pandemic claiming the district wasn’t maintaining a safe workplace related to COVID-19 precautions, he noted. Firefighters are housed in a communal living situation. There are also state and federal OSHA requirements for COVID-19 protections. He said that, hypothetically, there is the prospect of a lawsuit to enforce the rules.
Some firefighters have been quarantined as a precaution in the past, Shaffer said. Bernstein noted that represents another cost to the district to have someone quarantined in terms of personnel taken off line.
“It doesn’t seem reasonable for taxpayers to incur that or for our readiness to be compromised,” Bernstein said.
Director Robert Jones said the number of unvaccinated personnel sounds significant.
“It has to be a no-brainer, at least at a minimum, testing on a daily basis I think is imperative,” he said.
A state mandate now requires that health care personnel in hospitals and congregate-care facilities such as nursing homes must be vaccinated, but so far that hasn’t extended to firefighters and emergency personnel, he noted. That could change. Staff said that Los Angeles County is changing its definition of health care workers to include paramedics and EMTs. Other counties or the state could follow.
Bernstein said the district will need to discuss the proposed vaccine requirement with the unions and staff. The Human Resources Committee will report their findings to the board regarding the possible vaccine mandate and testing, perhaps as soon as September.
I’m curious as to why such a large amt are not vaccinated. Maybe they need a tour of a covid ward.
“…a flow chart of symptoms and exposure.”
Might have been adequate in March 2020, but now we know that infected people can be asymptomatic and can still transmit the virus. Anyone who is not vaccinated/isn’t testing regularly should not have public contact.
Thanks to Chuck Bernstein for his advocacy on behalf of the public. Too bad that our so-called public servants are so much less conscientious about their responsibilities.
Should be a no brainer. What’s wrong with them? I wouldn’t want to be treated by ANYONE who isn’t vaccinated period!
Mandate the vaccine immediately. Waiting is endangering the public they serve.
I wonder whether those unvaccinated personnel have had a chance to 1) explain that decision and 2) share the source of their information. Rather than shaming or denying them work, perhaps at least some would reconsider, given true facts (vs false “facts”). They may not understand they are a possible source of COVID for family members, as well as colleagues and community members. The fact that over 90% of new COVID hospitalizations are unvaccinated means that under 10% of hospitalizations are of vaccinated people. I choose to take my chances with “possible” adverse outcome from the vaccine (in my case 1 1/2 days of fatigue and low fever) vs the very alarming outcomes of COVID. It’s all in the odds, folks!
All employees should be masked while on the job, inside or out-of doors. Any public facing employees should be required to be vaccinated.
Any EMTs who respond to potential COVID cases should be tested following any interaction with the patient.
Those in back-office jobs should be required to be tested weekly.
Language should be written into union contracts that at any time in the future when the CA state health department or CDC declares a pandemic that employees will be mandated to follow prophylactic measures (including vaccines) as defined by the San Mateo County Department of Health.
My 2 cents.
Steve Taffee
Willows
The Fire Board’s first responsibility is to protect the people whom it serves.
Intentionally exposing the public to an unvaccinated firefighter or EMT would violate that responsibility.
An unvaccinated firefighter or EMT should be barred from public contact.
Once one or more of the COVID vaccines are unconditionally approved by the FDA (those vaccines currently have an Emergency Use Authorization) any firefighter or EMT who is not fully vaccinated should be placed on unpaid leave.
@Peter
why wait for the approval? this is an IQ test and the unvaccinated are failing.
put them on admin leave. we don’t need the level of staffing we have for the few fires we put out.
putting our citizens at risk is unconscionable.
Roy Thiele-Sardina
“@Peter
why wait for the approval?”
Because it may well be illegal to require someone to take an “experimental drug” which is the current status of all Covid vaccines. This is why the US military is not yet requiring Covid vaccinations but does require that military personnel do take other non-Covid vaccines because those vaccines have full FDA approval.
Note that I stated – “An unvaccinated firefighter or EMT should be barred from public contact.”
Exactly as I predicted:
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon will seek to make coronavirus vaccinations mandatory for the country’s 1.3 million active-duty troops “no later” than the middle of next month, the Biden administration announced on Monday.
If businesses keep making the world for the “unvaccinated” smaller and smaller and smaller, then I hope the unvaccinated enjoy being locked in their houses with no accesses to places like the vaccinated enjoy. You have to make it so if the person can’t provide proof of vaccination then you can’t go to work, restaurants, bars, travel on planes, trains, buses, ships, school, etc., etc. The list goes on and on. Or better still hit them in the pocket with being put on administrative leave with NO pay at work if there is no proof of vaccination. That will certainly be a wake-up call to them. We’ll never be out of this mess if the non-vaxers refuse to get vaccinated and we’ll be wearing masks and living less than full lives for who knows how long!