Scores of New York City employees face an uncertain future this week amid one of the nation’s most exhaustive vaccination requirements.
All municipal employees must show proof they have been vaccinated by Friday or they will be fired. This requirement was put in place by the former mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio.
It is now being enforced by his successor, Eric Adams.
Court Judgments
When the outgoing mayor put the rule in place in mid-October, other cities and the Biden administration also required people to get vaccinated.
Adams didn’t back down, even though there’s been a big shift in public opinion against vaccination mandates in the months before.
A series of court judgments prevented the Biden administration from enacting a vaccination mandate for federal employees comparable to New York City. The Supreme Court ruled down a second mandate aimed at bigger private businesses.
Other localities have abandoned vaccination requirements in the face of vehement resistance and concerns of job losses.
NYC Fires More Than 1000 Workers Over Vaccine Mandates https://t.co/ISQpsXjj1A
— HillReporter.com (@HillReporter) February 15, 2022
After a lot of resistance from Portland’s police union, city officials finally let their police department get out of having to be vaccinated.
In late January, Las Vegas officials dropped the vaccination requirement for new police officers to get more people to join the force.
However, New York City has remained unmoved by protests and legal challenges to the city’s requirement that all children be vaccinated.
The mayor’s office didn’t respond to a request for comment about the firings. On Monday, the Associated Press learned 1,430 city employees who didn’t get a vaccine or an exemption by Feb. 11 were fired.
After a previous deadline, the city already put most of the workers on leave, but they had not yet been fired until judicial appeals.
Nearly 3,000 Employees Might Be Fired
According to the AP, most of the people who were fired worked for the New York City Department of Education.
In the weeks leading up to the deadline, many instructors sought to challenge the vaccination mandate in court, alleging a religious objection to the injection after their petitions for religious exemptions were refused.
Last Thursday, the Supreme Court denied their emergency appeal. As many as 3,000 people could be fired before the deadline; that would make this the country’s largest mass firing in response to vaccination regulations.
HAPPENING NOW: 3000 NYC workers may lose their jobs today because of vaccine mandates. pic.twitter.com/YdM4GJ6thX
— Susan HONKHONK🍊Moss #SaveAmerica🇺🇸 (@MossMom319) February 11, 2022
The firings came as Democrat authorities continue to rip back unpopular mask mandates and immunization restrictions.
Mayor Muriel Bowser of Washington, D.C., said Monday the city’s proof-of-vaccination requirement for companies would be eliminated.
Denver’s Democrat leaders just voted to get rid of proof-of-vaccination rules. Over the last week, more than a half-dozen Democrat governors also voted to eliminate statewide mask rules.
A Monmouth University survey published in late January discovered that 70% of respondents agreed, “it’s past time we accepted COVID is here to stay and we should just get on with our lives.”
