"Over the past couple of weeks, the idea of forced vaccination has caused much concern across the entire country," Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco announced in a statement issued Monday. "I will not enforce the vaccine mandate on Sheriff's Department employees."
"The government has no ability and no authority to mandate your health choices," he stated. "As your sheriff, I have an obligation to guard your liberty and freedom."
Bianco and his family recovered from the coronavirus last winter, ABC7 reported, and he continued in his announcement: "I am certainly not anti-vaccine; I am anti-vaccine for me."
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Bianco continued that he was inspired to issue the statement after he conducted a podcast on forced vaccinations, and maintained a local newspaper would use "cherry-picked" remarks from "supposed" health officials "in an attempt to paint me and the Sheriff’s department in a negative light."
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“There is absolutely nothing in my podcast that was incorrect or irresponsible,” he said Monday, adding: “I am certainly not anti-vaccine. I am anti-vaccine.”
"This is nothing but sensationalism trying to gain readership and further divide us as Americans."
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Bianco has been vocal throughout the pandemic on the government’s involvement in restricting people to their homes throughout lockdowns and declined to enforce Gov. Gavin Newsom's coronavirus stay-at-home order last year.
"These closures and stay-at-home orders are flat-out ridiculous," Bianco announced back then.
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"The Riverside County Sheriff's Department will not be blackmailed, bullied or used as muscle against Riverside County residents in the enforcement of the governor's order," he continued.
He further slammed the state’s liberal governor as "hypocritical," citing the controversial photos of Newsom last fall dining in a swanky restaurant maskless and surrounded by people from outside of his own household.
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Bianco’s remarks come after members of the Los Angeles Police Department filed a federal lawsuit over the weekend to reverse the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. While a professor in California further recently filed a lawsuit against the University of California school system's Board of Regents and the president over a coronavirus vaccine mandate, which he claimed he does not need because of his natural immunity against the virus.
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Bianco said he did not know how many deputies have been vaccinated, but noted that at least 1,500 have tested positive for COVID-19. At least two Riverside County sheriff’s deputies have died.
Bill Young, president of the Riverside Sheriffs’ Assn. A union group said Tuesday that the group “supports the Sheriff 100% in this matter.”
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