LA City Attorney urges vaccine proof for some indoor activities

Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss the push to mandate Covid vaccines at indoor establishments.

Video transcript

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- Well, Los Angeles is looking to follow New York's lead when it comes to mandating vaccines. Yesterday, we saw New York become the first city in the country to mandate jabs for indoor dining, as well as events. Now, Los Angeles' City Attorney is urging the county's Board of Supervisors to implement the same mandate to try and prevent, or at least stop or slow the spread of COVID-19.

Let's bring in the city attorney himself. We've got Mike Feuer joining us from LA. We've also got Yahoo Finance's Dani Romero joining in on the conversation. Mike, it's great to talk to you today. Walk me through your thinking, first of all, in terms of why we are at the point where you think the mandates need to be in place.

MIKE FEUER: Well, you know, the CDC has called this pandemic of the unvaccinated. For a long time now, many people have followed public health advice and gotten vaccinated, but others haven't. And because others haven't, the virus is surging here. And we need to be able to curtail that. We should be incentivizing people to get the vaccines.

We should be honoring the roles that people have played to act responsibly by enabling them to be in public places without masking. I'm hopeful that we can reach the stage where we require vaccinations for certain indoor venues. And then, as things stabilize, we can alleviate the mask mandate that has been put in place here in Los Angeles County. We need to be incentivizing people to get the vaccine, and we need to be saying to people who have taken-- to act responsibly that you did the right thing, and society is going to recognize that.

DANI ROMERO: And Mr. Feuer, in your proposal, you didn't include the option for the unvaccinated people to submit a recent COVID test. Why is that?

MIKE FEUER: Because simply submitting a test isn't good enough if we're going to be trying to incentivize people to participate in society by getting fully vaccinated, acting responsibly, and not only taking into account your own health condition, but also the health of other people around you. Simply having a momentary COVID test isn't the same thing as getting a vaccine that's going to help slow the surge that we're experiencing here in California and throughout the United States.

DANI ROMERO: You know, I also reached out to all the board members and the Department of Public Health in response to your letter. And from Supervisor Kathryn Barger, she encourages businesses to show proof of vaccination, but has not yet considered the county mandating that businesses do so. What is your response to that? And I know that the board is set to discuss the proposal to require county employees to show proof of vaccination. Is that really enough?

MIKE FEUER: First, I think it's a great step forward for county workers to show proof of vaccination. That's a great step for the board to take. Second, I know Supervisor Barger well, and I know that she is going to take into account the important public health mandate that we are trying to pursue here.

I recognize that many businesses, indeed many restaurants, are already requiring proof of vaccination before someone can come in and dine. But we need to have consistency throughout the county. We can't have a patchwork of situations, where some businesses are taking that step, but others aren't. So I'm optimistic the Board of Supervisors is going to take the next step, recognizing that many businesses are already going down this path.

And then I want to say something else. You know, it's also in the interest of the business community to support this idea. And the reason is it's one thing to have the responsibility to ensure people are vaccinated. That's an additional burden.

I recognize that. But a far greater burden would be having to shut down again because the virus is surging throughout our region. And to cut that surge in half, to take a real step forward in trying to protect public health and safety, everyone needs to get vaccinated. And requiring, rather than simply asking, people to get vaccinated if they want to participate in things that are voluntary, like dining or going to a gym or going to a performance, could incentivize them to take the step that is what the public health experts say is the responsible step for them and for everybody else in our community.

- Yeah, Mr. Feuer, Zack here. I mean, you were talking about kind of the added, I guess, effort that it might take some of these businesses to implement if they're going to be checking for vaccine status. We were talking with one of the industry groups that represents America's nightclubs yesterday on the show, and how much that might be, you know, added on the plate of workers there. I mean, when it comes to the businesses you might have heard voicing some concerns here and requesting maybe additional support for something like this, how much more can be lent, and what kind of additional resources might be put into something like that, and falls on the government side to make sure that it can be handled well when you talk about people maybe presenting fake vaccine passports in line to get into some of these businesses?

MIKE FEUER: Yeah, so a few thoughts. First of all, I want to underscore that a number of restaurants have already taken this step. So we know it can be done. Secondly, I noted yesterday, in response to the New York proposal, that the hospitality industry came out in favor of that approach. So there's a lot of support in the business community because the stakes are so high. Businesses recognize that if the surge continues, their livelihoods could be threatened.

I recognize that this is not always going to be an easy thing to implement, and I think there's further thinking that has to go into how exactly enforcement can be optimized here. New York has certain steps they have in place. They have a citywide app. They have other steps they have in place. It may be the government can provide more to assist businesses to enforce this rule.

But at the end of the day, those choices are getting increasingly stark here in the United States. We can endure another surge in COVID. We can confront the real possibility of having to shut down more than as has already happened thus far. We were just emerging from this. We were just returning to some sense that people could experience life again. We want to be able to sustain that. And this, I think, is a necessary step on the way to getting there, as opposed to finding ourselves falling back into a world where businesses are shut down, employees are not getting paid, and our society is on the verge of something much more severe.

We can do better. It's time. It's time for those people who have taken the step to act responsibly and gotten shots to be able to participate fully in society, without having to risk a breakthrough COVID situation that now is confronting a number of people who have already gotten vaccinated.

- Well, it feels like, if the last few days are any indication, that the vaccine mandates are gaining steam just with corporate America, but as well as local governments, as well. Mike Feuer, Los Angeles city attorney, it's great to talk to you today. And our thanks to Dani Romero, as well, for joining in on the conversation.