Staff Reports
On Tuesday, the New York State Supreme Court determined that the city cannot terminate workers who refuse to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
Based on the finding that "being vaccinated against COVID-19 does not stop an individual from catching or spreading the virus," the court ordered the city to reinstate all terminated employees and pay them back.
After granting an exception for certain athletes, New York City Mayor Adams was criticized for not doing the same for those working.
"States of emergency are designed to be transient," the court ruled.
Adams' March executive order exempting professional athletes and others rendered "all of these vaccine mandates arbitrary and capricious," and "the Health Commissioner cannot dismiss employees."
After Mayor Bill de Blasio's administration passed a vaccine mandate earlier this year, the city fired around 1,400 workers who had not yet received their vaccinations.
The argument for many COVID-19 vaccine mandates is that vaccination not only protects the person receiving the doses, but also anyone in close proximity to them from contracting the virus or spreading it further.
It was our own police and fire fighters who made up a large portion of the dismissed workers.
It's high time the system supported the Rule of Law and basic freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution.
The preceding is a summary of an article that originally appeared on OAN.
