The New York City Department of Education has fired another 850 teachers and aides for refusing to comply with its COVID vaccine mandate, bringing the total number of school staff terminated over the mRNA shots that have not prevented the spread of infection to 2,000.
Some 1,300 department employees agreed to comply with the vaccine mandate by September 5 after taking a year of unpaid leave with benefits, the New York Post reported. The department informed personnel they would have to be vaccinated by that date or be “deemed to have voluntarily resigned.”
According to the Post, department officials said 450 staff – about 225 teachers and 135 aides – obtained the shot by September 5 and have returned to work.
The remaining 850 employees were terminated.
The firing of the teachers comes as a massive teacher shortage has taken place in the United States after 280,000 teachers left the workforce in the wake of the pandemic.
WKBW reported in March that Jolene DiBrango, executive vice president of New York State United Teachers said about 180,000 teachers must be hired in the state over the next decade.
“The teacher shortage is definitely not looming anymore,” said Jolene DiBrango, the union’s executive vice president. “It is in a full-blown crisis mode.”
The latest teacher firings in New York City come as Joe Biden stated in a 60 Minutes interview that aired September 18, the “pandemic is over.”
“We still have a problem with COVID,” Biden said. “We’re still doing a lotta work on it … but the pandemic is over.”
“If you notice, no one’s wearing masks,” he added. “Everybody seems to be in pretty good shape. And, so, I think it’s changing. And I think this is a perfect example of it.”
The continued education department terminations also come one week after a judge in Manhattan ruled a fired unvaccinated New York police officer cannot be terminated because the city did not explain its rejection of his religious exemption request.
“The hollow and generic phrase ‘does not meet criteria’ cannot be rational because not a single item particular to [Officer Alexander Deletto] was discussed and not a single reason for the decision was given,” Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arlene Bluth ruled.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) continued the COVID shot mandate even though the requirements are being abandoned in other cities and states.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has provided confused information about the effectiveness and safety of the mRNA shots, all the while recommending Americans still be injected with the gene therapy.
In August 2021, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told CNN fully vaccinated individuals not only can experience “breakthrough” infections, but also can spread the virus that causes COVID disease to others.
Nevertheless, despite admitting the mRNA shots the government calls vaccines are not preventing COVID disease, Walensky said, “Our vaccines are working exceptionally well.”
“They continue to work well with ‘Delta’ with regard to severe illness and death, but what they can’t do anymore is prevent transmission,” she said.
“So, if you are going home to somebody who has not been vaccinated [or] to somebody who can’t get vaccinated, somebody who is immunosuppressed or a little frail, somebody with comorbidities, I would suggest you wear a mask in public indoor settings,” Walensky added.
Regarding the masks, however, Dr. Paul E. Alexander has compiled at Brownstone Institute more than 150 comparative studies and articles on the ineffectiveness and harms of masks.
Dr. Tracy Beth Hoeg has also commented on the uselessness of mask mandates.
Alright, here you go:
In LA county, pediatric covid cases made up a LARGER fraction of the total cases (33.9%) DURING the school mask mandate than AFTER (22.6%)
Don't be fooled by the numbers presented yesterday (see🧵)
I made the beautiful graph & @AChandra_TO pulled the numbers pic.twitter.com/XcejvrOUhk— Tracy Høeg, MD, PhD (@TracyBethHoeg) July 27, 2022
Just months ago, democrats were still raving about removal of mask mandates causing another wave and virtue signalling about states without mandates even though it made essentially NO difference.
The science of compliance is different when reeling in voters for re-election. pic.twitter.com/6mqw6RX4Dl
— Castaway (@Tinfoil_Travis) September 19, 2022
Elementary school teacher Rachelle Garcia submitted requests for religious exemption from the New York City shot mandate, but was denied.
“I really put my eggs in one basket, hoping and praying that at the last minute our mayor would turn everything around in time for me to go back to work,” Garcia told the Post, adding she is now applying for a job on Long Island.
“I’m angry, I’m hurt, to be cast aside like I was nothing,” she said. “Because I couldn’t give a proper goodbye to my students, other teachers told me they kept asking, ‘When is Ms. Garcia coming back?’ That made me cry so much.”
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Susan Berry, PhD, is national education editor at The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].
