NEW YORK | Several thousand New York City employees, mostly firefighters, two-fifths of whom are not vaccinated against COVID-19, marched on the Brooklyn Bridge on Monday to protest against the vaccine requirement announced last week by the town hall.
• Read also: Mandatory vaccination for police and firefighters in New York
“Are you asked if you are vaccinated when you call for help?” “No” to those who for them embody “the end of freedoms”, US President Joe Biden and the Democratic mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio.
All city employees were called to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge and up to City Hall, but the firefighters were the most numerous, recognizable by the t-shirts of their barracks, where the names of their colleagues who had died in the fireplaces sometimes appeared. attacks of September 11, 2001.
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According to the New York City Fire Department (FDNY), the vaccination rate reached 60% among its employees on Monday (about 17,000 in total), well below the average for New York adults (84%).
Among the demonstrators, wary of journalists, and amidst many American flags and pro-Trump slogans, John, a 35-year-old firefighter, explains that he is not against the vaccine, but against the fact that it is mandatory. “I would never want anyone to feel pressured to reveal information about their health to me,” he said, refusing to give his name.
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Adriane Williams, 43, an employee in the FDNY offices, assures us that she will not be vaccinated, even if it were to cost her her job.
“I have to make a choice between my profession and my life, and I will choose my life,” she says, although vaccines are considered very safe by all experts and the side effects are mild in the ‘overwhelming majority of cases.
“But I should not be forced to make this choice,” she continues, saying she fears losing her job and being “with nothing”, “after having served for 19 years”.
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After teachers and caregivers in September, whose vaccination rate now exceeds 95%, New York has extended the vaccination requirement to all 160,000 municipal employees, of whom 46,000 had not received a first injection last week.
The town’s police union immediately announced that it would challenge the decision in court.
To motivate the most hesitant, the town hall promised a bonus of 500 dollars on their payslip for those who would receive their first dose before October 29. After this period, the recalcitrant will initially see their remuneration suspended.
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