Mayor Bill de Blasio and Chancellor Meisha Ross Porter read to a first grade class at P.S. 377 in Ozone Park, Queens (Ed Reed/ Mayoral Photography Office)
Sept. 28, 2021 By Allie Griffin
New York City public school teachers and staff must get at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by the end of Friday, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Tuesday.
De Blasio moved the deadline to 5 p.m. Friday after a federal appeals court lifted an injunction that had temporarily halted the city mandate that was set to take effect Monday.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit granted the temporary injunction last week ahead of the city’s original Monday deadline. The court, however, ruled to lift the injunction Monday evening.
“We readjusted the timing because we had the delay in court,” de Blasio said. “We’re giving all of our employees up until Friday at 5 o’clock [to be vaccinated].”
As of Monday morning, 87 percent of all Department of Education employees have had at least one dose of the vaccine — leaving 13 percent who still need to get a shot or face unpaid leave.
“For anyone who has not gotten a dose by Friday at 5 p.m., … we’re going to then assume you’re not coming to work Monday morning and we will immediately find a substitute,” de Blasio said. “Then those folks [who chose not to get vaccinated] will go on leave without pay.”
The percentage of DOE employees’ vaccinated, however, is higher among teachers and principals. According to the latest DOE numbers, 90 percent of teachers and 97 percent of principals have gotten at least one shot.
About 7,000 of the more than 130,000 DOE staffers—a group that includes food service and custodial workers—got vaccinated just last Friday and Saturday in anticipation of the mandate, de Blasio said.
The mayor said the numbers are encouraging.
“For everyone — especially for parents and kids — this should be a real sense of relief to see the numbers are already so high,” he said. “That says great things about our ability to have a safe school system and keep everything moving really, really well for our kids.”
Union leaders, however, have called on the mayor to push the mandate deadline back even further as they worry about potential staffing shortages.
Featured Events
22 Comments
Good!
Sure, I got my vaccine last spring break and I was happy to do so but now teachers who have positions in schools are deciding to resign because they don’t agree with this mandate. Why can’t we mandate parents take care of their children responsibility? Why can’t we mandate administration to have teacher’s backs when parent is pissed at the school’s policy and takes it out on the teachers? Why can we mandate children to respect if they wanted to be respected in return?
Good. Now do the kids.
Long term safety studies were not conducted on these vaccines and only one was recently FDA approved. Do not use children for this experiment.
FDA is about to approve Pfizer for 5-11. Moderna surely next.
Of course, you could make your own experiment by not vaccinating yourself and your kids, but keep them and your silly self out of public.
Schools require vaccines for any number of other diseases. This should be no different.
I used to work in the pharmaceutical industry silly you.
Susan- I am assuming you’ve done a long term safety study of the virus or at least can reference one. If not then you’re also using children for an experiment. Susan your post is more than stupid it’s Fox stupid.
I understand the benefits of vaccines. A new vaccine comes out without being FDA approved and government officials tell the American public it’s safe and they should take it right away. Massive mass marketing campaign. Then the Mayor tells people they are going to find themselves able to do less and less in NYC if they don’t get the vaccine. Then it’s – you are going to be unable to earn a living if you don’t get the vaccine. Instead of calling others stupid use your brain. Red flags should have gone up long ago. And I don’t watch Fox News.
Susan – The commenter you responded to asked you about the long term effects of COVID or those “long term” effects just don’t fit into your warp agenda? Here are some long term effects of Covid: Lung damage, shortness of breath, severe weakness and fatigue, headaches, dizziness, brain fog, joint pain, myalgia, sensory function disturbance and adhesive capsulitis, just to name a few.
That is correct.
Long term studies were not conducted on anyone. If it’s good enough for me it’s good enough for your kids.
It’s amazing how ignorant our mayor is. Pfizer which has the only approved vaccine has admitted to short term protection and serious side effects from their vaccine which may be long term. There are also recent studies from Isreal that suggest those vaccinated may be 27 times more likely to contract the vaccine than non vaccinated.
Cite your “sources,” such as they are.
Vaccinated people are more likely to avoid hospitalization or death if they become infected, full stop. The fake news you’re referencing only said “13 times” not “27”, was not peer-reviewed, only studied the Delta variant, and came from a far-right Instagram post. This is what Trump lovers will accept as “proof” ?
Why are you still so obsessed with President Trump? He actually took the vaccine and recommends others take it. Get some therapy.
Marsha “former” president. He lost the election. Cyber Ninjas even said so. Giuliani said he got all of his election nonsense off Facebook. Does that sound like a credible source of information about the intricacies of a National election?
Yep, after 600k Americans died on his watch and he got COVID, he suggested people get vaccinated. Didn’t go over well with his supporters ?
Fred – Short term affects of contracting virus; 43,3 Million cases of Covid 695,000 deaths; 392 Million doses of vaccine administered, 184 Million people fully vaccinated. Between December 2020 and July 19th, 2021 to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS)., VAERS received 6,207 reports of death (0.0018% of doses) among people who got a vaccine, but this does not mean the vaccine caused these deaths. Safety of COVID-19 Vaccines
Some people have no side effects at all. Many people have reported side effects that may affect their ability to do daily activities, but they go away within a few days. Anaphylaxis after COVID-19 vaccination is rare and has occurred in approximately 2 to 5 people per million vaccinated in the United States. Thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) after Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen (J&J/Janssen) COVID-19 vaccination is rare. As of September 22, 2021, more than 14.8 million doses of the J&J/Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine have been given in the United States. CDC and FDA identified 47 confirmed reports of people who got the J&J/Janssen COVID-19 Vaccine and later developed TTS. Some long term affects of Covid include kidney failure, lung damage and the need of lung transplants, brain fog. No long term averse affects on any vaccines at this time. Fred can you tell us if there are any other long term affects from the virus other than those I listed? You have gall calling anyone “ignorant”
Yes long term effects. I personally know two. One is paralyzed now and one has POTS.
Fred, your imagination is out of control! Vaccinated people are not dying while the unvaccinated are! You can’t just make stuff up; people will believe you.
Fred – Do you mean more likely to contract the virus ? It’s severe illness, hospitalizations and death that are the problems with the virus overwhelming hospital systems. If the vaccine prevents all of these than contracting the bug is not a problem any longer.
pure disinformation.