On Friday, February 10, 2023 the covid vaccine will be optional for city workers. It will no longer be a requirement to work for the city. Also, public school buildings will no longer be checking vax papers, so unvaccinated parents can now attend school plays and parent-teacher conferences in person.
This does not mean that the 1,780 workers who were fired for refusing to submit proof of vaccination will just go back to work. It means they have to re-apply to their former agencies for a job, and hopefully a job will still be there. And, they are not entitled to any backpay.
James McCarthy, President of the Uniformed Fire Officers Association said, “We’re suing to have back pay for all the members that were put on leave without pay. One of the litigations is that it was illegal. It was a punishment and they weren’t given due process.”
Other Unions such as the Detectives Endowment Association (DEA) and the Police Benevolent Association (PBA) have vowed to sue for members’ backpay.
The PBA already won a lawsuit on behalf the entire union last September. The judge on that case ruled that that mandate was “invalid” and that all PBA members who were suspended or lost jobs due to the mandate be “reinstated to the status they were as of the date of the wrongful action.” The city appealed that decision.
This ruling is similar to a judge’s ruling last October, which stated that 16 DSNY workers were unjustly and illegally fired by the city, and that the workers should be reinstated to their jobs immediately with backpay. The city appealed that ruling also.
What the Mayor has done is lift a mandate. He is not guaranteeing these people jobs with the city again, never mind reinstating them to the status they were prior to termination. They are like any other joe blow off the street looking for a job. They just don’t need the jab now to apply.
The Mayor said city workers stepped up through the pandemic, and that we owe them a debt of gratitude. Then he said that with 96% of city workers having been vaccinated, this is the “right moment for this decision. I continue to urge every New Yorker to get vaccinated, get boosted, and take the necessary steps to protect themselves and those around them from Covid-19.”
Why is the Mayor continuing to push and advocate for this vaccine? He isn’t a doctor and we don’t need his opinion.
He is clearly unaware that there is a massive push now for an acknowledgement that these vaccines not only aren’t effective, they have caused physical harm and death.
The FDA even states on its own website that “the scientific community does not yet know if the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 Vaccine will reduce transmission.” “Real life” has shown us IT DOES NOT. There are far more covid cases now that there were at the “height of the pandemic.”
A group called the Coalition Advocating for Adequately Labeled Medicines has sent a petition to the FDA stating that basically, there isn’t enough information and data to assert that these shots prevent transmission OR death. They want the labeling on the shots to say this, and also for the “adverse event section” of the labeling to include “sudden cardiac death, pulmonary embolism and decreased sperm concentration.”
But do we really need this panel of experts to tell us that? Doesn’t common sense tell us that any medication requires the test of time to know just HOW well they work and what all the side effects are? Obviously, deciding to trust this vaccine was a personal decision that should have remained private. How could ANYONE push these shots on anyone, much less make a person’s ENTIRE CAREER conditional upon taking them?
Distressed Liberal 