NEW YORK – The New York City Department of Investigation (DOI) says it is aware of allegations involving counterfeit COVID vaccination cards issued to employees at at least two agencies amid mounting pressure to comply with the Mayor Bill de Blasio’s citywide vaccination mandate.
DOI, which is tasked with independently overseeing the city government, declined to comment further in an email Sunday night as the investigation continues.
The two departments at the center of the allegations, fire and sanitation, according to The New York Post, which first reported the investigation, employ workers who were among the most openly opposed to the mandate in days before and after its release on November 1st. Anyone who does not comply must take an unpaid leave of absence.
A major firefighters union, the Uniformed Fire Officers Association, was conspicuously absent from the vaccine mandate agreement the city has signed with at least 15 unions, while some sanitation workers reportedly staged a slowdown in garbage collection in parts of the city during the week before the mandate went into effect.
Requests for comment to the FDNY and UFOA were not immediately returned. At least 87% of the FDNY are at least partially vaccinated, according to the latest city data. That number has risen dramatically from the 60% dosed on October 19, the day before the mayor announced his planned expansion of the vaccine mandate.
However, rates vary significantly by unit, with FDNY civilian employees reporting the highest vaccination rate (94%), followed by emergency medical services (92%) and firefighters (85%).
A spokesman for the sanitation department, Joshua Goodman, told our sister network NBC that he was actively investigating the allegations in coordination with the DOI.
“These are very concerning allegations and we take them very seriously; getting vaccinated is important to public health and we do not tolerate anyone faking something that is a requirement of city employment,” Goodman said.
“Thousands of DSNY employees have stepped up to get vaccinated in recent weeks, and more than 87% of the department is fully or partially vaccinated,” he added. Anyone who has falsified their vaccination will be suspended without pay. “
According to the Post, some of the fake vaccination cards that were allegedly being used were taken when they were blank and then reappropriated. Others allegedly involved people affiliated with pharmacy retailers, the newspaper said.
It is not immediately clear how many potential fraudulent cases are being investigated by the DOI. Under the mayor’s mandate, any city employee who did not show proof of at least one dose of vaccine by November 1 had to take unpaid leave.
As of last week, about 2,600 were on leave without pay, up from 9,000 on the day the mandate took effect, but at least 12,400 medical and exemption claims are still pending decisions by the respective agencies, he said. De Blasio last week.
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