In California, a Mix of Support and Resistance to New Vaccine Rules

Some of California’s staunchest vaccine resisters are state employees and health care workers, all of whom will be required to get vaccinated or undergo testing starting next month.

SACRAMENTO — Gabriel Montoya, an emergency medical technician, watched in horror as gasping patients overwhelmed the intensive care unit at Kaiser Permanente Downey Medical Center in southeastern Los Angeles County late last year. Eight out of 10 admissions were infected with Covid-19 at one point. “Even with all that — with the amount of people who died, the amount we saw intubated,” Mr. Montoya said, he and his fellow union leaders have had trouble getting even half of the 300 rank-and-file members in the hospital’s emergency room vaccinated. He said he had tried to use shift huddles as a time for gentle persuasion, but “you get the rolling of the eyes and the walking away as soon as you mention vaccinations.” So as California moved this week to require two million health care workers to get immunized or submit to weekly testing, his hope was tempered with skepticism.