Los Angeles City Council members took the first step Wednesday toward lifting vaccine verification requirements at many indoor businesses, the latest in a slew of rule relaxations as the Omicron surge steadily fades.
While not yet final, the move would have a sweeping impact in the City of Angels: removing the mandate that establishments such as restaurants and bars, hair salons, gyms and movie theaters screen whether their indoor patrons are vaccinated against COVID-19.
Under an ordinance that will be drafted and come back to the council for final approval at a future meeting, verifying whether indoor customers are vaccinated would be voluntary. Operators of major outdoor events in L.A. also would no longer need to check if attendees are vaccinated.
The council voted 12 to 0, without discussion, to draft an ordinance amending the city rules.
Opponents of the vaccination rule, including leaders of the Libertarian Party of Los Angeles County, had been pushing to roll back the mandate through a ballot measure. Angela McArdle, chair of the county party, said if the rule is repealed, her group would seek to prevent any such requirements from being reinstated in the future. Several people who phoned into the Wednesday meeting argued that the L.A. rules were overbearing and discriminatory.
“We’re going to continue to fight, just to make sure that this never happens again,” Shawn Osborne, a member of the Libertarian Party, told the council before the Wednesday vote. “Thank you — and to hell with tyrants.”
Others have raised concerns about L.A. moving to drop the requirement. The city rules “forced people to be more responsible and take the virus seriously,” said Emily Dibiny, who heads the community health team for People Organized for Westside Renewal.
Dibiny said that when spring break arrives, cases could resurge, and “next thing you know they’re going to say, ‘No, now it’s mandatory again.’ ”
L.A.’s vaccine verification requirement has been…