New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced today that he is reversing a controversial vaccine mandate for city employees.
The proof of vaccination requirement that led to 1,780 public sector employees being fired will be scrapped on Friday, more than a year after it was introduced.
However, refuseniks who lost their jobs will not automatically walk back into their old jobs and will be forced to reapply.
Adams said the mandate was unnecessary because the vast majority of workers were vaccinated, and treatments like Paxlovid can prevent serious infection.
But he still claimed the measure had ‘served its purpose’ — even though many experts argue the vaccines are ineffective at preventing transmission.
Mayor Eric Adams announced Monday that New York City’s vaccine mandate for public sector employees would be lifted on Friday but employees let go as a result of it will have to re-apply to get their jobs back
Nearly 1,800 city employees lost their job in February 2022 because of the mandate. It was widely protested against by unions and workers in the city. Pictured: City workers protest in front of City Hall opposing the vaccine mandate
It comes as pressure on the mayor to lift remaining Covid orders mounts. Former employees filed a $250million lawsuit in January, wanting to be compensated for lost income.
They cited comments from leading US officials such as President Joe Biden, who declared the pandemic was ‘over’ last year.
‘As we near our third year with COVID-19, we continue to evaluate existing measures and adjust them as needed,’ Anne Willaims-Ison, NYC deputy mayor for the Health and Human Services, said in a statement.
‘The City’s vaccine requirement is one such measure and has yielded significant results with 96 percent of city workers vaccinated with the primary series.’
Dr Ashwin Vasan, the commissioner of NYC health, said: ‘We’re grateful that we can now, as we leave the emergency phase of the pandemic, modify more or the rules that have gotten us to this point.’
Those fired for refusing the vaccine included firefighters, librarians, teachers and other city employees.
Police officers who were fired because of the mandate were given their jobs back as part of a September decision by the state supreme court.
‘The vaccine mandate was an improper infringement on our members’ right to make personal medical decisions in consultation with their own health care professionals,’ 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. He said at the time it would ‘end the Covid era’.
Mayor Adams took office on January 1, 2022 and kept the orders in place. The deadline for receiving the shot for city employees was February 11.
When the order was put in place, the Delta variant was still the nation’s dominant strain.
Initially, trial data indicated the Pfizer and Moderna Covid vaccines were more than 90 percent effective at preventing infection from the virus.
Nearly every single adult New Yorker has received at least one shot of the Covid vaccine, with 90 percent of adults have gotten both shots. There has been little uptake of the bivalent shot, though, at only 16 percent
But as the virus has mutated, the vaccines have become less effective at reducing transmission.
Just a month after the vaccine mandate for NYC city employees was enforced, the Omicron variant emerged, plummeting the efficacy to below 30 percent.
Many argued that the change in the effectiveness of the shots made the mandate moot, with unions and city workers protesting to have if lifted in the days leading up to the deadline.
It was reported that 4,000 employees, around one percent of the city’s workforce, were still unvaccinated on the deadline day.
By the end of the workday, just 1,800 employees were still unvaccinated. They were placed on unpaid leave and later terminated.
Starting Friday, the mandate will be lifted and proof of vaccine will no longer be a part of the application process for jobs with the city.
Those who were let go a year ago for being unvaccinated will not immediately receive their job back, though.
‘While the approximately 1,780 former employees terminated for failing to submit proof of vaccination will not be able to automatically return to their previous positions, they will be able to apply for positions with the former agencies through existing city rules and regulations,’ a city release says.
According to official data, 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 has received a bivalent dose.
Covid has greatly receded in the US over the past year. While previous winters devastated the nation, the virus was barely a nuisance for much of the country this year.
America is averaging 40,000 daily cases – down 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 1,800 daily infections, down from around 3,500 in early February of last year.
Over the past year, some leading officials such as President Biden and Dr Anthony Fauci, have declared the pandemic over.
