LOS ANGELES — About every two to three weeks, firefighter-paramedic Scott Lazar flies in to LAX from his home in South Carolina for his shift as a first responder. 

Lazar is one of a growing number of people in his field who work here in the L.A. area but live out of state, mainly for quality of life reasons. Lazar sold his family home in the South Bay in June and re-located his family.

“The cost of living was definitely a big part of it no doubt,” Lazar said.  “I felt my house was owning me instead of me owning it. I was not living the American dream, simply put.”

The constant travel means Lazar is getting tested for the coronavirus regularly and doing what he can to protect himself. So far he said all those tests have been negative.

But when it comes time for L.A. County’s Tier 1B phase that greenlights first responders like firefighters and paramedics to get the vaccine, Lazar said he has some concerns.

“By and large I’m not a vaccination guy. I never get the flu shot. Every flu season I hear, ‘I got the flu shot and here I am with the flu,’” Lazar said. “I appreciate that they broke historic records to get this vaccine to the public, but there is a reason it normally takes years to do that, so I will wait as they’ll allow me to wait.” 

Being on the front lines, Lazar has transported countless patients with suspected COVID-19 to L.A. hospitals, but he points out that there has also been a surge in calls related to depression and drug and alcohol overdoses. In his opinion, the lockdowns have had a more extreme impact than the virus itself.

“Some of the damage that we’re doing to society: businesses folding, people that are losing everything, I’m seeing more and more instances of going to people who are literally at their wits end because they don’t know what to do, they don’t know how to get help,” Lazar said.

“What I’m worried about is this call to follow the science; we have more people die of heart disease every year, we have more people die of obesity every year. So with the idea of not losing a body to COVID, I find that very very hypocritical and disingenuous," he added.

Lazar doesn’t think his agency will mandate a COVID-19 vaccine, and one of the reasons Spectrum News 1 can’t name where he works is his agency is still working on its vaccination guidance.

But Lazar does think major airlines might require proof of vaccination to fly, and if that’s the case, he said he will get the shot.

“It’s not my airline. If that’s what they want for me to fly on their airline, well, the last time I looked I have no God-given right to get on a plane. And if that’s the cost of getting on their plane along with an airline ticket, I guess that’s what I’ll have to do,” Lazar said.

Lazar stressed that he isn’t against the COVID-19 vaccine, he just wants the freedom to decide if and when he gets it.

“It’s the forever slippery slope. The day we mandate one thing, it opens the door for three others,” he said.

Even though Lazar is skeptical about the speed with which the vaccines were developed by "Big Pharma," he has been doing research about them on his time off and has come around on the science of the new technology, especially in recent weeks. It’s also important to him that the people he serves look to him as an example. 

“In our role, people look to us for leadership. So if the right answer to make the public, the people that I swore to serve, feel better is knowing that a large swatch of the department is vaccinated, that’s what I have to do," Lazar said.