The State Of New York Will Face Confrontation On Vaccination Requirements

Nikki Attkisson | Last Updated : October 1, 2021

Covid-19 vaccinations are due to be administered to 1000s of New York City employees by the end of the week. Some people, however, have been unable to meet that deadline due to court orders.

Following the clearance of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine by the United States FDA in August, the vaccination was required by Nyc for public school personnel, by the state for medical workers, and by the state’s judicial process for its employees.

The State Of New York Will Face Confrontation On Vaccine Requirements

The New York Department Of public Health issued a directive last month stating that all healthcare employees in the county would be forced to get vaccinated on September 27 if they did not already have it.

As per the governor’s office, until last Wednesday, 84 percent of hospital employees, 81 percent of personnel at all adult care institutions, and 77 percent of all nursing home employees in the state had received their complete vaccinations.

As Deadline For Getting Vaccinated Gets Nearer, Hospitals Fear Running Low On Staff

Hospitals reported wildly different immunization rates heading into the weekend, both Mount Sinai as well as New York-Presbyterian reporting almost 100 percent of their patients had had the required vaccinations previously.

In contrast, the Erie County General Hospital in Buffalo stated it had inoculated 85 percent of its employees, and it expected that 10 percent of its workforce, about 400 employees, would not get vaccinated by the deadline.

According to a spokeswoman for NYC Health + Hospitals, Stephanie M. Guzmán, employees at the city’s 11 government hospitals who do not comply with the deadlines will be placed on unpaid leave.

Still, they will be able to return to their employment if they comply with the vaccination requirement. Licensed health care professionals from other states and countries, new graduates, and retired professionals would be permitted to practice in New York as a result of this.

As a result of the requirement, one facility in upstate NY has already stopped delivering infants because of the large number of workers who have quit as a result of it. If hospital workers assert a religious exemption, they may be able to rely on a temporary restraining order issued by a federal court, which prohibits the state from implementing the requirement.

In a recent announcement, Nyc Mayor Bill De Blasio said that all of the city’s school system employees must be immunized by September 27.

According to the New York City Agency of Education, about 81 percent of all department workers and 87 percent of instructors have gotten at least one dosage as of Thursday night (DOE).

That raised the issue of whether the approximately 10,000 students who had not shown proof of having had at minimum one vaccination injection would be absent from classes on Tuesday morning.

On Friday, however, a federal court granted a temporary restraining order against the mandate, effectively preventing the requirement from taking effect for the time being. It remains to be seen whether or not the exception for unvaccinated employees will be extended.

According to a spokeswoman for the NycLaw Department, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has posted a notification placing the motion on the schedule for Wednesday.

The decision by the appeals court came the day after a judge in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia denied an injunction. Attorneys again for plaintiffs subsequently filed an appeal and were successful in obtaining a temporary restraining order.


Nikki Attkisson

With over 15 years as a practicing journalist, Nikki Attkisson found herself at Powdersville Post now after working at several other publications. She is an award-winning journalist with an entrepreneurial spirit and worked as a journalist covering technology, innovation, environmental issues, politics, health etc. Nikki Attkisson has also worked on product development, content strategy, and editorial management for numerous media companies. She began her career at local news stations and worked as a reporter in national newspapers.

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