4-H Vax Mandate
With today’s Fruit Grower Report, I’m Bob Larson. More and more people are discovering they are subject to the Governor’s vaccine mandate … including now, 4-H volunteers.Governor Inslee’s office says 4-H volunteers must be fully vaccinated by October 18th.
Senate Republican leaders like Senator Mark Schoesler worry what this policy will do to the program …
SCHOESLER … “The 4-H program is something incredibly valuable for our youth in all 39 counties and to punish them for volunteering, sometimes once or twice a year, is just too much government.”
Schoesler says 4-H relies heavily on community volunteers, and this could mean a sharp decrease in participation …
SCHOESLER … “4-H leaders have to be screened, background checked and trained. They’re hard to recruit and retain. They’re good-hearted people. They use common sense. They’re leaders in our communities. What area we going to do, have the county agent show up at the 4-H meeting and check the vaccination status?”
Senator Judy Warnick says the Governor needs to be more flexible …
WARNICK … “I hope he listens. I hope that we can find our way around this, especially for volunteers. Because, like I said, many of them are already next-door neighbor or a relative of some kind. And, some people just can’t get a vaccine, so I hope he listens.”
The Senate ag leaders say Washington should follow Oregon and California and provide alternatives to vaccine mandates.