August 14, 2021
Hundreds gathered in Olympia Friday to protest against the governor’s new statewide vaccine mandate that requires state workers and health care workers to get vaccinated by Oct. 4 or lose their jobs.
A crowd of more than 300 gathered at the Capitol Campus about noon, carrying signs such as “my body my choice,” “Medical Freedom,” and “Impeach/Recall Inslee.” Many at the event contended that the governor’s mandate is unconstitutional and in violation of their First Amendment rights.
Sean Bresnahan is a state employee who came up from Vancouver with his family and some of his colleagues. He told The Olympian he and his colleagues work for the state, but he wouldn’t say for which department. He said none of them are planning to get vaccinated.
Bresnahan said “the prospect of my employment being taken away if I don’t get vaccinated is duress,” which he contended makes the mandate unconstitutional.
He and others who spoke at the event specified that the protest was not against vaccines, saying to the crowd “it’s your choice to get one,” and that the protesters are “pro medical freedom, not anti-vax.” He listed various excuses people could give to try to exempt themselves from the mandate, even saying pastors could write religious exemptions for people.
The event was organized by Waking Up Washington, a faith-based anti-vaccine mandate group from Vancouver. The organization’s founder, Palmer Davis, told the crowd, “It’s more important that you don’t take this injection than you keep your job,” then she added, “but I want you to keep your jobs.”
Many of the protesters said they were Washington state employees. A man who identified himself only as Dylan, a Department of Corrections prison guard from Lewis County, said he wouldn’t give his full name because he worries about being fired because he won’t get a vaccine for his job.
Dylan said he didn’t want the vaccine because he said it had been rushed through the approval process. He said he would take it in a “few years ... once I can do my own research on it.”
Others shared Dylan’s fears that the vaccine had been rushed.
Chelly, a nurse from South Bend who also wouldn’t give her full name because of fear she’d be fired, said she won’t get the vaccine because the FDA has only authorized it for “emergency use.” She said she’d much rather wait until it’s not only FDA approved, but after several years when its side effects have been studied thoroughly.
After gathering near the Capitol’s Tivoli Fountain and waving and flashing signs at cars passing by on Capitol Way, the protesters marched to the steps of the Legislative Building. There they stood in the 90-degree heat, unmasked, chanting “my body my choice.” Afterward, people circled around various speakers who yelled about the unconstitutionality of the mandate.
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