MSNBC "All In with Chris Hayes" - Transcript: Interview with Jay Inslee

Interview

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MAXWELL: I want to bring in Governor Jay Inslee, Democrat of Washington State who just instituted a vaccine mandate for all school employees in his state and also brought back an indoor mask mandate. Thank you so much for being here, Governor.

GOV. JAY INSLEE (D-WA): Thanks for having me.

MAXWELL: So, these are among the strictest mandates in the entire country. Why did you decide to implement them now?

[20:05:02]

INSLEE: Well, there`s two things that we care deeply about. There`s -- that is we want our schools open because we know our kids need to be in school this year, and we want them safe when they`re in school. And there are two tools that are absolutely necessary to achieve both of those ends. Those are masks on our children and the people around them. And those are vaccinations on the people who serve them, our educators, our bus drivers.

It would be the height of irresponsibility not to use both of those tools to protect our children. These children are now showing up in our emergency rooms in greater numbers. Just 10 minutes ago, I was reading an article about a 9-year-old child who is struggling for breath. Think about that, a child nine years of old -- of age struggling for breath because adults would not wear a mask or get vaccinated that was safe, effective, and free. I cannot understand why people think that is fulfilling our responsibility to our children.

So, we have adopted common-sense measures that will have masks, that we know that work and we know kids can deal with them. These kids are pretty resilient. They know how to get through this. And they`ve done it better than adults, actually. And also, a vaccine requirement for our educators and our nurses and doctors and for our state employees.

Because you know what people say, well, this is just about my health. That`s just wrong. It`s about everybody`s health. These are contagious diseases. Sure, if you don`t want to treat your cancer and your heart attack, that might be up to you. But it is not right in this country to not try to prevent a transmission of a contagious disease.

George Washington for goodness sakes, got his army vaccinated. So, these are common-sense measures. They might be the strictest, but I see Oregon has now joined us on these. California and New York have versions of this. I think you`re going to see people join us, unfortunately, because of the terrible toll this has taken on our families.

MAXWELL: In terms of those bus drivers and nurses and teachers that work in schools, if they don`t comply with the mandate to get vaccinated, are they going to lose their jobs?

INSLEE: Unfortunately, yes. We don`t want that to do -- to do -- that to happen. Look, we love these teachers. We love bus drivers. We love custodians. Custodians, frequently, are the most loved person in the school, and they`re pivotal and part of the educational team. So, we want to keep everybody who`s doing this great work. And there is no reason not to get these vaccines, except if you have some medical situation. There`s also a religious exemption for actual -- sincere actual beliefs. But otherwise, there`s no reason not to do it.

And we don`t think people are going to walk away from these careers when they have a chance to think about this. And the reason is, the evidence is so compelling. It`s compelling that we`ve had over 300 million doses safely, 165 million people. There`s no reason not to get this vaccine. And frankly, once people have to make a decision of losing their career and a paycheck or having a simple, safe, and effective vaccine, we think people are going to stay. We want them to stay. We want to continue educating our kids with these teams. It`s very important for all of us.

But if they don`t, you know, they will have to find other work. And they won`t be eligible for unemployment compensation either. So, we think there will be some mature, serious discussions in families. We will keep our schools open, and we will keep our great educators that we love and respect. And we`re going to save a lot of lives in the interim.

MAXWELL: Well, we`ve had vaccine mandates forever in a variety of contexts. I remember my first week of college needing to get a meningitis vaccine. So, this is nothing new.

INSLEE: That`s right.

MAXWELL: In terms of -- in terms of the Republican governors who are on the other side of the spectrum from you in terms of their COVID response, they`re going against the science. They`re actually banning people from being able to even implement mascon vaccine mandates. You`re leaning into the science to keep people safe. Why did you decide to lean into what the science says for us to do?

INSLEE: Well, that`s because we know it works. Look, science works. It`s why jets work. It`s why, you know, our cars work. Science works and it`s worked for us. We`ve had probably the fourth lowest per capita death rate in our state because we have followed science. And the science is so abundantly clear. It`s like gravity. It`s inarguable. Masks work. They cut the rate of transmission. This has been a very well-established fact.

Now, it doesn`t take understanding of quantum physics to understand why. It blocks transmission because of this thin barrier, which allows us to do what we normally do. Look, the other part of this, we don`t want to shut down our businesses. You know, when we started this, we shut down our whole economy and our schools. We do not want to go that route. Instead, we want to use these scientifically credible tools, one of which is mask.

And on the vaccine front, there is hardly something that has been proven more safe, more effective, and now universally available than these vaccines. But unfortunately, people have heard a lot of misinformation on the internet. And I hope everybody who might be listening tonight will step up and be a leader and talk to your relatives and the people you love and your co-workers about what`s really the truth about these vaccines.

They work, they`re effective, we haven`t had adverse impacts. If we all embrace each other, I think we`re going to get more people vaccinated. Science works. That`s why we follow it.

[20:10:43]

MAXWELL: Science checks out. That`s what my dad always says. He`s a biologist. Governor Jay Inslee, thank you -- thank you so much for being here tonight.

INSLEE: You bet.

MAXWELL: And please stay safe.

INSLEE: Be well.

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