Thousands of New York City workers face an uncertain future as one of the nation’s most extensive remaining vaccine mandates goes into effect this week.
Implemented by former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and upheld by his successor, Eric Adams, the vaccine mandate applies to all municipal workers and requires city employees to show proof of vaccination by Friday or risk termination.
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But de Blasio announced the mandate against a starkly different political and cultural backdrop.
In mid-October, when the former mayor issued the requirement, other cities and the Biden administration were aggressively pursuing vaccine mandates that had much broader support from the public.
Adams declined to reverse the mandate despite enormous shifts in attitudes toward vaccine mandates in the intervening months.
Court rulings have stopped the Biden administration from implementing a vaccine mandate for federal employees that would have been similar to New York City’s worker requirement, and the Supreme Court struck down a separate mandate that would have applied to larger private employers.
Other cities have backed away from vaccine mandates in the face of fierce opposition and threats of personnel loss.
In Portland, city officials ultimately exempted their police department from a citywide vaccine mandate after encountering intense opposition from Portland’s police union.
In Las Vegas, officials lifted a vaccine mandate in late January for new police officers as the city works to attract fresh recruits.
But New York City has so far not budged in response to opposition, ignoring protests and lawsuits against the vaccine mandate.
The mayor’s office did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment on the terminations but told the Associated Press on Monday that 1,430 city workers who failed to receive a vaccination or an exemption by Feb. 11 were terminated.
The city had already placed most of the workers on leave after a previous deadline, but they hadn’t yet been fired as court challenges proceeded.
Most of the fired workers came from the New York City Department of Education, according to the Associated Press.
Some teachers had attempted to fight the vaccine mandate in court in the weeks before the deadline, citing a religious objection to the shot after their requests for religious exemptions were denied. The Supreme Court blocked their emergency appeal last week.
As many as 3,000 workers were expected to face potential termination ahead of the deadline: a number that represents roughly 1% of city workers — as well as perhaps the most significant mass firing in response to vaccine mandates in the country.
The firings come as Democratic leaders continue to roll back the mask and vaccine mandates that once enjoyed more popular support.
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Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser moved Monday to end the city’s proof-of-vaccination requirement for businesses — just one month after implementing it originally.
Denver’s Democratic leaders also recently rolled back proof-of-vaccination requirements, and more than a half-dozen Democratic governors have ended statewide mask mandates in the past week amid rapidly shifting public opinion.
A Monmouth University poll published in late January found that 70% of people agreed with the sentiment that “it’s time we accept that Covid is here to stay and we just need to get on with our lives,” a massive shift from surveys taken over the previous two years that found many people frightened of the virus and supportive of mitigation measures.
