Does it make sense to shut down firehouses if an insufficient number of firefighters are willing to get vaccinated?
Does it make sense to put firefighters on unpaid leave if they refuse to get vaccinated? Does it make sense to fire them?
Does it make sense to put firefighters on unpaid leave or fire them if they refuse to get vaccinated, if they have had COVID-19 in the past year and have natural immunity?
Does it make sense to shut down firehouses if an insufficient number of firefighters are willing to get vaccinated?
The FDNY shuttered 26 fire companies citywide on Saturday due to staff shortages caused by the COVID-19 vaccination mandate, according to furious elected officials, who ripped the move as “unconscionable” — and warned it could have catastrophic consequences.
The shutdown came amid a pitched battle between City Hall, which on Monday will start enforcing a mandate that all city workers have at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and jab-resisting firefighters, many reportedly saying they were already sick with the coronavirus and therefore have “natural immunity.”
Nicole Malliotakis (R-SI, Brooklyn) said 26 companies shuttered — five in her district — and laid the blame on Mayor de Blasio.
“If someone dies due to a slower emergency response, it’s on Bill de Blasio and his overreaching mandates. I hope this fool fixes it ASAP!” she tweeted. Some residents rallied outside of the Ladder Company 149 in Dyker Heights to support the firefighters.
It’s not just in New York. Out in Seattle:
As hundreds of unvaccinated city employees are placed on leave or facing termination, the city of Seattle will start offering hiring bonuses to Seattle Police Department and 911 dispatch hires to address “critical ongoing staffing challenges,” Mayor Jenny Durkan’s office said late Friday.
Durkan announced an emergency order that would provide hiring bonuses of up to $25,000 for laterally hired and $10,000 for newly hired officers and staff to the SPD and the Community Safety and Communications Center.
Staffing in the city and nationwide had been strained by the pandemic, but took a further hit in Seattle last week when several hundred medically or religiously exempted employees were put on leave to await potential accommodations after Durkan’s citywide COVID-19 vaccine mandate went into effect.
Among those on leave were more than 170 first responders from SPD and the Seattle Fire Department.
And out in the San Francisco Bay area, the buses won’t be running as often because of workers who don’t want to get vaccinated.
Monday is the deadline for San Francisco’s employee vaccine mandate and at least one city agency said it will be modifying service.
The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency said that beginning Monday some Muni bus routes will be suspended.
A spokesperson for SFMTA said 123 employees have not complied with the vaccine mandate. Out of a workforce of 6,000, that’s a small percentage, but officials said it’s enough to temporarily affect a few bus routes.
And a similar issue is likely to be faced by city officials, police, and residents in Tucson, Arizona:
Just over 50 Tucson police officers face getting a COVID-19 vaccine or a pink slip in December after the council voted Tuesday to fire unvaccinated city employees, a move a law enforcement association says would devastate services police provide.
The first question is whether the average New Yorker or Seattle resident is more threatened by an understaffed fire or police force than an unvaccinated firefighter or police officer. If you dial 911 because you’re being robbed or attacked, you’re not going to say, “but only send officers that are vaccinated!” If your house is on fire, you’re not going to say to the dispatcher, “My house is burning down, but before you send the trucks, keep in mind that I don’t find natural immunity sufficient!”
Almost 80 percent of U.S. adults have at least one shot! When can we conclude that while we would prefer that everyone got vaccinated, those who have not gotten vaccinated are not a menace to the rest of us? When will cities be willing to recognize that natural immunity from infection ought to be a part of these discussions as well?
We know fully vaccinated people can still catch the virus and can still spread the virus. (Thankfully, vaccination greatly reduces the impact of infection.) Why are cities firing fully trained, fully qualified, experienced firemen and cops and other city workers over a refusal to get vaccinated? Isn’t this cutting off your nose to spite your face?