S.F. firefighters who refused vaccines fought their firings with misinformation and conspiracy theories

By turns emotional and grueling, the process that began in February juxtaposes a city with an 84% vaccination rate against a culture war waged by a small but fervent population of public employees who continue to resist the city’s mandate.

Currents of politically charged vaccine hesitancy appear to run deep within a segment of San Francisco’s firefighters. Last June, 103 of them, and 89 other city employees, submitted identical letters to the city’s human resources department, rebuffing the vaccine mandate and suggesting it infringed on their “God-given and constitutionally secured rights.”

Tension built up since then, even as the majority of city workers got their shots, or found work elsewhere. Those who kept up the fight were dismissed in October and placed on unpaid leave and given a separation hearing, with no time limit, to determine whether the firing would stand. According to Fire Department spokesperson Jonathan Baxter, each dismissed employee could return to work after complying with the vaccine mandate.

Ken Cleaveland, a former fire commissioner, resigned in February rather than endure more of the painful proceedings.

“I just can’t go through this torture anymore,” Cleaveland said in an interview with The Chronicle. He couldn’t bear to hear the wrenching personal stories from firefighters who were about to lose their livelihoods, some of whom brought family members or pastors to appeal on their behalf.

While such hearings normally take place behind closed doors, many firefighters have elected to let the public participate, and some sympathizers have posted videos of the meetings on social media or in blogs that present the terminated firefighters as martyr-like figures. In these videos and in minutes supplied by the commission, public speakers have recited scripture, invoked the Nuremberg trials, and cited unsubstantiated theories about laboratories in Wuhan, China, or the “racial specificity” of proteins in the coronavirus.

Firefighters and their allies have compared the vaccines, which are deemed safe and effective by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the World Health Organization, to forced injections. Several insisted that God alone tells them what to put in their bodies. Civil liberties groups and critics of the medical establishment have rallied to help: One employee brought an internationally known vaccine skeptic to testify on his behalf, telling commissioners that the pandemic has all but disappeared.

Cleaveland described these exchanges as heartbreaking and predictable. A firefighter would plead to keep his or her job, only to confront “the same rigmarole over and over” from city officials who wouldn’t grant exemptions. Ultimately, Cleaveland became frustrated with colleagues and department heads who refused to budge on the health order.

“If we had a little more flexibility, I would still be on the Fire Commission today,” he said.

Fire Chief Jeanine Nicholson declined to be interviewed, saying, through a spokesperson, that department heads are barred from commenting on employee-management issues. Commissioners Katherine Feinstein, Stephen Nakajo, Francee Covington and Armie Morgan did not return phone calls or emails.

But Nicholson made her position clear during a hearing in March for former firefighter Michael Kricken, in which she laid out one of her job duties: enforcing the health order requiring firefighters to receive a full regimen of injections by Oct. 13, 2021.

Although the city’s health order permits exemptions for medical conditions and people with “sincerely held” religious beliefs, stipulating that unvaccinated employees who qualify must wear masks and get tested for COVID-19 once a week, Nicholson has not allowed anyone to pursue this alternate path. She said she would not be able to manage a Fire Department in which some firefighters could not be sent to calls dealing with vulnerable populations because they refused to get vaccinated.

“We would not be providing the service that we are sworn to provide,” she said at Kricken’s proceeding. “Our unvaccinated staff would not be allowed to enter certain settings. We often need all hands on deck. It’s just not operationally sound for us to not permit all of our members into a scene.”

Such firm reasoning disappointed Shon Buford, president of the firefighters’ union, who told The Chronicle he’s disheartened that members “who served citizens in one of the most difficult times in modern history were not given the opportunity to have their religious or medical exemptions,” and that the city did not seek a “reasonable accommodation” to allow them to keep their jobs.

During Kricken’s hearing, the argument over labor policy quickly devolved into virulent political attacks. Speakers used the words “tyrant,” “tyrannical” or “tyranny” five times to describe the city’s enforcement of COVID rules.

“God gave me natural immunity already,” Kricken told the commission during his testimony, laying out the first of several reasons he thought he should be exempt from a city health order.

Chiefly, Kricken cited his “God-given right to decide what I put and not put in my body,” and argued that the currently available vaccines do not prevent people from catching or transmitting COVID. He also contended that the antibodies he has from a 2020 bout with COVID are superior to the protection provided by vaccines. Kricken was on unpaid leave from Oct. 14 until his separation was upheld on March 16. He referred requests for comment to his lawyer, Heather Gibson, who did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Among Kricken’s witnesses at the hearing was Michael Yeadon, a British former Pfizer research scientist-turned-outspoken anti-vaccine activist, who offered his own interpretation of the city’s health order — over objections from deputy city attorney Matthew Yan, who said Yeadon did not have any relevant qualifications, as Yeadon laughed over him.

Yeadon said that he had reviewed Kricken’s laboratory blood test results, that Kricken was “far less likely” to transmit the coronavirus than a vaccinated person. In the past, Yeadon has characterized the pandemic as “a tragedy of exaggerated threats and inappropriate responses coupled with poor reasoning,” a quote Yan invoked during cross-examination.

Other hearings became just as testy, as firefighters tried to take a principled stand against what they saw as government corruption and cruelty.

“You guys are all puppets, and — and you’re answering to your slave masters, and you’re committing horrible atrocities against these people,” San Francisco firefighter Michael Crotty told the commission on March 30. “Think about that. You sold us out for money. You took away our careers.” he said. Crotty was not available for comment.

One firefighter, Jessica Beers, wore a T-shirt at her hearing with the slogan “Let’s Go Brandon” — a widely acknowledged disparagement of President Biden. Beers could not be reached for comment.

With one more firefighter termination hearing pending, city officials are bracing for what could be the next round — for any paramedics who miss the June 30 deadline to get COVID boosters.