California's move on Monday to require all state employees and healthcare workers to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination was "gutsy and appropriate," according to the chair of UCSF's Department of Medicine.
Dr. Bob Wachter told KCBS Radio’s Doug Sovern during "The State of California" on Monday that the delta variant’s higher transmissibility has changed the calculus for political and business leaders amid the coronavirus pandemic, and the statewide increase in cases overwhelmed the "rosy picture" painted prior to the summer.
"It's clear that we’re not going to get to the rate of vaccination that we need by cajoling, lottery tickets, incentives (and) shaming," Dr. Wachter said. "We have to get more hard-nosed about this, and I think California's been a leader in controlling COVID all along. And this is part of leadership."
"It's to say that everybody needs to take their vaccine, and if you're not going to be vaccinated, you shouldn’t be able to come into the workplace," he added.
Dr. Wachter said a similar requirement possibly could've been implemented two months ago, but the pandemic outlook was far more positive. Vaccinations were far more frequent, cases were much lower and the delta variant hadn’t emerged as a threat to progress fighting the pandemic.
Now, Dr. Wachter said he believes other strategies are necessary to vaccinate people who haven’t received their shots. Over 60% of eligible California residents are fully vaccinated, which is among the higher rates in the U.S.
But the state, and highly vaccinated cities within it, haven't been immune from the continued spread of COVID-19. In San Francisco, where 76% of eligible residents are vaccinated, the city has averaged 13.9 cases per 100,000 residents over the last seven days, according to state data.
On May 26, the city averaged 1.4 cases per 100,000 residents.
"It feels like the scales are tipping here, and in the same way the virus is contagious, so is political courage," Dr. Wachter said. "I think it’s gonna be easier for businesses and governments to take this move as they see others already doing it."
Dr. Wachter called this week "a tipping point," pointing to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs on Monday requiring healthcare workers to be fully vaccinated and the NFL last week telling teams they would forfeit games if the league couldn’t reschedule a game postponed due to a COVID-19 outbreak. New York City on Monday announced city employees would need to be fully vaccinated or undergo weekly testing.
In the meantime, Dr. Wachter said he continues to mask indoors because he's not completely sure he wouldn't catch COVID-19, or transmit it, after being fully vaccinated. Although a group representing San Francisco bar owners on Monday a policy to require indoor patrons to provide proof of vaccination or a negative test, many private businesses currently don’t have such requirements.
"If I went indoors, and I knew that a small number of people were there, and I was 100% sure they were all vaccinated, I'd feel reasonably comfortable without a mask," he explained. "If I knew that any unvaccinated person in there was wearing a mask … maybe I’d feel comfortable. But since we don’t know a lot of that stuff now, I think the safest thing to do for all of us is to mask inside."
