This column, from the weekly opinion piece MATTER OF FACT, first appeared on BrooklynReporter.com, the Home Reporter and Spectator dated November 5, 2021
Brooklyn police officers Dickerman and McCormick were in violation of the vaccination mandate ordered by the city. The Chief of Police detailed the repercussions they would face, which would result in their dismissal from the force if they did not comply with the order. This was the reporting in the New York Times and the date was May 12, 1888.
At that time, Brooklyn was contending with smallpox. All members of the police were ordered to receive the vaccine that greatly reduced the chances of contracting or transmitting the virus. After initial opposition, seven weeks after the announcement of the mandate, all but two patrolmen had been vaccinated.
Over a century earlier in 1777, General George Washington ordered his troops fighting in the American Revolution to be inoculated against smallpox. The Continental Congress concurred and tens of thousands of American soldiers fighting for America’s right to become a sovereign nation were vaccinated due to a mandate by the forefathers, who believed in both vaccines and the government’s jurisdiction to require them of those employed by the government.
The COVID vaccine mandate for all city employees went into effect Monday, November 1. There were warnings that hundreds, possibly thousands, of police officers would be put on unpaid leave that day, but ultimately only 34 were moved to that status for not having been vaccinated. That is out of 36,000 officers, which amounts to less than one-tenth of one percent of all NYPD officers.
Those are 34 actual people who are now dealing with not receiving a paycheck, but anyone stating that the mandate is crippling law enforcement is either misinformed, disinformed or they are purposely misleading people to scare them. Unfortunately, this tactic has been working on some and leading far too many people to treat vaccines as if they are the problem and need to be resisted at all costs.
“Nobody who is a pro-vaccine is screaming at those who are not, calling them names or threatening them, but that is increasingly the behavior that we see from anti-vaxxers.”
State Senator Andrew Gounardes shared on October 27 that someone had called his office to yell about vaccines. The caller was not simply against mandates but opposed to the vaccine in general and told an intern from the office that she should “go die.” Gounardes said that a few months earlier, an anti-vaxxer with a bullhorn outside his office aimed it at an intern who was trying to enter and yelled nasty remarks at her, simply because she worked for him.
On October 29, six on-duty New York City firefighters arrived at State Senator Zellnor Myrie’s Prospect Lefferts Garden office in their FDNY fire truck, allegedly threatening his staff over the city mandate he had nothing to do with. The department has suspended the 6 firefighters following the incident, which included reports that they confronted staff, warning them that they would have “blood on their hands” and demanding they be told where Myrie lived.
I firmly believe in vaccines, but I never shame anyone who is resistant and instead try to provide facts that may help allay concerns. I support mandates, but I understand that it is a serious step which may ultimately affect some people’s livelihoods. The number of Department of Education employees who got vaccinated before their mandate deadline a month ago, and now the number of city employees who have gotten their shot leading up to the November 1 cutoff, show that mandates work to get people vaccinated, which is imperative to ending this pandemic, since vaccinations work to curb the spread and mutations of the virus.
Nobody who is in favor of getting more people vaccinated is suggesting that people be physically forced to receive a shot, yet that is the fearful rhetoric that you hear from anti-vaxxers. Nobody who is a pro-vaccine is screaming at those who are not, calling them names or threatening them, but that is increasingly the behavior that we see from anti-vaxxers.
It cannot be ignored that there is a great deal of overlap between these aggressively angry anti-vaxxers and far right-wing conservatives. A new Public Religion Research Institute poll shows that nearly one-third of Republicans believe that violence may be necessary to solve America’s problems. We cannot solve any problems when a significant number of people deny facts and will resort to violence in support of falsehoods.
