Workers, supporters protest vaccine mandate

MOSES LAKE — At least 100 local health care workers, state employees, their families and supporters gathered Monday afternoon on all four corners of the intersection of Hill Avenue and South Pioneer Way to protest Gov. Jay Inslee’s COVID-19 vaccinate mandate.

“It’s my body, my choice,” said Jessica Spencer, a pediatric medical assistant at Confluence Health. “I don’t agree with it; I think it should be a choice.”

Protesters from across the Basin gathered beginning at 5 p.m. and held up signs with sentiments echoing Spencer’s words — “I’m informed, I don’t consent,” “My Body, My Choice,” and condemning the governor’s mandate last week that all state employees and health care workers need to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by Oct. 18 or risk losing their jobs.

And for all those present, the issue was freedom and choice.

“We’ve been on the frontlines since day one; we’ve been dealing with COVID patients, and we did all of that unvaccinated,” said Brandi Kissler, who oversees infection control at Othello Community Hospital. “Nobody was at the bedside with us.”

“And now we aren’t even given the choice. We didn’t have a choice whether or not to go to work; we went to work because it was our ethical duty, it’s what was right,” Kissler said. “We should have a choice now.”

Kissler said she is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, and so won’t lose her job. But she was there to support colleagues who have concerns, such as a younger co-worker who wants to start a family and will not get vaccinated because she’s worried she may not be able to have children due to the vaccine.

“How do I say to her she doesn’t matter? I can’t,” Kissler said. “Those of us who got vaccinated, we did it so we protected each other. We don’t need her vaccinated.”

Kissler said the mandate is a waste of time and money, both by the state and by hospitals and clinics preparing to deal with employees who choose not to be vaccinated.

“We’re in a surge; we should be focusing our resources to protecting and preventing and slowing down the spread,” she said.

Kissler said health care workers are willing to compromise — they are willing to wear masks and get regular COVID tests.

“But to force them to put something in their body when they’ve made that educated decision makes no sense,” she said.

Passing motorists honked loudly and repeatedly in a show of support for the protesters.

“It’s good to see the support,” said Heidi Wiester, who works with health care students at Big Bend Community College. “We need that. We definitely need that.”