Thousands of New York City municipal employees took to the streets to protest the city’s vaccine mandate.
On Monday, thousands of school teachers, firefighters, police officers, sanitation workers and paramedics marched over the Brooklyn Bridge on behalf of the thousands of city workers who are in jeopardy of losing their jobs for not getting vaccinated against COVID. Last week, Democrat Mayor Bill de Blasio (N.Y.) announced regular COVID testing is no longer enough and all city workers will need to be vaccinated by Oct. 29 or risk losing their jobs.
“Today, our health commissioner is issuing an order requiring all city workers to be vaccinated,” said de Blasio. “This will apply to all the agencies that are not covered yet, and we want to move quickly. Obviously, we’ve given people a lot of time…first in voluntary phase, then in the vaccinate or test phase. It’s time to keep moving.”
As of now, 71 percent of city employees have received at least one vaccine dose. However, that number is far lower among the city’s firefighters, where only 55 percent have gotten vaccinated.
