Candidates running to replace California Governor Gavin Newsom in next month’s recall election voiced their opposition to a new statewide vaccine mandate announced Wednesday for school teachers and staff.
Newsom announced the new mandate Wednesday morning at a school in Oakland alongside local leaders and school officials. The governor said teachers and school staff members will be required to either provide proof of their vaccination against COVID-19 or be tested weekly as the fall semester begins amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The mandate was officially ordered Wednesday by the California Department of Public Health. It covers public and private schools where children are enrolled in transitional kindergarten through high school, according to the department’s order. It does not apply to home school environments, higher educational institutions or child care facilities.
John Cox, a Republican who lost an earlier bid to become governor in 2018 to Newsom and is one of the 46 candidates running to replace the Democrat, suggested Newsom was “threatening people’s employment” with the latest vaccine mandate—which Cox added he “strongly opposed.”
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“Gavin Newsom is a power hungry politician who wants to control every aspect of people’s lives,” Cox said in a statement posted on Twitter. “Now he is effectively threatening people’s employment if they don’t do what he tells them to.”
Outsider and CPA John Cox today said he strongly opposed Gavin Newsom’s latest vaccine mandate which would force teachers to get vaccinated or face regular invasive testing. pic.twitter.com/ZF1PhVaJtP
— John Cox (@BeastJohnCox) August 11, 2021
Republican state lawmaker Kevin Kiley also spoke out about the mandate ahead of Newsom’s official announcement.
“Gavin Newsom needs to stop using teachers and nurses as political pawns,” Kiley tweeted. “No other state has these mandates. A vote for the Recall is a vote for basic decency.”
Gavin Newsom needs to stop using teachers and nurses as political pawns. No other state has these mandates. A vote for the Recall is a vote for basic decency.
— Kevin Kiley (@KevinKileyCA) August 11, 2021
Larry Elder, a conservative radio personality whom recent polls suggest is leading among the candidates campaigning for Newsom’s seat, said Wednesday morning he intends to reverse the mandate if he were to win the recall election.
“Gov. Elder will reverse this order,” Elder tweeted. “Encouraging vaccination is fine. Government mandating it is not.”
During a Wednesday news conference announcing the vaccine mandate, Newsom referenced other recent measures the state has taken to combat the spread of the Delta variant, which is believed to be more easily transmissible than other virus variants. Those measures have included requiring proof of vaccination or frequent testing for state employees and health care workers.
“We’re now following up today to align our school strategy to the state strategy, becoming the first state in the country to require that all of our staff—not just teachers, credentialed staff, parent educators, custodial staff, the bus drivers, folks that are critical to supporting the entire school ecosystem—also submit a verification of vaccination and/or submit to weekly testing,” Newsom said.
Newsom added he believes the new vaccine mandate will help address the concerns of parents as their children head back to the classrooms for in-person instruction.
“We think this is the right thing to do, and we think this is a sustainable way to keeping our schools open and to address the number-one anxiety that parents like myself have for young children, and that is knowing that the schools are doing everything in their power to keep our kids safe, to keep our kids healthy,” Newsom said.
