Thurston County workers may have to get vaccinated or test weekly to retain their jobs
Thurston County workers may have to get vaccinated for COVID-19 or test weekly if the board of commissioners follows through on a new vaccine policy.
In a 2-1 decision, the board directed staff to draft a resolution of the policy during a planning session on Friday. The discussion came days after Gov. Jay Inslee announced a vaccine mandate for most state workers as well as private health care and long-term care employees.
Under the state’s mandate, workers have until Oct. 18 to show proof of vaccination. The county’s version appears to be taking a softer approach by allowing weekly testing. The county is eyeing an Oct. 31 deadline.
Commissioners Tye Menser and Carolina Mejia signaled their support for moving forward with a resolution. However, Commissioner Gary Edwards voiced strong opposition to the vaccine policy.
The specifics of the plan are still being determined, but the final resolution may allow elected county officials to sign on to the policy, according to planning discussions.
Maria Aponte, director of human resources, said the county is aware of just under 400 employees who have been vaccinated. The county has a workforce of about 1,100 workers.
However, that figure is based on the number of people that have asked for a mask-wearing exception, she said, so that number may not reflect the actual number of vaccinated employees.
Disease activity in Thurston County has been rising in recent weeks as the delta variant makes its way through a population that was only 50.6% fully vaccinated as of Saturday.
Health Officer Dimyana Abdelmalek told the board the county is seeing more instances of transmission between people who are fully vaccinated, in what is known as breakthrough cases.
However, she stressed that vaccines are safe and still effective at reducing the risk of infection as well as severe outcomes.
“If you’re one of those unlucky few that’s fully vaccinated and gets infected with the delta variant, we’re seeing that the time that you spend being infectious to other people is much shorter because your body is already primed to fight the coronavirus,” she said.
Edwards, who is vaccinated, said he does not want the county to enact any kind of vaccine mandate because he thinks some people are frustrated and confused by repeated restrictions.
Given how long the pandemic has gone on, he said he believes these restrictions have made people distrustful of government.
“I think that group out there that was not wanting to get vaccinated, I think this just adds fuel to their resistance,” Edwards said. “They go, ‘Why should I? Apparently, it doesn’t work.’”
But Menser countered that the pandemic has continued because not enough people have been vaccinated.
“We’ve got to get to 70% or 80%,” Menser said. “We’re not there and we’re seeing what’s happening with a much more contagious variant.”
Menser and Mejia expressed concern about children under 12 who are still not eligible to be vaccinated. Even though she is vaccinated, Mejia said she still taking extra precautions for the sake of her children.
“My fear and the reason I started taking extra precautions even though I’m vaccinated, even though my family is vaccinated, I may be carrying the variant,” Mejia said. “I don’t even know and I’ll pass it on to them.”
With regards to the county, Mejia said more masking and vaccinations policies could help continue operations rather than perpetuate backlogs.
“We have a huge backlog of cases in our criminal system right now and every time (a lockdown) happens it just aggravates the situation we’re currently at,” she said. “I’m just frustrated because we should be getting better and we’re not.”
At one point in the discussion, Edwards resorted to blaming Mexican immigrants for continuing the pandemic.
“If we’ve got that many that are coming in that are undocumented, unvaccinated, carrying this (virus), how will we ever get ahead of this?” Edwards said.
That comment prompted a quick response from county manager Ramiro Chavez, who challenged Edwards.
“I don’t believe it is appropriate to blame immigrants for this pandemic,” Chavez said. “I cannot stand by you saying that point, commissioner.”
During Tuesday’s regular board meeting, Edwards touched on the vaccine policy discussion to notify the public, and Chavez confirmed the board will revisit the topic next week.
This story was originally published August 18, 2021 at 10:41 AM.
