Oregon Gov. Kate Brown spoke about the battle with COVID, the mask and vaccine mandates.
“The good news is that the vast majority of our healthcare workers and our educator workforce have gotten vaccinated. We’re waiting to see numbers on the state workforce,” Brown said Tuesday.
“As I just said, masks and vaccines are the most simple and effective tools that we have to beat back the Delta variant. These two tools are like a one-two punch if we want to put the Delta variant to rest. So in terms of the state moving forward, we will be taking appropriate action for state employees that are under the executive branch that do not comply with the vaccine mandate. We obviously are aware that there are folks who will be using both the religious and medical exemptions, and we expect, particularly employees of the state of Oregon, to be honest and trustworthy in filling out these exemptions.”
Brown was asked to clarify about the staff refusing to get the vaccine or comply with mandates.
“Will people in worker class groups that are mandated to get vaccines who do not meet exemptions for medical or religious reasons, be eligible for unemployment if they get terminated from their positions?” asked Leslie Thompson.
“I suspect that will be done on a case by case basis, and it certainly depends on the particular circumstances with the employer. My understanding, generally speaking, they will not be eligible for unemployment benefits.”
Thompson tried to ask a follow up question, but was cut off and the press conference was ended.
Full transcript from the press conference here.
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