The reaction is coming swiftly and strongly to a new edict from New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio early this week. He announced that all of the city’s municipal employees will need to get the COVID-19 vaccine—or face the consequences.
The city workers—and that includes all police and firefighters—will be mandated to get their first vaccine dose by 5 p.m. on Oct. 29, the mayor said, as The New York Post reported. Any city worker who has not begun a vaccine series by Nov. 1 will be placed on unpaid leave until providing proof of vaccination, according to de Blasio.
“It’s a mandate now for all city agencies, all city workers. It’s time for everyone to get vaccinated,” he said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Wednesday morning.
He also said, “We need to reassure all New Yorkers that, if you’re working with a public employee, they’re vaccinated. Everyone is going to be safe.”
Related: The Unvaxxed Are Ousted
But the pushback has begun already.
As The Post also reported, the mandate news “did not sit well” with one elected official in Brooklyn. “The mayor has no idea what he’s doing,” this official said. “We’re going to lose half of our cops and half of our fire department if this goes through, and then what?”
An earlier rule had required that first responders be vaccinated or face regular COVID testing.
There is no testing option under de Blasio’s edict.
The forced compliance of COVID vaccination across the country has led to protests of all kinds.
The Post Millennial shares these updates across a range of groups and cities:
- In the Big Apple, teachers have already faced a vaccine mandate, with 96 percent compliance. There have been some notable, vocal exceptions. Many teachers and their supporters have protested all across the city to bring attention to the issue of forced compliance.
- Seattle workers, including law enforcement and firefighters, have also raised their voices in opposition to mandates in the state of Washington.
- In California, teachers and parents have taken up protesting in defiance of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s demand for vaccinations of all teachers and staff.
- The LA county sheriff said that five to ten percent of his officers could leave their positions over the mandate.
- And in Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said that officers who decline to get vaccinated are aiming to “induce an insurrection.”
Meanwhile, in Arizona, the Department of Public Safety there has begun issuing “several new badges” to former residents of Washington state. In addition, it is “reviewing dozens of applications as the northwest state begins firing officers for refusing a COVID-19 vaccination,” Just The News reported. The officers are leaving the state of Washington because of the mandates by Gov. Jay Inslee.
“Those of us who oppose [Joe] Biden’s mandates aren’t advocating for or against the vaccine, but for the freedom of every American to make their own decisions,” wrote Carla Sands, a Republican who is running to succeed Sen. Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania.
She added, “We believe that mandating health decisions is a slippery slope to tyranny.”
She said as well, “Sweeping COVID-19 vaccine mandates are just Washington seizing power over individuals. It’s time that we put personal liberty above politics and allow everyone to make their own risk assessment and decide if they want to get the vaccine, smoke or eat fast food. Let the people, not the politicians, decide.”
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—CNJ Staff