Marin County orders COVID vaccination and booster for first responders

Marin first responders will have to be fully vaccinated and boosted for COVID-19 to continue working with the public beginning April 15.

The order, issued by the Marin County public health office, applies to law enforcement officers, firefighters, medics and probation officers.

First responders will no longer be allowed to avoid vaccinations by getting tested regularly. The only exception will be for those who qualify for a medical or religious exemption.

The mandate, announced Wednesday, comes as public health officials say they are managing “multiple preventable outbreaks in vulnerable, higher-risk settings.”

“These outbreaks have been amplified by contact with unboosted staff, an inadequate testing cadence and a highly contagious variant,” said Dr. Lisa Santora, the county’s deputy public health officer.

Active outbreaks in the county include one at the Marin County Jail; nine at skilled nursing centers; nine at residential care centers for the elderly; and 19 at other group living sites, according to the county.

As of Tuesday, there were 91 patients and 86 staff members at Marin long-term care centers who were infected with the virus. Infections at these sites — which include residential care, skilled nursing, independent living and other group living centers — have accounted for over 68% of the county’s 206 deaths from COVID-19.

The order requires fully vaccinated first responders to be up to date with a booster shot within 15 days of becoming booster eligible.

“While highly vaccinated, Marin County is experiencing waning community immunity,” Santora said. “It has been more than one year since many first responders completed their primary COVID-19 vaccine series.”

John Bagala, president of the Marin Professional Firefighters association, said, “We have some serious reservations about this.”

The union represents all 10 Marin fire agencies and has 430 members. Bagala estimates 5% to 7% of them, about 20 firefighters, have not been vaccinated. He said he doesn’t know how many lack booster shots.

“I believe this is ill-timed,” Bagala said. “It doesn’t make much sense that while we’re simultaneously relaxing the standards for indoor masking at the state level we’re getting more strict with our first responders.”

“We have multiple unfilled vacancies already in our ranks across all of our agencies,” Bagala said. “Now we have the potential to lose more firefighters. We still stand by our conviction, which is that we respect the individual’s right to choose.”

Bagala said the current outbreaks in the county might have been fueled by the California Department of Public Health decision on Jan. 8 to allow health care workers who tested positive for COVID-19 and were asymptomatic to return to work immediately without isolation and without testing. The order extended through Feb. 1.

Marin County fire Chief Jason Weber, who also oversees the Ross Valley Fire Department through a cooperative agreement, said, “I don’t think that was the cause. The soonest we brought anybody back was five days after testing positive or symptoms started.”

Weber said 93% of county firefighters and all Ross Valley firefighters have been fully vaccinated. He said he is still collecting data on the number of these firefighters who are up to date with their booster shots.

Weber said that the details of how firefighters will qualify for medical and religious exemptions is still to be determined.

Marin County Sheriff Robert Doyle said, “I support the order. I think it should have been enforced a long time ago. As a public safety agency, we have an obligation to keep our employees safe and keep the public we deal with safe. This is a pandemic and over 800,000 people have died.”

Doyle said at last count 42 of his department’s 210 deputies hadn’t been vaccinated. Asked if the vaccine mandate could create staffing shortages, the sheriff said, “I’m hoping that common sense will prevail and people will get vaccinated.”