The LA County Sheriff said he isn't making his staff get vaccinated despite the county-wide mandate, saying the issue was too 'politicized'

• The LA County Sheriff said Wednesday he won't force staff to abide by the county's vaccine mandate.
• The LA Board of Supervisors said in August that all county employees had to be vaccinated by October 1.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff has said that he would not force his employees to get vaccinated in spite of the existing county-wide mandate.

In a Q&A streamed live on Facebook on Wednesday, Alex Villanueva said he couldn't afford to lose a large chunk of staff to the mandate, adding that the issue of mandatory vaccines had been "politicized."

"No, I am not forcing anyone, the issue has become so politicized there are entire groups of employees that are willing to be fired and laid off rather than get vaccinated," he said, when asked to clarify his stance.

"I don't want to be in a position to lose 5 to 10% of my workforce overnight on a vaccine mandate."

In August, Hilda L. Solis, the chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, issued an executive order requiring all of the 110,000 people employed by Los Angeles County to be vaccinated by October 1, with some medical and religious exemptions allowed.

Solis' order had gone one step further than the mandate issued by the state of California in July, which allowed people to get regular testing instead of getting vaccinated.

Villanueva's stance echoed one that he made in July, when he said he wouldn't force his employees to abide by the city's indoor-masking mandate.

Also on Wednesday, the Los Angeles City Council ordinance requires people to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination to gain entry to indoor venues such as restaurants, malls, and theaters.

The new regulations, which come into effect November 4, are the strictest seen in the US to date.

Thousands of people across the US are losing their jobs for refusing to abide by state and county level vaccine mandates.

As of September 22, everyone working for a US business that employs more than 100 people must be vaccinated against COVID-19 or be tested weekly, per an order from President Joe Biden.

Biden said Thursday that mandates are necessary to boost the sub-par US vaccination rate.

"We still have more than a quarter of the people in the US who are eligible for vaccinations but didn't get the shot," he said.

"That's why I've had to move toward requirements."