With 46K Unvaccinated, NYC Worker Mandate Could Create Shortfalls

NEW YORK CITY — Mayor Bill de Blasio expressed faith that enough New York City public workers will get the COVID-19 vaccine to avert a mass staffing shortage after a new dose-or-unpaid leave mandate takes effect Oct. 29.

The deadline will impose pressure on 46,000 unvaccinated city workers — which include scores of cops and firefighters — to get their shots just like public school educators and health care workers did before their own mandates, de Blasio said Wednesday.

Given the option of getting a shot or losing paychecks, school staff and city health care workers chose to get vaccinated to the tune of 96 percent and 95 percent compliance, he said.

"I think we're going to see a lot of people, maybe grudgingly, but a lot of people go and just get vaccinated and continue working," he said.

Many public-facing city agencies still have thousands of workers who remain unvaccinated, according to mayor's office data.

Those include the NYPD — which stands at a 70 percent vaccination rate. Many officers have at-times aggressively flouted indoor and subway mask rules throughout the pandemic, despite de Blasio's and Commissioner Dermot Shea's denunciations and promises of discipline.

And Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch has promised a fight over the mandate.

De Blasio argued mask compliance is a different matter than the mandate. He said the issue — beyond his faith that police are public servants who'll get shots to do their jobs — comes down to a paycheck.

"It's not like whether you wear a mask on a subway," he said. "This is an entirely different reality: do you want to get paid or not? Well, the vast, vast majority of people in public service need that paycheck, they're not going to go without it."

And, if the expected rush of vaccinations doesn't unfold, city officials have backup plans to cover for potentially thousands of NYPD officers, FDNY firefighters and sanitation workers who refuse to roll up their sleeves, de Blasio said.

He said they'll use overtime and "redeployments" to cover shortages.

"We can adjust the use of the workforce," he said. "We feel confident that even if there's some temporary dynamic of some people not being ready right away that we're going to find our way through it."