Vaccine mandates are few for Fallbrook workers

Rick Monroe

Special to the Village News

While many people in the county are facing a mandate to be vaccinated or lose their jobs, there are few public agencies and employers in the Fallbrook area that require workers to be vaccinated for COVID-19.

All public-school employees are required to be vaccinated, and Sheriff deputies and the military are facing immediate mandates.

Individuals who live in the area but work as first responders elsewhere – notably nurses and hospital workers in the county – are required to be vaccinated. Fire and police/sheriff personnel are “under the gun” to get the jab but have unions that are fighting the mandate.

Public agencies with 100 or more employees are required to have workers vaccinated. Other than school districts, agencies in this area are exempt because they are under the 100-worker threshold. The North County Fire Protection District is a question because it has more than 100 job positions, but only 97 currently employed, according to Nancy Gross, human resource department specialist. That number includes only 91 full-time workers, she added.

The Fallbrook Public Utilities District and Rainbow Municipal Water District are also under the 100-employee number established by Cal/OSHA.

Lt. Aldo Hernandez noted the Sheriff’s Department, as part of the County of San Diego, is not currently required to be vaccinated. Instead, staff and deputies are able to have weekly testing for COVID-19.

Representatives from Albertsons Grocery and Major Market said they are not requiring workers to be vaccinated, but they are encouraged to be.

According to the county's Health and Human Services Agency, through Dec. 8, 68.6% of Fallbrook residents have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine. For Bonsall, the number is 77.4%.

The military says 95% of active-duty Marines have at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and those not in compliance will be discharged. Also, most vaccine exemption requests have been denied by the Marine Corps as the mandate deadline passed on Nov. 28.

The unvaccinated will soon find themselves discharged from the military, but not all those who remain unvaccinated will be let go. More than 700 Marines were granted temporary medical and administrative waivers, and 14 were granted permanent medical exemptions.

Service members could request waivers on religious grounds. The Marine Corps reportedly has processed 1,902 of 2,441 religious exemptions it received and approved none.