San Francisco to require its 37,000 city employees to get vaccinated for COVID or get out

San Francisco to 37,000 city employees: Get vaccinated for COVID or get out San Francisco is the first large U.S. city to require that all city workers – 37,000 of them – be vaccinated against COVID-19. Elizabeth Weise USA TODAY

SAN FRANCISCO – In an announcement Wednesday evening, the city of San Francisco told its 37,000 employees they must either be vaccinated against COVID-19 within 10 weeks of the Food and Drug Administration giving final approval to a coronavirus vaccine, or lose their jobs.

This would make San Francisco the first large U.S. city to require vaccination of all city employees.

"It's quite straightforward – it's my job to protect the safety of our employees; I am exercising my duty under the San Francisco charter to do just that," said Carol Isen, the human resources director for the city and county of San Francisco. 

The vaccination policy released by the city on Wednesday said "failure to comply with this policy may result in discipline up to and including termination of employment."

Currently, all COVID-19 vaccines being used in the United States were approved by FDA under what's known as an emergency use authorization, an expedited process. The emergency use is an authority that Congress gave to the FDA after the 9/11 terrorist attacks to allow countermeasures, treatments or vaccines to be available earlier than would be the case in a normal approval process.

The full drug approval process takes longer. Some have used the fact that the Pfize, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines have all been issued under emergency use as a reason to doubt their safety. ...