Category: It’s About Control

Last week, 16 DSNY Workers who had been wrongfully terminated for not being vaccinated won their lawsuit against NYC. The NY Supreme Court judged ruled that the vaccinate mandate imposed on them–and all workers–was Unconstitutional, Arbitrary and Capricious. The Judge wrote that the Workers should go back to their jobs and were entitled to back-pay starting from the date of termination.

From Judge Ralph Porizo’s Ruling on the case:

“Being vaccinated does not prevent an individual from contracting or transmitting covid-19. As of the Day of this Decision, CDC guidelines requiring quarantine and isolation are the same for vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals. The Petitioners should not have been terminated for choosing not to protect themselves.”

“This is not a commentary on the effect of vaccination, but on how we are treating our first responders, the ones who worked day-to-day during the height of the pandemic. They worked without protective gear. They were infected with Covid-19, creating natural immunity. They continued working full duty while their exemptions were pending. They were terminated and are willing to come back and work for the city that cast them aside.”

“The vaccination mandate for City employees was not just about safety and public health; it was about compliance. If it was about safety and public health, the workers would have been placed on leave the moment the order was issued….If it was about safety and public health, no one would have been exempt.” (In March, Mayor Adams exempted celebrity athletes and performers from the vaccine mandate)

New York City instantly appealed the ruling, so the Workers are still jobless and in limbo.

When the Workers’ attorney, Chad Laveglia, was asked about the appeal, he replied, “It’s unconstitutional and it’s arbitrary and capricious, not just for sanitation workers but for everyone. The city’s appeal is futile, they’re wasting taxpayer money on a policy that is on its face unequal. Last time I checked, equality was a big deal.“

Not in “liberal” NYC, where questions by the people about the harms of medical mandates are met with derision and annoyance by their political betters, like Senator Liu:

The interviewer points out the thousands of teachers have lost their jobs, and that the vaccines do not stop infections or viral transmissions. These are stone-cold FACTS.

In the face of these facts, Senator Liu simply commands the interviewer to “just get vaccinated. Get vaccinated and boosted.” He doesn’t want to hear that the vaccine doesn’t stop infections, he just issues an authoritarian order, based on what government agencies say to do. The CDC said to do it, so DO IT, peasant! There is no logical reasoning or defense of his position. Liu just COMMANDS to interviewer to vaccinate and shuts down the conversation.

How much do you want to bet a lot of “liberals” in NYC are right on board with Senator Liu’s approach? We have lived through a literal inversion of the old liberal adage, “Question Authority.” And here we are.

U.S. Senator Samuel Bell (D-RI) recently introduced a bill that would fine unvaccinated Rhode Islanders $50 a month and double their personal income taxes.

This mandate extends to all residents age 16 and older, as well as non-residents who work in Rhode Island. Any requests for a medical exemption to the mandate must be signed and notarized by three doctors. However, the Department of Health has the power to reject any exemption it deems insufficient.

Although every single student and staff member at Columbia University is required to be vaccinated and boosted, they are once again mandated to wear masks in the classroom. The belief is that the masks are needed to protect these people from the coronavirus. Let me repeat: a fully vaccinated and boosted population (100% compliance) is still required to mask. This is the case at several U.S. universities.

Last year, the world saw the only nation to be 100% vaccinated experience a subsequent 20% rise in covid cases and cancel their Christmas celebrations. Covid in Gibraltar is still classed as “level three: high” by the CDC although many there are boosted as well.

If you can still catch the virus after getting injected (multiple times) then the vaccine doesn’t work. Vaccines make you immune to a virus and this one doesn’t. The Director of the CDC has clearly and definitively stated that the vaccines do not stop transmission of the virus.

The vaccines supposedly ensure that you won’t die from (with?) covid, but data and the persistent desire of some to keep everyone masked regardless of vaccination status, seems to indicate otherwise.

There is no logical or moral rationale for coercing or punishing anyone who does not take this vaccine which (like many medications) comes with the risk of serious side effects and cannot stop viral transmission. In fact, Pfizer has stated that covid cannot be eradicated and the (already highly survivable) virus will become endemic.

Instead of using scientific fact and logical reasoning to justify this divisive and very financially threatening bill, Senator Bell indulged in emotional web-spinning that provided no justification for it whatsoever. His infant son’s lung condition has made the Senator “more compassionate” and he is afraid his son won’t be able to interact with people. Senator Bell went on to say:

“Thousands of Rhode Islanders have died. I’ve had really painful calls from constituents who can’t go to the store because they’re immunocompromised, who have lost loved ones from the pandemic, who are really ill and not fully recovered.”

There are hundreds of viruses, bacteria and pathogens out there that could harm the immunocompromised. It’s too bad the vaccines will never rid the world of covid, and don’t have the full faith of the vaccinators who still want the vaccinated to mask. If they to want to keep masking the vaccinated, the vaccines must not be very effective. The vaccine makers have really let the immunocompromised down.

The American public deserves so much better than this Senator, who gave absolutely no scientific rationale to justify a financially punitive vaccine mandate. He thinks the vaccine commercials put out by the U.S. Government and funded by American taxpayers have made his argument for him, and he is hoping none of his constituents have wondered why the all the possible side effects aren’t named like they are in the other drug commercials.

Apparently this bill is unpopular with the public, in fact some Rhode Island residents called their representatives wondering if the bill was an internet hoax. Some Senators who originally supported it have since distanced themselves.

It is expected that this bill, which was introduced on March 1, 2022 without much press and was only recently brought to the public’s attention by a concerned Rhode Island citizen, will not pass. But these days, you cannot be sure of anything.

Let’s recap the vaccine mandate situation in New York City. Nobody can work without showing proof of a covid-19 vaccination. You must be vaccinated to earn a living in the Big Apple. The mandate is in effect in all sectors, for all workers regardless of position. Even a teenage babysitter is expected to show proof of vaccination if asked. Unvaccinated city workers are put on unpaid leave or terminated, and unvaccinated private sector workers get fired. Capiche?

This, even though there have been MORE deaths classed as Covid in 2021 when vaccines were available, than in 2020 when there weren’t. It is fully acknowledged that the vaccines do not stop viral spread. And we can’t even be sure that the fabled claim that “the vaccine prevents hospitalization and death” is true. This data analysis of covid patients showed that hospitals declared those admitted with unknown vaccine status as “unvaccinated.” Once the vaccine records were matched and verified, the unvaccinated cases dropped by a third. And, the initial numbers of hospitalized vaccinated patients were shown to have been “grossly understated” by THOUSANDS.

The truth is, we are all still learning about what these vaccines do and do not do. There is no public safety or moral justification for coercing people to take them and there never has been. Full stop.

The “Key to NYC” program expired on March 7, which means the previously banned unvaccinated are once again allowed inside restaurants and other venues. But the mandates made it socially acceptable to discriminate, so some businesses keep up those nice, blue city-made “unvaccinated, do not enter!” signs in their windows.

NY Nets basketball star Kyrie Irving made waves last year for his refusal to vaccinate. When previous NYC Mayor Bill DeBlasio put forth the private sector mandate last December, that meant Kyrie couldn’t play for the Nets. Eventually, they let him play again, but only for road games. Why? Because Kyrie would be in violation of the mandate if he played home games, in Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. He was allowed to play with his team in other cities because those cities DIDN’T have mandates. The virus stopped being a problem when Kyrie left town.

The virus also stops being a problem when unvaccinated VISITING players come to town. An unvaccinated player on the opposing team can play at Barclays Center (because he’s not an employee of an NYC business).

When the “Key to NYC” expired, that meant the Barclays was no longer off limits for unvaccinated spectators. So, Kyrie Irving attended a home game a few weeks ago, as a spectator.

To recap: Kyrie Irving, unvaccinated, could not play basketball at Barclays because of a vaccine mandate. But unvaccinated visiting players COULD play inside Barclays. And Kyrie could play with his team, but ONLY if the Nets were out of town. And then, Kyrie Irving COULD enter Barclays as a spectator, but NOT as a player. The virus is or is not a problem, according to rules about certain people entering certain buildings. Got it?

So, it’s pretty stupid that Kyrie Irving can be inside Barclays as a spectator but not as a player, right? When pressed about the hypocrisy and downright absurdity of the vaccine mandates, Mayor Eric Adams lamented that he couldn’t bend the rules for Kyrie because “it would send the wrong message just to have an exception for one player when we’re telling countless numbers of New York City employees, “If you don’t follow the rules, you won’t be able to be employed.”

Got that? Being vaccinated isn’t about health. It’s about following rules.

But, it turns out that being an elite athlete who makes millions of dollars has its perks. Now, the rules WILL be bent for him and other unvaccinated NYC athletes (and performers). They can play at-home games now. But for all other workers, the vaccine mandates are still in effect, indefinitely.

Hear ye, hear ye! King Mayor Adams decrees that he “really wants that ring” so he will allow Kyrie Irving the privilege of playing his game! I say, unjabbed athletes may play now at the pleasure of the King, who is a big NY Nets fan! Be it known however, that the peasants must continue to abide by the King’s mandate! This exception is for multimillionaire athletes and entertainers only! Hear ye!

NYC has allowed a horrible (and dangerous) precedent to be set. Now, one person with power can stop millions of people from exercising their basic right to work for a living if they don’t follow his absurd, illogical, unscientific and inhumane rule. Your ability to work in NYC is now contingent on following an arbitrary rule (not a law), not voted on by anyone, put in place by someone who happens to be a mayor, who can have it apply whenever and to whomever he wants.

Kyrie Irving was very happy about playing home games again, but he did say this: “Any special privilege or exemption, I think there are a lot of people dealing with real consequences from being unvaccinated. I don’t think it’s talked about enough in terms of our essential workers and people on the front lines. It’s a whole community of us that really want to stand together.”

Consequences like job termination with no unemployment benefits and social ostracization, Kyrie? Can you be more specific, please, even though the truth sounds harsh? It would be so righteous if Kyrie really did stand with his fellow unvaccinated New Yorkers, and refused to play until the mandates were lifted for everyone and people got their jobs back. Somehow, I doubt that will happen.