Dua Anjum talked to small business owners in LA about their frustrations on the new vaccine mandate.
Whether you’re dining at bars or restaurants, getting your nails done, or hitting the gym — the LA City Council voted that you will need your vaccination cards for entry starting November 4.
Some, like Yancey Quiñones, say that vaccination cards are easy to fake.
QUIÑONES: It’s just a little piece of paper. there’s nothing special on it. Doesn’t have any halogens on it. Nothing like that. It’s just like the vaccine card - anyone can make one on a computer and print it out. Even if you’re not vaccinated you could just make it and print one out. It’s a joke.
Quiñones is the co-owner of Antigua Coffee Roasters on Figueroa. He believes the mandate is going to harm small businesses like his own.
QUIÑONES: People don’t sit in here. They don’t hang out in here anymore. It’s not that same vibe. No one is really interacting, so people are following the rules as far as our customer base. So, when i heard about it i was kinda concerned. I said well you know that’s not gonna help small businesses at all.
Quiñones also doesn’t know how he and his co-owner will enforce the rule in November.
QUIÑONES: How is the city gonna enforce it? Are they gonna use the LAPD? Who’s gonna enforce it? No one’s gonna enforce it. I mean do we have to hire a doorman? Do we have to bring a doorman, put him on the payroll?
Cheri Rae Russell agrees. She is the owner of Peace Yoga Gallery in downtown. For her customers, it was already challenging enough to practice yoga with masks on.
RUSSEL: My business was the busiest yoga studio in downtown Los Angeles, and the most successful, and they came in and told me I had to close doors. And I’ve lost almost everything.
For Russell’s business, the new vaccine restriction is a breaking point.
RUSSEL: There are a lot of us that are still standing but you can walk down the street and they’ve crushed everything. Because of the danger it poses to small businesses, Russell says she is against the vaccine mandate and will fight to continue giving her community a space to exercise their freedom. I am going to fight it. I will not close my doors. They can come arrest me and fine me. I will not - not - stop doing what I’m doing. And I’ll take it to the supreme court. I will fight for Los Angeles because that’s what we need right now.
The Mayor of Los Angeles Eric Garcetti thinks he’s also fighting for the city’s wellbeing. That’s why he and the city council signed the vaccine mandate earlier this month. He said in a statement: “Vaccinating more Angelenos is our only way out of this pandemic, and we must do everything in our power to keep pushing those numbers up. These new rules will encourage more people to get the shot, and make businesses safer for workers and customers — so that we can save more lives, better protect the vulnerable, and make our communities even safer as we fight this pandemic.”
At a time when the world is still figuring out how to protect people against COVID and get back to normal, LA’s vaccine mandate remains controversial.