By MARY ZAKHAROVA
On Thursday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio held a virtual conference discussing the COVID-19 recovery and vaccinations. In particular, the mayor spoke about the vaccine mandates he issued for all city workers. These mandates are controversial, and some New York City firefighters protested them on Thursday.
By Nov. 1, city workers are supposed to show evidence of having been vaccinated.
A reporter from NBC, who was at the conference, said that he spoken with firefighters at a protest outside City Hall. He said they maintained around 70 percent of firefighters had had COVID-19 and now have a natural immunity. They were hoping they wouldn’t need to get vaccinated in the immediate future. What is the city’s response, the reporter asked.
Dr. Dave Chokshi, the New York City Department of Health Commissioner, answered that reporter’s question, saying those workers who had COVID-19 need to recover first, and then are strongly advised to get the vaccine. When it comes to post-COVID immunity, it is unknown how long this immunity lasts, and the vaccine needs to be taken, he said.
“We have good evidence from both national studies, as well as (a) study here, in New York City, that shows the risk of reinfection is about 2.3 times lower when people are vaccinated after they’ve been infected,” Chokshi said.
De Blasio said some agencies are prepared for a lack of personnel attributable to workers who are not vaccinated and not be allowed to work. He said the city, as an employer has a right to make vaccinations mandatory and employees people face consequences if they don’t want to get vaccinated. “We’ve given time . . . Now we need this. We have a right as an employer to do this. Every court has shown that we are right, that we have this right.”
De Blasio added that if the workers don’t get vaccinated by the deadline, they will go on leave without getting paid. Even then, he said, they will have an opportunity to change their decision and get the vaccine. But if the worker refuses to get vaccinated at all, that can lead to being fired and staying fired.
“What we are trying to do is get people vaccinated now, or, if after not having a paycheck for a while, people think better of it, come back, let’s move forward,” the mayor said.
The mayor also said that if a worker leaves her or his job there will be others who will be happy to do the job. “If you don’t want to do the job anymore, someone else will really want to do the job, I assure you,” he said.