New York City Firefighter union leaders on Saturday slammed New York Mayor Eric Adams over his decision to lift vaccine mandates for professional athletes and performers while keeping them in place for city employees.
Mr. Adams announced earlier this week that professional athletes and performers based in New York City would no longer be required to show proof of vaccination, citing the need to “kickstart the city’s nightlife economy” which he said “employed nearly 300,000 New Yorkers” before the pandemic.
FDNY Firefighters Association President Andrew Ansbro and FDNY Fire Officers Association President Lt. James McCarthy said that while they support a rollback in vaccine mandates, the mayor’s decision to grant exceptions for only a select few is an egregious double standard.
“We’re also an essential part of the economic recovery for New York City because if we’re not here the police the fire, EMS, making the city safer, no one can come in and attend these games in the end theater productions,” Mr. McCarthy said. “The firefighters and fire officers come to work every day and we expect to be treated at least as well as the athletes and performers that are coming win and working in New York City because we’re here to protect them 24 hours a day.”
Mr. Adams, a Democrat, previously made exemptions for out-of-town athletes and performers, who did not face the same requirements in their home cities, and said that keeping the mandate in place for New York athletes put them at a disadvantage.
“By expanding an existing exemption, we are simply making sure the rules apply equally to everyone who is a performer, regardless of where they are from,” he said. “The old exemption put our sports teams at a self-imposed competitive disadvantage and was unfair to New York performers.”
Since taking office earlier this year, Mr. Adams has also rolled back mask mandates in schools and ended requirements for restaurants and gyms to check visitors’ proof of vaccination.
But he has kept the city’s sweeping vaccine mandate in place for city workers and most private employees in New York.
More than 1,400 city employees have been fired for refusing to get the jab since the mandate went into effect under Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Mr. Ansbro said between 400 and 500 firefighters have refused to get the shot to date, and so far approximately 15 have been let go.
“As of right now, probably five to 10 a week are being given the ultimatum to either get vaccinated or get fired,” Mr. Ansbro said.
“If you continue down this path of firing civil servants, there is a real cost to that you have to replace you know real police officers, real firefighters, and real sanitation workers,” he said. “There is a high cost the training and retention of civil servants and you’re throwing that money away by falling down the path of a mandate that is no longer relevant.”
• Joseph Clark can be reached at jclark@washingtontimes.com.
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