Nearly 200 San Francisco employees are attempting to reject the city's COVID-19 vaccine mandate and other protocols like testing and mask-wearing for city workers.
In a campaign, all submitted identical, conspiracy-tinged letters to the city's human resources department which suggested the city is infringing upon their "God-given and constitutionally secured" rights.
The letters began arriving in June after officials announced they would require city employees — with certain exceptions — to get vaccinated.
The workers wrote they would agree to the vaccination mandate only if the city submits to demands around vaccine safety that health experts said were "nonsensical" or false.
About 103 of the approximately 192 workers who submitted missives are employed by the Fire Department, with Sheriff's Department employees making up the second-largest group, according to H.R. officials. Last week, the president of a union representing sheriff's deputies said the department would face a wave of resignations if the city enforced its vaccine requirement.
San Francisco is requiring all 35,000 city employees to be vaccinated against the coronavirus once a vaccine receives full approval from the Food and Drug Administration.
The arguments posed by the letter have no legal bearing, as state and federal laws allow for such conditions of employment. Human Resources Director Carol Isen responded to each sender, reaffirming the city's vaccination policy and the Sept. 15 vaccination deadline for those working in high-risk settings.
The letter, titled and framed as "conditional acceptance" of the city's vaccine and mask mandates, poses an eight-page, 41-point list of its demands to meet the vaccination requirement.
It cites discredited theories about dangers of the vaccine, testing and masks, and asks city officials to prove the negative before they will consent to the city's mandates.
The letter asks the city's H.R. department to ensure that wearing a face mask will not subject employees to discrimination and to demonstrate that COVID-19 vaccines are free from a host of substances, including mRNA, lipids, formaldehyde and antibiotics.
But according to experts, many of these substances are consumed safely by individuals every day.
Human resources officials said they were glad that over 80% of city employees have been vaccinated.
Recent vaccination data showed at least 167 Fire Department employees remained unvaccinated, or about 9.5% of its workforce. At the Sheriff's Department, 161 were reportedly unvaccinated, making up about 16% of its employees. About 7.7% of city employees across all departments have not received at least one shot.
The vaccine requirement for city workers is among the most stringent in the country, with many other jurisdictions and health care institutions offering the choice to either become vaccinated or submit to regular testing.
