San Diego Officials to Meet With Labor Groups Amid Pushback to City-Worker Vaccine Mandate nbcsandiego.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from nbcsandiego.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Updated on July 19, 2021 at 6:41 pm
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In February 2019, NBC7 Investigates obtained internal documents from the San Diego Fire Department that showed the city delayed fixing a known asbestos problem at the fire academy. The documents showed that over the course of a decade, thousands of firefighters were exposed to asbestos and lead in the floors, walls and ceilings.
NBC 7 has now confirmed that just one day after the report, the county’s Air Pollution Control District (ACPD) started its own investigation into the exposure. An ACPD investigation report obtained by a public records request reads, in part, “A district employee watched the broadcast and notified Air Pollution Control District management the following day in the afternoon. The report aired by NBC alleged that the city minimized and failed to disclose the dangers of asbestos and lead present in the training facility buildings. The building was a naval building, converted to the fire training facili
In an effort to administer the vaccine to people most at risk for complications from the coronavirus, San Diego County has now approved all residents 75 and older for vaccinations, reports NBC 7 s Melissa Adan
San Diego Fire-Rescue officials said that 167 of the department s 943 sworn firefighters turned down the vaccine. That means more than 17%, or nearly 1 in 5 firefighters, chose not to get the coronavirus vaccine.
“I hope our leaders take note of this,” Jesse Conner, president of the San Diego City Firefighters IAFF Local 145, told NBC 7.
Conner said that everyone should pay attention to how many firefighters are saying no to the vaccine and why because this is likely a test drive of what will happen when the vaccine is rolled out to the general population.
SAN DIEGO
Nearly 200 San Diego Fire-Rescue personnel have so far turned down a COVID-19 vaccine, showing reluctance as health officials scramble to protect frontline workers like firefighters from the highly infectious coronavirus.
As of Wednesday, 191 personnel had declined to take the vaccine; 895 had gotten the shot, according to department figures.
The vaccine is available to all of the department’s roughly 1,500 employees, including lifeguards and non-sworn staff, a spokeswoman said. The force includes 943 firefighters, who double as paramedics or emergency medical technicians, placing them on the front lines of the pandemic.
As of Wednesday, 99 firefighters had tested positive, according to the department.