New York forces police and firefighters to get Covid-19 vaccine | Globalism
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After teachers and health professionals, New York City will require police, firefighters and other municipal workers to take charge Covid-19 VaccineThis Wednesday (20) was announced by Mayor Bill de Blasio.
“The commitment will come into effect on November 1 for all the city’s workforce, including police, firefighters and street cleaners,” who will have to submit a vaccination certificate to continue working, a statement from the municipality said.
“The battle is not over yet,” de Blasio warned at a news conference. “Vaccination has made a difference and we have to go further” and “the vaccine is the way.”
After praising the performance of key workers during the health crisis, “it is time for them to show their city the way to end the epidemic once and for all.”
In New York, unvaccinated employees will be given unpaid leave
Help for those who have been vaccinated
To encourage vaccination, the municipality has promised to pay $500 to those who receive the first dose by October 29. From this date onwards, undecided will not be paid “until they provide proof of vaccination to their superiors,” and may lose their jobs, as is already happening with teachers and health professionals who have refused vaccination.
The only exception to this measure is the category of prison guards, whose enforcement has been postponed until December 1 due to an officer shortage at Rikers Island Prison, where deteriorating conditions of detention have been repeatedly denounced in recent weeks.
At least 71% of the 160,000 city employees affected by the city’s decision have already received at least one dose of the vaccine, meaning 46,000 people are not yet immunized.
So far, the compliance has only affected some of the professions with the most public exposure, such as teachers and health professionals. Others had the option of taking a negative test every week in order to work.
New York was hit hard by the pandemic in 2020, and already requires a vaccination certificate for many indoor activities, such as restaurants, cinemas, theaters and gyms.
More than 34,000 people have died from Covid-19 in the city of more than eight million people.
Police officers are more resistant to vaccines
A nurse fills a syringe with a dose of Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine at the mobile vaccination unit in Uniondale, New York, March 31, 2021 – Photo: Mary Altaffer/AP
New York’s main police union, the Police Charitable Society, has announced that it will appeal the municipality’s ruling in court.
“Now that the city has unilaterally decided to enforce this order, we will proceed with legal action to protect the rights of our members,” union president Patrick J. Lynch said in a statement posted to Twitter.
In the United States, the police have been more conservative about the vaccine than the rest of the population. However, according to Officer Down’s website, 228 police officers died in the United States by Covid-19 in 2021, making it the leading cause of death on the job, with 356 deaths on the job recorded so far. .
Due to population resistance to vaccination, more and more cities and states are resorting to mandatory vaccinations to curb the Corona virus, which has killed 728,400 people in the United States, and 1,557 people in the past 24 hours.
On Monday (18), the order in Washington state, on the country’s west coast, went into effect in August, requiring the vaccination of 800,000 government employees.
San Francisco, California, has also given a November 1 deadline to vaccinate 35,000 employees. In Texas, on the other hand, the Republican governor has banned the mandatory requirement for a vaccine, including in private businesses.
In Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot and the head of the local police union, John Catanzara, wrestle over vaccinations and whether public authorities have the right to enforce vaccinations.
The major police union has asked its members to decline to disclose whether or not they have been vaccinated, as Chicago is back in the top homicide statistics in the US, with 639 murders recorded this year as of Oct. 13, 55% higher than the two recorded. years ago.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden’s government plans to begin vaccination against Covid-19 for children aged 5 to 11 in November, a measure that will enable an additional 28 million people in the country to be immunized.
As of Wednesday, 77.1% of the population over 12 had already received one or more doses of the vaccine against Covid-19.
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