Just More Than Half of City Employees Fully Vaccinated, As City Manager Prepares Policy Requiring All Must Be

City Manager Steve Mermell, who is developing policy that would require all city workers to be vaccinated against the coronavirus, said 55% of employees claim to be fully vaccinated.

“Based on self-attestations voluntarily provided by City employees, approximately 55% stated they are fully vaccinated for COVID- 19,” Mermell wrote in his weekly newsletter. 

“According to Jennifer Curtis, Director of Human Resources, this number does not include employees who are partially vaccinated or those fully vaccinated, but who have not yet submitted the self-attestation,” Mermell wrote. 

 “Our Health Department is holding vaccination clinics almost every day at locations throughout the city, and they have even gone to specific work locations to accommodate employees and their scheduling,” said Public Information Officer Lisa Derderian. 

“We need to look at this as a peer-to-peer respect and safety issue. Just as our employees support and look out for each other in their day-to-day roles, they need to take care of one another long-term, because unfortunately, this virus is not going away soon,” Derderian said.

Following a sharp increase in cases, city officials have reinstated guidelines that require people to wear masks inside local businesses.

Last week, Mayor Victor Gordo called on the county and all of its 88 cities to adopt a vaccination policy for government employees. 

“I am urging the County of Los Angeles and all 88 cities within L.A. County — and those beyond — to join Pasadena in implementing a similar policy for their respective jurisdictions.  

Local government functions as an employer, and we have a responsibility to ensure a safe work environment for all employees,” Gordo said. 

“We hope our example will encourage private employers to adopt similar policies. Vaccination is the one tool we know works. Let’s join together in this effort,” he said. 

If implemented, Pasadena would be the first city in Southern California to require its employees to be vaccinated. The University of California system, the Cal State University system, and the city and county of San Francisco recently announced similar policies.

About 80% of the city’s population over 12 has been vaccinated, according to city officials.

According to the announcement on masking, “Pasadena now meets the CDC’s definition of ‘substantial transmission’ of COVID-19.”

Over the past four days, L.A. County has had substantial increases in infections. The county has reported more than 2,000 new cases of the virus every day since last Thursday, 

While Pasadena’s case rates were lower than L.A. County’s, local numbers continued to climb.

Vaccine resistance continues to be an issue across the nation. So far, about 50% of the country has been vaccinated. But conspiracy theories and inaccurate social media posts continue to plague the efforts to increase vaccinations.

In an Economist/YouGov survey conducted earlier this month, 15% of 1,500 participants said it was “probably true” that vaccines contain microchips while 5% said it was “definitely true” that the government uses COVID vaccines to microchip people.