ANTIOCH — Despite some opposition, the City Council moved forward this week with plans to draft a policy requiring city employees, contractors and volunteers to get vaccinated or undergo weekly COVID-19 tests.
Mayor Lamar Thorpe proposed the mandate during a press conference last week with Walnut Creek Mayor Kevin Wilk, whose city already imposed such a requirement, hoping it would help to fend off the delta variant.
“I asked to bring this matter forward because it’s obviously critically important,” Thorpe said. “I’m not sure everyone is aware but Antioch has one of the highest rates of COVID-19 throughout the county. We have a sizable African-American, a sizable Latino, and it’s no secret that countywide African-Amercans and Latinos face the lowest vaccination rates.”
Thorpe noted Blacks in Antioch have a vaccination rate of about 60% while Latinos are about 68%, but “it’s nothing to celebrate” compared with Asian-Americans who are at 90%.
“I think it’s something to definitely do,” Thorpe said. “There are some cities where just mandating vaccination, that’s not what I am asking. We can give folks the option of vaccination or COVID testing.”
A survey of other East Contra Costa cities found none had implemented or planned to consider such vaccine or testing mandates in the near future except possibly Pittsburg, which meets next on Sept. 20. Mayor Merl Craft said the city already asks staff to present their vaccinaton cards to human resources and will continue to take the county’s and CDC’s lead on dealing with COVID-19 in the workplace.
Mayor Pro Tem Monica Wilson said she thought such mandates are important.
“I think it’s very important — please get tested — and it’s just very important that not only do we get tested but that we get the vaccine,” she said, noting the FDA just approved the Pfizer vaccine.
“We want to keep the community safe,” Wilson added. “But I know a lot of people want to get out, go outdoors and not wear masks. And in order to get to that, we need to get everybody vaccinated. We need to get these numbers down and everybody needs to be safe.”
Though Councilman Mike Barbanica said he was vaccinated and wants others to do so, he was apprehensive about telling staff “what they have to put into their body.”
“I would just rather see that we approach this from a standpoint of maybe bringing a mobile clinic and allowing city staff to come in and get vaccinated by choice,” he said. “Because at some point, where does it stop?”
Barbanica said he was concerned that such a mandate would make city employees who don’t want to get vaccinated or tested uncomfortable or made to feel like outcasts.
“I think it’s a personal choice,” he said. “I support vaccines and being vaccinated. I hope everybody does that. Just don’t feel as though that we should be pushing the mandate on our employees.”
Councilwoman Lori Ogorchock also said wanted to see everyone get vaccinated but realized some might not want to based on theory religious beliefs or medical conditions.
She suggested that if a policy is approved, the staff be given time off for COVID19 testing and the costs be paid by the city out of its American Relief Act funds.
Councilwoman Tamisha Torres-Walker agreed that staff should be given time off and not have to pay for any COVID-19 testing.
“I believe that this is a personal choice,” she said. “I also don’t believe that you have to announce that you’re vaccinated. …I think that people are going to choose as best their own personal health, whether it is to get vaccinated, get tested or not.”
Torres-Walker added that seeing staff mandates and people getting vaccinated won’t necessarily convince the unvaccinated to get their vaccines.
Thorpe, however, said he was encouraged to get vaccinated publicly and the site where he was vaccinated saw a small surge in African-American vaccinations afterward.
“There’s just misgivings that we will never be able to break through, we will never be able to break through those misgivings and distrust about government, but we can certainly try and we shouldn’t should not not try.”
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