The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a request by a group of New York City public school teachers to invalidate the COVID-19 vaccination mandate for employees who did not receive a medical exemption.
The appeal was rejected by Judge Sonia Sotomayor, who also denied a similar request in October last year to remove the pandemic vaccination mandate for all New York City employees.
They estimate that the FDA will approve the Pfizer vaccine for children under 5 years of age before the end of February
Feb. 10, 202200:29
The decision comes as the deadline for city employees to submit proof of having received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccines expires.
Those who do not meet the criteria risk being fired.
About
3,000 workers, including police officers, firefighters and teachers, could lose their jobs
for not complying with the rule.
"We have to be very clear: People need to get vaccinated if they're New York City employees," New York City Mayor Eric Adams said at a news conference Thursday in the Bronx.
"Everyone understands that."
“We are not going to fire them.
People are giving up.
The responsibility is clear,” she added.
New York City Employees Protest Layoffs of Those Who Failed to Comply with COVID-19 Vaccination Mandate;
on February 7, 2022. Yuki Iwamura / AP
On Thursday, hundreds of city employees marched across the Brooklyn Bridge to denounce the move, chanting slogans like "Fire Fauci!"
and carrying banners reading "Unvaccinated Lives Matter Too," in a play on words that referenced the Black Lives Matter
racial justice movement
.
Some 95% of New York City's 375,000 public employees have already received their first dose of the vaccine, a significant increase from the 84% who had received it when the vaccination mandate was announced in October.