California Governor Gavin Newsom likened unvaccinated people to drunk drivers during his announcement that any health care and state workers who haven’t received the jab will be required to submit to regular COVID-19 testing.

‘You don’t have a choice to go out and drink and drive and put everybody else’s lives at risk. That’s the equivalent of this moment with the deadliness & efficiency of the Delta variant,’ he said at a Monday press conference.

State employees who decline to get vaccinated will be forced to get a coronavirus test once a week, while healthcare workers will be required to get tested twice a week. The deadline to submit proof of vaccination for state employees is August 2, while healthcare workers have until August 23.

“As the state’s largest employer, we are leading by example and requiring all state and health care workers to show proof of vaccination or be tested regularly, and we are encouraging local governments and businesses to do the same,” Newsom commented.

The first-in-the-nation mandate will affect 238,000 state employees, and around 1.7 million healthcare workers based on total healthcare employment records from May 2020.

“Vaccines are safe – they protect our family, those who truly can’t get vaccinated, our children and our economy,” he continued. “Vaccines are the way we end this pandemic.”

While speaking to MSNBC about the new mandate, Newsom attributed the 25% of remaining vaccine holdouts in California to the “overwhelming majority of misinformation” by right-wing pundits.

“Time to be a little bit more specific, the Ron Johnsons of the world. The Marjorie Taylor Greenes of the world, the Tucker Carlsons of the world,” he remarked.

“I watch them,” Newsom went on. “I listen, I pay attention. They’re misinforming people. They’re literally putting people’s lives at risk. People are dying because of the misinformation, either knowingly or unknowingly, regardless, time to call it out.”