Boy, 7, dies in fire as FDNY faces vaccine mandate ‘sickout’
By Peter Aitken | Fox News
10/30/2021
A seven-year-old boy died and his grandmother was seriously injured in an apartment fire in New York City as the FDNY deals with staff shortages in response to a vaccine mandate.
Firefighters responded to a 1:30 a.m. call Saturday at a building in Washington Heights, where fire broke out in the building superintendent’s basement apartment. First responders quickly contained and extinguished the fire.
Five people were inside the apartment at the time, including Robert Resto, 7, the super’s grandson, and the super’s wife, 54.
Resto was pronounced dead inside the apartment, ABC 7 reported. The super’s wife was taken to Jacobi Hospital and listed in serious condition.
Resto was found hidden under a bed severely burned.
The fire ignited as firefighters across the city called in sick Friday, but the FDNY said it hadn’t closed any firehouses due to staffing shortages.
City Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said it was “unacceptable” for “a group of our firefighters” to demonstrate their anger at the citywide vaccine mandate in a way that “may endanger the lives of New Yorkers.”
“Despite these actions by some, the department will continue to respond to all calls for help that come our way,” Nigro promised.
FDNY officials insist the “sickout” did not affect response times to Saturday’s fire, the New York Daily News reported. Firefighters arrived within four minutes.
By Monday, any FDNY employee who has not received at least one shot of a COVID-19 vaccine will be sent home without pay.
Around 72% of the city’s firefighters and 84% of medical first responders had at least one dose of the vaccine as of Friday night.
抗议疫苗强制令 纽约市26消防站因成员「病假」关闭
世界新闻网
10/30/2021
市府雇员强制接种疫苗令将于11月1日(周一)生效，引得一线救援部门呛声连连，并面临严重人员短缺及调配难题；消防局局长尼格罗(Daniel Nigro)表示，成员们为了抗议强制规定已开始使用带薪病假，30日全市已有26家消防站因多数成员「病假」而关闭，华埠、小意大利辖区的55号消防站就位列其中。
尼格罗在一份声明中写道，在29日晚已有九家消防站由于成员「过度病假」而不得不停止服务，但仅过了一晚的时间，截止30日早7时30分，已有多达26个消防站关闭；而本周正值万圣节周末，相比去年的冷清，今年外出狂欢的人潮格外显眼，响应紧急事件需要一线救援人员的随时待命。
根据市府的规定，市府雇员须在29日下午5时前递交接种至少一针疫苗证明，否则将从下月1日起强制无薪休假，这项规定将影响逾16万尚未接种的雇员。
市长白思豪(Bill de Blasio)29日晚在推特更新称，已经有72%的消防局成员接种了疫苗。
一名消防局内部人士称，如果成员请病假，就必须要医务室报到。30日有20几名消防员被看到一同走出了布鲁克林下城MetroTech的消防局医疗办公室。
消防员工会主席安斯博罗(Andy Ansbro)在此前的抗议集会上表示，没有接种疫苗的成员不要理会市长的命令，11月1日继续上班。
但尼格罗表示，如今的困境是许多成员为了抗议规定，开始使用带薪病假在家静观事态发展，部门恐关闭40%的消防站并减少每天150辆待命的救护车，当局必须采取一切手段保证消防局正常运转，通过加班、调整工时等方法尽力弥补。
在一份消防局29日发送给成员的备忘录中显示，正在就延长最后期限和提供多种选择与劳动关系办公室(Office of Labor Relations)进行谈判，但仍建议成员无论接种与否，都要按时报到，并在消防工作日志上备注原因。
而白思豪坚称这项新规没有商讨余地(non-negotiable)，「我们不会再讨论更改接种疫苗的最终期限。」
据纽约邮报报导，就29日晚在布鲁克林一起大火给消防局的24小时新闻专线打了78分钟电话，但无人接听，电邮也无人回复。
共和党执政11州提诉讼 告拜登疫苗强制令违宪
中央社
10/30/2021
美国由共和党籍州长治理的11州今天对总统拜登政府提告，以图阻止拜登对联邦承包商下达的COVID-19疫苗强制施打令；理由是这项命令违宪，而且违反联邦采购法。
Oct 30, 2021
路透报导，拜登9月9日下达2项行政命令，规定全体联邦政府员工及联邦承包商都必须接种COVID-19（2019冠状病毒疾病）疫苗。
阿肯色、阿拉斯加、密苏里、爱阿华、蒙大拿、内布拉斯加、新罕布什尔、北达科他、南达科他和怀俄明等10州已向密苏里州东区联邦地方法院提起联合诉讼；另德州单独提起相同诉讼，佛罗里达州也在昨天提告。
今天提出的诉讼引据一项关于各州权力的宪法修正案和关于政府采购的联邦法律，指相关强制令「范围笼统」、「违宪且非法」。
爱阿华州州长雷诺兹（Kim Reynolds）在推特上传的影片中表示，强制令「滥权，我们不支持」。
他说：「这只会使阻碍经济复苏的劳动力短缺和供应链问题更加严重，并加剧政府对我们生活前所未有的干预。」
白宫规定，12月8日是联邦承包商员工接种疫苗的最后期限，但又表示，承包商在运行期限上可有弹性。
根据美国疾病管制暨预防中心（CDC）统计，全美约58%人口已完整接种2剂疫苗，66%以上已接种一剂。
Republican-led states ramp up legal challenges to Biden’s vaccine mandate
More than 10 states sued the Biden administration on Friday over forthcoming vaccine rules for federal contractors.
By Dartunorro Clark
10/30/2021
A growing number of GOP-led states are challenging President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate for federal contractors that’s slated to take effect in the coming weeks.
A coalition of 10 states filed a lawsuit on Friday seeking the block the rule, with Texas filing a separate suit. The legal challenges come a day after Florida filed a similar lawsuit.
“The federal government does not have the ability to strip individuals of their choice to get a vaccine or not. If the President thinks his patience is wearing thin, he is clearly underestimating the lack of patience from Texans whose rights he is infringing,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement Friday.
The attorneys general in Missouri and Nebraska — Eric Schmitt and Doug Peterson, respectively — filed their lawsuit with eight other states: Alaska, Arkansas, Iowa, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming. The officials argue that the Biden “exercised power far beyond what was delegated to the federal government by constitutional mandate or congressional action.”
The central argument in all three lawsuits is that the administration has no legal grounds to mandate such a sweeping requirement and that its implementation would violate a federal procurement law.
Oct 29, 2021
Biden announced the mandate for federal workers and contractors last month, when he also put in motion a rule that would require vaccinations or regular testing for employees of companies that have at least 100 workers. Federal contractors, however, would not be allowed to opt for testing instead of getting vaccinated.
Each state is seeking an immediate injunction to the rule, which is scheduled to take effect Dec. 8.
Public health experts have pointed to vaccinations as the most effective way to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
In September, Biden called on Republican governors to help combat the virus, but added, “if these governors won’t help us beat the pandemic, I’ll use my power as president to get them out of the way.”
Many Republican governors have fought the administration over its Covid-19 policies, from resisting mask mandates to banning private sector efforts to require proof of vaccination.
Earlier this month, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order prohibiting any entity, including private businesses, from imposing Covid-19 vaccine requirements on employees or customers. Abbott said at the time that vaccines “should remain voluntary and never forced.”
Raytheon CEO warns company could lose ‘several thousand’ employees over vaccine mandate
By Mike Brest
10/27/2021
Raytheon Technologies’s top boss warned that the U.S. aerospace and defense company will lose thousands of employees who have thus far refused to comply with the COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
“So, we’re going to be faced on Dec. 8 with a choice. We’re going to potentially lose several thousand people who refuse to be vaccinated,” Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes said in a CNBC interview on Tuesday. “Now, this is a tough thing, but we are preparing for it.”
Hayes also said that 83% of the company, which has a total workforce of roughly 125,000 U.S. employees, according to Reuters, is already vaccinated while another 6% are “in the process of being vaccinated.”
Additionally, there is another 3% of employees who are seeking either a religious or medical exemption, while another 3% have said they don’t intend to receive the vaccine, the CEO added, though he did not address the status of the employees who do not fall into those categories.
The company has already begun hiring people to fill the upcoming vacancies, Hayes said.
Raytheon had issued a companywide mandate requiring vaccination by Jan. 1, but that order was usurped when President Joe Biden declared that all federal contractors must receive the vaccine by Dec. 8.
Hayes’s comments came the same day Alabama Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville sent a letter to the White House claiming that Biden’s “federal contractor vaccine mandate will have negative effects on our national security” and called on the president “to remove — or, at a minimum, delay and clarify — vaccination requirements on private companies and academic research institutions that are actively supporting the Department of Defense.”
Similarly, nearly a dozen Republican lawmakers on the House Armed Services Committee petitioned the White House and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to reverse the Pentagon’s vaccine mandate for contractors over fears that it could lead to supply chain issues.
Roughly 100 employees at United Launch Alliance, a Lockheed Martin and Boeing joint venture that contracts to both the Pentagon and NASA, walked off the job Monday over the federal government’s vaccine mandates and pledged to continue protesting in the days leading up to the deadline to be vaccinated.
Former WSU football coach Nick Rolovich to sue university over firing after refusing vaccine
According to a press release sent by his attorney, Rolovich is accusing WSU Athletic Director Pat Chun of “discriminatory and vindictive behavior.”
By KREM Staff
10/20/2021
PULLMAN, Wash. — Former Washington State University football coach Nick Rolovich was fired Tuesday, Oct. 19 after refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19 and now he plans to sue the university.
According to his lawyer, Rolovich will be taking legal action against WSU and all parties responsible for his termination. The decision to terminate Rolovich came after his request for a religious exemption from the vaccine was denied by the WSU. According to his lawyer, WSU “indicated that even if the exemption had been granted, no accommodation would have been made.”
Rolovich is accusing WSU Athletic Director Pat Chun of “discriminatory and vindictive behavior,” according to the statement from his lawyer, Brian Fahling.
“Since at least early April, it became clear that Chun had already determined that Coach Rolovich would be fired,” Fahling says. “Chun’s animus towards Coach Rolovich’s sincerely held religious beliefs, and Chun’s dishonesty at the expense of Coach Rolovich during the past year is damning and will be thoroughly detailed in litigation.”
In the statement, Fahling says, “Chun’s discriminatory and vindictive behavior has caused immeasurable harm to Rolovich and his family. It is a tragic and damning commentary on our culture, and more specifically, on Chun, that Rolovich has been derided, demonized, and ultimately fired from his job, merely for being devout in his Catholic faith.”
Pope Francis, the leader of the Catholic Church, has encouraged people to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
Here is the statement from Rolovich’s lawyer in full:
“The termination of Washington State football coach Nick Rolovich on Monday was unjust and unlawful.
It came after Coach Rolovich’s request for a religious exemption from the vaccine was denied by the University. The institution also indicated that even if the exemption had been granted, no accommodation would have been made. As a result, Coach Rolovich will be taking legal action against Washington State University, and all parties responsible for his illegal termination.
Immediately after terminating Coach Rolovich, WSU Athletic Director, Pat Chun, directed campus police to escort the coach to his car, he wasn’t allowed into his office, and he was not even allowed to speak to his team. Since at least early April, it became clear that Chun had already determined that Coach Rolovich would be fired. Chun’s animus towards Coach Rolovich’s sincerely held religious beliefs, and Chun’s dishonesty at the expense of Coach Rolovich during the past year is damning and will be thoroughly detailed in litigation.
Chun’s discriminatory and vindictive behavior has caused immeasurable harm to Coach Rolovich and his family. Furthermore, the University’s deceitfulness about being unable to accommodate Coach Rolovich even if his religious exemption request had been granted, is exemplified by Chun’s actions arranging a “secret” donor trip that he had Coach Rolovich attend at the height of the pandemic in July 2020.
During that excursion, Chun and other attendees contracted the disease, but Coach Rolovich did not. It is a tragic and damning commentary on our culture, and more specifically, on Chun, that Coach Rolovich has been derided, demonized, and ultimately fired from his job, merely for being devout in his Catholic faith.”
KREM has reached out to WSU for a statement but has not yet received a response.
320万年薪傲视全州公务员 华盛顿州立大学教练拒打疫苗遭开除
10/20/2021
华盛顿州立大学(Washington State University，WSU)足球队总教练罗洛维奇(Nick Rolovich)年薪320万元，在领取州政府薪水的公务员收入排行榜称霸。但因罗洛维奇拒绝遵守华州要求公务员必须接种新冠疫苗的规定，本周稍早已被开除。华盛顿邮报报导，罗洛维奇堪称到目前为止，最为引人注目的公职人员拒打疫苗而丢饭碗案例。
华盛顿州立大学18日宣布已经解聘罗洛维奇。华盛顿州立大学美洲狮队(Washington State Cougars)体育主任秦派特(Pat Chun，音译)指出，罗洛维奇拒绝配合疫苗接种规定，已经失去获得校方聘用的资格。
秦派特在声明中说，这起事件让学校足球队感到沮丧。
42岁的罗洛维奇出身于夏威夷大学(University of Hawaii)足球队，2019年曾获西部山区联盟(Mountain West Conference)最佳教练。罗洛维奇年薪320万元，是领取华州州政府薪水的公务员当中排行最高者。
罗洛维奇今年暑假已经表明坚决不打疫苗，太平洋十二校联盟(Pacific-12 Conference)在洛杉矶举办媒体宣传，由于规定全体出席者必须打疫苗，罗洛维奇便因此缺席。
秦派特指出，校方与罗洛维奇协商长达数月，但罗洛维奇态度坚定，「他有权做出选择，他的决定就是不配合规定」。
华盛顿州立大学校长薛尔兹(Kirk Schulz)则在声明中说，虽然少数人士拒打疫苗而引发轩然大波，但学校接近90%雇员及97%学生则都打了疫苗。
薛尔兹说：「人们可以做选择，而且有好几个月的时间可以决定。这并不是突然发生的。」
除了罗洛维奇之外，华盛顿州立大学美洲狮队另外四名助理教练罗戈(Ricky Logo)、理查森(John Richardson)、史特兹曼(Craig Stutzmann)、韦伯(Mark Weber)，同样因为拒打疫苗，一并遭到开除。
美国ESPN知名体育记者拒打疫苗被开除
本文源自: 金融界网
10/20/2021
迪士尼旗下娱乐与体育节目电视网（ESPN）的知名记者艾莉森-威廉姆斯（Allison Williams）周一表示，她因为拒绝接种新冠病毒疫苗而被解雇，下周将是她在这里工作的的最后日子。
这位明星记者最出名的是她对美国大学橄榄球和篮球比赛的报道，她在社交媒体上的一段视频中说，她要求豁免不接种疫苗的请求被拒绝了。
威廉姆斯从2011年3月开始为ESPN工作。上个月，她在推特上发表声明称，在咨询了医生后，她拒绝接种疫苗，因为她和她的丈夫正试图生第二个孩子，接种疫苗“不符合我的最佳利益”。
ESPN的母公司迪士尼是众多要求员工接种疫苗的企业之一。该公司在一份声明中说，不会对威廉姆斯的个案置评。迪士尼表示，公司正在按照其法律义务，处理员工提出的豁免要求。
ESPN’s Allison Williams explains why she’s giving up her job over a vaccine mandate
By ANDREA HSU
10/20/2021
Lance King/Getty Images
ESPN college basketball and football reporter Allison Williams has joined a small minority of workers who have quit or been fired from their jobs over a vaccine mandate.
“I have been denied my request for accommodation by ESPN and the Walt Disney Company, and effective next week, I will be separated from the company,” she said in a video posted to Instagram on Friday.
ESPN’s parent company, Disney, had announced a vaccine mandate over the summer with a deadline of this Friday, Oct. 22.
In early September, Williams shared on Twitter that she’d decided not to get a COVID-19 vaccine while she and her husband were trying to have a second child.
“Taking the vaccine at this time is not in my interest,” she wrote.
The CDC has urged people who are pregnant or might become pregnant to get vaccinated, saying there is currently no evidence showing COVID-19 vaccines cause fertility problems and no data pointing to an increased risk of miscarriage among people who received an mRNA vaccine during pregnancy.
In the Instagram video, Williams spoke of her medical apprehensions about receiving the vaccine and added, “I am also so morally and ethically not aligned with this.”
“Ultimately, I cannot put a paycheck over principle, and I will not sacrifice something that I believe and hold so strongly to maintain a career,” she said in the video. “I’m going to pray things get better and that I can see you on the television set in some capacity in some stadium, covering some game soon.”
Williams, who had reported for ESPN since 2011, acknowledged she’s not the only one walking away from a career or a profession they love.
Hundreds of hospital workers have quit rather than get vaccinated, but they represent only a tiny fraction of employees overall. For example, Duke Health in North Carolina reported it had fired just 20 people out of a workforce of 23,000.
Meanwhile, United Airlines said it is terminating a couple of hundred of its 67,000 employees who did not comply with the airline’s vaccine mandate. Other employers that have imposed vaccine mandates are also reporting compliance rates topping 90%.
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Veteran police officer resigns over vaccine mandate in chronically understaffed department
The department has chronically been understaffed and more officers could resign over the mandate
By Emma Colton | Fox News
9/21/2021
A nearly 30-year police veteran in California resigned over San Jose’s vaccine mandate as the police force continues struggling with chronic understaffing.
“First of all, it’s my religious belief. I also believe I’ve been given a choice about what to do with my body,” Sgt. David Gutierrez said after he resigned from the San Jose Police Department this weekend, KPIX reported.
Gutierrez spent 23 years with the San Jose Police Department working as a homicide detective, internal affairs investigator and patrol supervisor, before retiring in 2019. He then returned to the force as a reserve officer.
Gutierrez worked his last shift at the department on Saturday, and said he sent a letter to the city manager on Monday denouncing the city’s vaccine mandate, which requires city employees to show proof of vaccination or get a medical exemption. Those who don’t comply face disciplinary action, such as termination.
“Disciplinary action is when you have done something wrong,” Gutierrez said, according to NBC Bay Area. “I have done nothing wrong – by making a choice not to be vaccinated why would you be disciplined?”
Gutierrez added that he is not anti-vaccine and would be open to the city testing him on a weekly basis instead of enforcing the vaccine or getting a medical exemption.
“I’m not anti-vaccine. I don’t tell people, ‘You shouldn’t get it.’ But when it comes to my body, it’s my choice about what I want to put in my body,” Gutierrez said.
He sent his resignation letter ahead of the city’s Sept. 30 deadline for employees to get the vaccine, and said more officers could also walk off the job amid the department already facing understaffing issues.
“We are already understaffed and can’t afford to lose more,” Gutierrez said.
“If they let go police officers who’ve been here five years, 10 years, 15 years, you can hire somebody else, but you’re not going to hire that experience though,” he added.
A recent audit examining the last 10 years of the police department found the force has heavily relied on overtime as it struggles with understaffing.
About 200 officers in the department have so far asked for exemptions, many of which are for religious purposes. But the Democratic mayor, Sam Liccardo, says the vaccine mandate is overall working and doesn’t anticipate an exodus from the force.
“This is certainly for the protection of the individual members of our city team. But it’s also, critically, for the safety of our entire community because we know, obviously, first responders are out there interacting [with the public] every day,” Liccardo said, according to KPIX.
Northern NY hospital to stop delivering babies after resignations over Covid-19 vaccine
BY Christine Vendel
9/12/2021
A hospital in New York plans to stop delivering babies later this month because too many maternity workers resigned rather than get the Covid-19 vaccine.
Lewis County Health System Chief Executive Officer Gerald R. Cayer announced at a news conference Friday afternoon that the maternity department would be closed on Sept. 25 until they can find enough vaccinated nurses to safely reopen it.
Cayer told reporters in Lowville, is the North Country of New York state, that seven of the 30 people who have resigned from the hospital worked in the maternity department, according to the news site NNY360.
Seven additional maternity workers have not said whether or not they will get their first vaccine shot by Sept. 27, which is the deadline set by the state for healthcare workers to get at least one shot, according to the news site.
The health system has a higher than average percentage of its staff vaccinated, Cayer told reporters, with 464 employees vaccinated out of 650, or 73 percent.
But there are still 165 employees who have not yet shared their decision with hospital management, WWNY television news reported.
Medical services in five other departments may have to be cut back as well if more staff members resign because they refuse to be vaccinated
“It just is a crazy time,” Mr. Cayer said, according to NNY360, “It’s not just LCHS-centric. Rural hospitals everywhere are really trying to figure out how we’re going to make it work.”
“If you don’t have staff, how do you deliver the service? That’s what I’m going to be talking about,” Cayer said.
The Health System is one of only two county-owned hospitals left in the state and is the largest employer in the county.
