New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced today that he is reversing a controversial vaccination ordinance for city employees.
The vaccination requirement that caused 1,780 public sector workers to lose their jobs last year is being abolished on Friday.
However, employees who have been made redundant do not automatically return to their old job and must reapply.
The mayor said the mandate “served its purpose” because the vast majority of workers were vaccinated and because tools like Paxlovid were available to prevent serious infections.
This puts pressure on the mayor to lift the remaining Covid orders. Former employees filed a $250 million lawsuit in January seeking compensation for lost earnings. They cited top US officials such as President Joe Biden, who declared the pandemic last year.
Vaccine prices in the US will skyrocket. While Americans have been able to get the surveys for free for the past two years, the cost for some could soon exceed $100.
Mayor Eric Adams announced Monday that New York’s vaccination mandate for public sector workers will be lifted on Friday, but that workers will have to leave because they will have to reapply to get their jobs back
Nearly 1,800 city employees lost their jobs in February 2022 due to the mandate. This was widely protested by unions and workers in the city. In the photo: City workers protest against the vaccination mandate in front of city hall
“As we approach our third year with COVID-19, we continue to evaluate existing responses and make adjustments as needed,” Anne Willaims-Ison, NYC Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services, said in a statement.
“The city’s vaccination requirement is one such measure and has produced significant results, with 96 percent of city employees vaccinated with the primary series.”
DR. NYC Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan said, “We’re grateful that now that we’re coming out of the emergency phase of the pandemic, we can change more of the rules that got us to this point.”
Firefighters, librarians, teachers and other city employees were among those fired for refusing to vaccinate. A total of 1,780 employees were initially affected.
Police officers who were fired as a result of the mandate were given their jobs back under a September decision by the state Supreme Court.
“The immunization mandate was an improper interference with our members’ right to make personal medical decisions in consultation with their own health care providers,” Patrick Lynch, president of the city’s Police Benevolent Association, said at the time.
These mandates were announced in October 2021 under then mayor Bill de Blasio. At the time he said it would “end the Covid era”.
Mayor Adams took office on January 1, 2022 and enforced orders. The deadline for receiving the injection for city employees was February 11.
When the order was placed, the Delta variety was still the dominant variety in the country.
Initially, Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna’s Covid vaccines were more than 90 percent effective in preventing infection by the virus.
Almost every adult New Yorker has received at least one shot of the Covid vaccine, with 90 percent of adults receiving both shots. However, the bivalent shot was barely used at only 16 percent
Just a month later, the vaccine-resistant Omicron variant appeared, drastically breaking the protection that even people with booster shots had against infection.
Many argued that changing the effectiveness of the shots outlived the mandate, with unions and city workers protesting if it was overturned in the days before the deadline.
MAJORITY Americans vaccinated by bivalent injection are NOT protected against variant XBB.1.5
The CDC said the primary goal of the vaccines is to prevent hospitalization and death, not transmission.
It was reported that 4,000 workers, about 1 percent of the city’s workforce, were not vaccinated by the deadline.
By the end of the workday, only 1,800 workers remained unvaccinated. They were placed on unpaid leave and later fired.
Since then, proof of vaccination has been a prerequisite for recognition by the community.
The mandate was eventually revoked, almost a year after it went into effect.
As of Friday, the mandate will be lifted and proof of vaccination will no longer be part of the application process for city jobs.
However, those who were fired a year ago for not vaccinating will not immediately get their jobs back.
“While the approximately 1,780 former employees who were fired for failing to provide proof of vaccination cannot be automatically returned to their previous positions, existing city rules and regulations allow them to apply for jobs at the former agencies, ” reads the statement.
According to official figures, 99 percent of New York City adults have received at least one shot of the Covid vaccine, with 90 percent fully vaccinated.
Only 16 percent of the adult population received a bivalent dose.
Covid has fallen sharply in the US over the past year. While previous winters devastated the country, this year the virus barely affected much of the country.
America is averaging 40,000 cases a day – up from nearly 400,000 in early February 2022.
Once the Covid capital of the world, its impact on life in New York has diminished. The Big Apple is suffering from 1,800 infections daily, compared to around 3,500 in early February last year.
In the past year, some high-profile officials such as President Biden and Dr. Anthony Fauci declares that the pandemic is over.
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Crystal Leahy is an author and health journalist who writes for The Fashion Vibes. With a background in health and wellness, Crystal has a passion for helping people live their best lives through healthy habits and lifestyles.
