DEMONSTRATION – New York will make the Covid-19 vaccine mandatory for all its officials, from November 1. Several thousand city employees, mostly firefighters, protested Monday, October 25, against this vaccine requirement.
LCI editorial staff –
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Be vaccinated to continue serving. After teachers and medical staff, it will be the turn of some 160,000 municipal employees in New York to submit to the vaccination requirement, from November 1. The order will apply to police, firefighters and garbage collectors, with the exception of prison wardens, who will be granted additional time due to understaffing at Rikers Island prison. “Unvaccinated employees will be placed on unpaid leave until they present proof of vaccination to their supervisor.”, announced the town hall of “the Big Apple”.
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Covid-19: the challenge of vaccination
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A decision badly received by the various trades. All city employees were called to march on the Brooklyn Bridge and to City Hall, Monday, October 25, to protest against the vaccine requirement. “Are you asked if you are vaccinated when you call for help?” Where “Essential yesterday, unemployed today”, proclaimed placards, in the middle of a compact crowd, mainly made up of men, came to say “non” to those who embody for them “the end of freedoms”, US President Joe Biden and New York Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Vaccine only accepted
Since the start of the pandemic, Covid-19 has been the main cause of death “in service” police officers in the United States, with 237 dead in 2021 against 50 by firearms, out of a total of 369. In New York, kneeling in 2020, with its images of overwhelmed hospitals and improvised morgues in several emblematic places in the city, more than 60 employees of the NYPD, the police department, have died of Covid. FDNY firefighters have lost 16 workers to the virus.
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Firefighters, two-fifths of whom are not immune to Covid-19, were also the most numerous to demonstrate. Chanting pro-Trump slogans, they were recognizable by the t-shirts of their barracks, which sometimes featured the names of their colleagues who died in the attacks of September 11, 2001. “I have to make a choice between my profession and my life, and I will choose my life”, cited an employee in the offices of the FDNY. This protester, saying she was afraid to meet again “without anything”, “after serving for 19 years”, felt that she should not “not be forced to make this choice”.
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Until now, the police or the New York firefighters had the choice between the vaccine or the regular presentation of a negative test for Covid. Nearly 71% of the agents (55,000 including nearly 35,000 in uniform) received at least one dose of the vaccine, told AFP the NYPD. Well below the city’s adult population (84%), but up since September, when the vaccination rate stood at 61%. In the ranks of firefighters, it reached 60% (about 17,000 in total).
About 46,000 unvaccinated employees
To justify this radical change in tone, the New York City Hall highlights the fact that the strict obligation has increased the rate of vaccines to more than 95% among teachers and caregivers in the city. “There are still many employees in the city who are not vaccinated (around 46,000 out of 160,000, editor’s note). I want to protect them. I want to protect their families “ and “all the people they come into contact with in the city”, justified Bill de Blasio, last week, on CNN.
To convince employees who are reluctant to take the plunge, New York City Hall has promised to pay them a bonus of $ 500 on their payslip next month. The only condition to be met: receive a first dose before October 29. After this period, the recalcitrant will see, initially, their remuneration suspended, before other sanctions.
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