California would be the first state to impose Covid-19 vaccine mandates at all workplaces under sweeping new legislation to be unveiled Friday.
The bill from Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) comes as Gov. Gavin Newsom plans to release a statewide pandemic exit strategy signaling the transition to an “endemic” phase of the public health crisis.
“The pathway to endemic, for us to get back to some sense of normalcy, is through vaccines,” Wicks told POLITICO in an exclusive interview. Wicks floated a similar proposal last year but didn’t introduce it.
Wicks is acting after the U.S. Supreme Court nullified the Biden administration’s employer vaccine mandate — a decision that, she said, opened the door for state lawmakers to take the lead on the issue.
Assembly Bill 1993, whichwould likely take effect next year and levy penalties on employersthat don’t comply, is likely to draw criticism from mandate foes — especially as infection and hospitalization rates driven by the Omicron variant continue to plummet.
Read more at POLITICO.