Here Come the Mandates – 148,000 NYC Public School Teachers & Staff Given COVID-19 Jab Ultimatum

More than 148,000 teachers and staff working in New York City’s public schools will have to be vaccinated for COVID before the end of next month — a significant ratcheting up of Mayor de Blasio’s push to get more city workers inoculated.

De Blasio announced the vaccine mandate for all city schools staff Monday morning, noting that any workers in public schools — including custodians, cafeteria workers and outside contractors — will have until Sept. 27 to show proof of receiving at least one dose of the vaccine.

“We know this is going to help ensure that everyone is safe,” the mayor said.

The new mandate — which will be issued in the form of an order from the Department of Health — overrides a previous rule that required all city workers either show proof of vaccination or undergo weekly testing and be required to wear masks indoors.

News 12 also weighed in:

The city hasn’t immediately said what the penalty will be for refusing, or whether there will be exemptions. The previous vaccinate-or-test requirement had provisions for unpaid suspensions for workers who didn’t comply.

At least 63% of school employees already have been vaccinated. That figure doesn’t include those who may have gotten their shots outside the city.

School starts Sept. 13 for the city’s roughly 1 million public school students.

It’s not immediately clear how unions representing teachers and other school employees will react. The city Education Department says it’s discussing the matter with them.

The announcement comes as New York and some other cities and states have been fighting the virus’ highly contagious delta variant by ratcheting up pressure to get more people inoculated.

New York City last week began requiring proof of vaccination t o enter restaurant dining rooms, gyms and many other public places, a first-in-the-nation policy that a few other cities have copied since it was announced. Meanwhile, New York state announced last week that hospital and nursing home workers would have to get inoculated.

Vaccine mandates for teachers are fairly rare so far in the U.S., though Washington state, for one, says teachers must be inoculated or face dismissal. Vaccinate-or-test requirements are a bit more common.

A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that about 6 in 10 Americans say students and teachers should be required to wear face masks while in school, and that teachers and eligible students should also be required to get vaccinated. But Democrats and Republicans differ sharply on these issues, the poll found.