On the same street in Washington on Monday, two radically different COVID vaccine policies were enacted.
At 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, Pres. Joe Biden was forced to stop his vaccine mandate for federal workers. At 1350 Pennsylvania Ave, Mayor Muriel Bowser announced city workers must get a booster shot to be “fully vaccinated” by Feb. 15 or be fired.
The science of who is spreading and getting COVID seems to be irrelevant in the nation’s capital.
Getty Images
On Monday, the District of Columbia notified its employees that it must get the booster within the next three weeks or be “subject to discipline.” I obtained the internal email – uploaded at the bottom – that Bowser’s director of the Department of Human Resources sent to all city government employees.
The “discipline” begins on March 15, 2022. Employees are given three strikes— counseling, suspension and then dismissal. I linked to the details in the sources.
A D.C. police officer said when he saw the e-mail about the booster, he felt “betrayed by the city.” He told me, “This unnecessary mandate could cost me my career along with hundreds of others.”
Mayor Bowser with first responders — Getty Images
I asked the mayor’s office why D.C. is still mandating vaccines after the White House stopped enforcement by order of a federal judge. A spokeswoman sent me this response:
The pandemic is still raging and vaccination is the single most effective way of preventing serious illness and death. States and localities have great power to protect public safety and health, and no court has suggested that the District’s vaccination requirements exceed the powers of the District government to protect the safety and health of our residents, employees and visitors.
“The city is being simply unscientific,” said Will Jones, who is a D.C. firefighter and not vaccinated. “So many of us as first responders have already got it, if this was about science they would acknowledge natural immunity.”
The new CDC study that showed prior infection was more effective than a vaccine for the Delta variant is linked in my sources below.
“Hundreds of us still haven't got the first shot, and we will continue to resist this overreach into personal medical choices,” Jones told me. “This newest mandate will only make our numbers grow.”
I asked Mayor Bower’s office what is the purpose for city employees getting booster shots if it is no longer about stopping infection and spreading to the public.A spokeswoman for Mayor Bowser sent me this statement :
To protect our workforce and those we serve, the District will take the best course of action to bring this pandemic to its end using vaccines and booster shots, which are proven to be safe and highly effective in preventing severe illness, hospitalization, and death, even with the emergence and spread of the COVID-19 Delta and Omicron variants.
Further, boosters have proven to provide enhanced protection after an individual has received their full course of vaccination after a certain period of time and the Mayor is committed to the safety and health of the District's workforce
Jason Collins is an unvaccinated firefighter in Washington who told me the policy does not have the best interest of the public in mind.
“Not only is it a blanket policy to require shots for people that do not need them, but it eliminates the most accurate guarantee we have that COVID is not being spread — regular testing,” said Collins.
Also, the city emailed its employees this:
District government employees will no longer be able to opt for testing in-lieu of vaccination unless they have been granted a medical or religious accommodation.
However, all of the religious or medical exemptions that have been ruled on by the city have been deined based on stopping the spread. Read more about the denials of religious exemptions in my story here:
“They are essentially admitting that the denials on the basis that we were an undue health risk because we — inferring uniquely — could spread the virus,” Captain Mike Engles, an unvaccinated D.C. firefighter, told me. “This shows they know that the vaccine doesn't stop the spread and that everyone can spread it.”
Engels and hundreds of other firefighters have been fighting the vaccine mandate since it came down from the mayor in September. Read more in my story here:
Also on Monday, the Biden White House task force for federal employees updated its policy to comply with a federal judge’s injunction:
the Federal Government will take no action to implement or enforce the COVID-19 vaccination requirement pursuant to Executive Order 14043
In an accompanying document of “frequently asked questions related to compliance” – which is uploaded at the bottom– it says this about people who have already been forced out of a job for not getting a vaccine:
agencies do not need to reinstate employees who have been terminated because of non-compliance with the COVID-19 vaccination requirement pursuant to E.O. 14043. Agencies should temporarily halt any active suspensions as of January 21, 2022, and should restore those employees to pay status.
So if you’ve been fired by Uncle Sam, you’re not getting your job back. But if you’ve been suspended, go back to the office.
“It’s all about ego. They cant say they are sorry and they are wrong,” Cap. Engels said about the mandates in D.C. “Leftists people, in general, have no mercy for anybody when they disagree.”
