A waitress who was expecting to become pregnant was fired for refusing to take the coronavirus vaccine out of fear it might affect fertility.
“It was shocking to me,” Brooklynite Bonnie Jacobson said Wednesday after she was fired on Monday from the Red Hook Tavern. “I went through the stages: I’m hurt, I’m in shock — then I got mad.”
Jacobson, 34, said she and her husband were trying to get pregnant last year but put the plan on hold after she lost her job in April due to coronavirus restrictions. They resumed the plan in August when she was hired by the Red Hook Tavern.
“I do support the vaccine. I’m not, as they say, an anti-vaxxer,” Jacobson added, saying there isn’t much data on how the vaccine affects pregnant women.
“The way I see it, getting the vaccine is for me. It protects me. If I am not getting it, it’s my choice, and I’d only be hurting myself,” she said.
Jacobson said she received emails earlier this month from management saying restaurant workers are eligible for the vaccine and it would be “mandatory” for employees unless “your own personal health or disability prohibits you from obtaining this vaccination.”
She responded to the messages saying she was “choosing not to get the vaccine because there just isn’t enough data or research at this point on its effects on fertility.”
“Once there is more research to support that it does not affect fertility I would reconsider my position,” she wrote.
Management responded, after she worked a 13-hour shift, that they respected her choice but that the vaccine was required and “at this time your employment will be terminated.”
The vaccines have not been tested on pregnant women, however, they are considered safe at this time, with the CDC saying that getting vaccinated is “a personal choice for people who are pregnant.”
“Once New York state allowed restaurant workers to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, we thought this was the perfect opportunity to put a plan in place to keep our team and guests safe,” owner of Red Hook, Billy Durney, said in a statement.
“No one has faced these challenges before and we made a decision that we thought would best protect everyone,” he said. “We now realize that we need to update our policy so it’s clear to our team how the process works and what we can do to support them. We’re making these changes immediately.”
Jacobson said she will not pursue legal action. She added that she doesn’t want her job back there, either, and will instead focus on “family planning.”
