Los Angeles City Council meeting. (Photo: lacity.org)
LA City Council Makes Big Changes To COVID-19 Proof-of-Vaccine Mandate
Status of shopping mall proof checks, age restrictions altered at Friday meeting
By Evan Symon, November 12, 2021 3:23 pm
Less than a week after the mandatory COVID-19 proof of vaccination requirement to enter most indoor public areas came into effect, the Los Angeles City Council made major changes to the order on Friday due to a large number of enforcement issues.
The mandate, which is officially known as SafePassLA, and approved last month, requires full proof of vaccination to enter most indoor places of business including restaurants, bars, movie theaters, malls, arenas, convention centers, gyms, salons, barbershops, and other public areas. Proof of vaccination, most commonly through the form of a CDC vaccination card or a digital version, will often need a form of ID such as a driver’s license or state ID.
An exemption for medical or religious grounds is also accepted, but only with a valid negative COVID-19 test taken within the last 72 hours.
However, after SafePassLA came into effect on Monday, businesses across the city began reporting on multiple failures of the vaccine proof requirement. Buildings with multiple entrances, malls in particular, reported that many people could simply go to entrances with no one assigned to check at the door, such as typically non-public entrances. Other loopholes, such as switching from outdoor portions of the business to indoor ones once settled in also occurred regularly.
Larger groups of people also proved a challenge, with multiple LA business owners telling the Globe that checking for proof in large parties could prove impossible if people kept moving around. Children in particular proved the most difficult to check due to confusion over their status and many parents unaware if proof for those under 12 was even needed.
“This past week was awful,” said restaurant owner Manny Suarez to the Globe on Friday. “People snuck in, got around waitresses, yelled at us for demanding proof when they didn’t have any, and really tried to make our lives worse in the process. This mandate is not working the way it is. Businesses need protections from people who don’t give proof. They take it out on us when all we’re doing is complying with a law so we don’t get into trouble. If we follow, customers get angry and we lose some business. If we don’t, we’ll start to get fined in a few weeks. We can’t win.”
Major changes to proof mandate
With so many complaints coming in, the City Council took the most egregious issues and made major alterations on Friday. As of Friday, malls and shopping centers will no longer be covered by the proof of vaccine mandate, largely due to the logistical challenges in enforcement. Proof age will also be set at 12 years old, with those 11 and younger not being required to show proof despite vaccines now being open to those between 11 and 5 years old.
Despite the changes on Friday, business owners say more are needed due to the issues they saw come up this week.
“We need better indoor and outdoor rules, and most critically, we need more protections,” added Lydia Oscar, a salon owner, to the Globe. “Most of us would rather not have this proof mandate at all because it clearly isn’t working, but since we do have it, LA needs to make sure that businesses aren’t being negatively affected by it, and we most certainly have been. It’s hard to comply if they come in waving a piece of paper with a church letterhead saying they don’t have to be vaccinated. You want to keep customers, but for your sake, you also want to make sure it’s legit and not want to be fined because of it. Remember, those fines are on us, and after a few times breaking them, it can hit $5,000.”
“This all probably seems easy to do if you don’t have a business to run, but enforcing this is really not that simple. And the City Council is barely giving us any slack.”
City enforcement of the mandate begins November 29th. Other alterations to the mandate are likely in the coming weeks as more problems continue to be discovered.
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Continue to RESIST and EMBRACE YOUR FREEDOM, Angelinos!!!
Engage in peaceful protest and resistance to these Communists who want to employ Chinese-style, “Person of Interest” tracking and social scoring systems under the smokescreen guise of “health safety”…
Are you SICK of the constant barrage of TV and radio ads repeating the same tired lies about “how safe the vaccines are”???
Then why are young healthy athletes dropping dead from heart attacks within days of getting their second poke or booster shot???
Wake up people, we’re being played by the WEF “Build Back Better” depopulation crowd and Big Pharma….
Take back your lives like they were in 2019 or earlier and thwart their Agenda 2030 wet dreams of ultimate control…
Communism replacing freedom…this is about control
Vax infect Vax – there should not be a division between those unvaxxed.
This is about controlling the people using FEAR which makes people easier to control eventually this leads to government having the right over your body choices…It WONT STOP HERE — soon they will digitize everything and place a chip inside you and those without the chip like unvaxxed they are doing now wont be able to do anything – forced control.
Nothing was learned from History, so its repeating and stepping it up with current tech
Businesses in L.A. that quietly acquiesce to fascists in the city council without protesting and joining forces with their customers will rue the day they made that decision. The consumer won’t forget. I, for one, will be spending my money outside the city (and even, perhaps, the county) of L.A. My money goes where it’s welcome and not discriminated against. Regardless whether one chose to be be vaxed or not, DISCRIMINATION on the basis of a health decision IS WRONG AND UNACCEPTABLE IN THE USA, and I won’t support any business that participates in it.
Me too …going to Simi Valley and Burbank
PS: “Covid” never was the Zombie Apocalypse. No longer should be acting like it was. Including Gov HairGel and his renewable “state of emergency” hoaxes.
Time to drill past all the phony data, drill down to the truth and then rely on Dr Mom when the flu season strikes again. Just like we did in the past.
” They take it out on us when all we’re doing is complying with a law so we don’t get into trouble. If we follow, customers get angry and we lose some business. If we don’t, we’ll start to get fined in a few weeks. We can’t win.”
Restaurant owners – follow the lead of in n out and DISOBEY!!
These city counsel people really are stupid. They know the vaccine neither prevents you from getting or spreading the virus but require a 72 hour proof of negative test for only the unvaccinated. These Morons brilliant mandate will prove 100% without a doubt that a vaccinated person will be the source of a potential outbreak in the future because the unvaccinated have no choice but to show a negative covid test. These idiots really think they are keeping us safe with this I stupid plan. My 11 year old knows that if you plan on pushing this then everyone needs to be tested and have a negative test before being allowed in a business when it comes to mandating a shot that does not stop the spread of this virus. That is the only way if you want us to believe we are safe. Honestly are these people really that dumb. These are the people we are allowing to make the laws we have to live by? Seriously?. How does that make you feel? Bottom line these people are flat out stupid, or that’s what they think about us. There should be no mandates and this should have ended a long time ago.
Listen people. Mandates and lock-downs cannot REDUCE the spread and reappearance of virus mutations; much less PREVENT infections. Singapore has 85% population vaccination and the virus keeps coming. Natural immunity with therapeutics is the best way to deal it at this point. Vaccines cannot keep up with the pace of mutations: https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/worldwide-vaccine-failure?utm_source=&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=275
I’m fairly sure everyone whos posted here doesn’t understand how the vaccine works. No, it does not prevent you from being a carrier, that’s not what any vaccine does. No, it does not prevent you from spreading it if you are a carrier, that’s not what a vaccine does. it DOES prevent you from having a significant reaction to it if you do get it, so the unvaccinated would be FINE, even around carriers, get it? Cause that’s been said about a million times at this point. Stop describing things how you THINK they are and start DYOR and speaking truth, not belief.