Vaccination rates among officers lag behind those in the broader city population. About 70 percent of the department’s 36,000 uniformed and 15,000 civilian employees have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, according to the city, compared to roughly 85 percent of adult city residents. The Police Benevolent Association vowed on Wednesday to fight Mr. de Blasio’s mandate in court.
Mr. Gilbert said he did not believe that action would be taken against the maskless officers he encountered.
Yes. The F.D.A. has updated its authorizations to allow medical providers to boost people with a different vaccine than the one they initially received, a strategy known as “mix and match.” Whether you received Moderna, Johnson & Johnson or Pfizer-BioNTech, you may receive a booster of any other vaccine. Regulators have not recommended any one vaccine over another as a booster. They have also remained silent on whether it is preferable to stick with the same vaccine when possible.
The C.D.C. has said the conditions that qualify a person for a booster shot include: hypertension and heart disease; diabetes or obesity; cancer or blood disorders; weakened immune system; chronic lung, kidney or liver disease; dementia and certain disabilities. Pregnant women and current and former smokers are also eligible.
The F.D.A. authorized boosters for workers whose jobs put them at high risk of exposure to potentially infectious people. The C.D.C. says that group includes: emergency medical workers; education workers; food and agriculture workers; manufacturing workers; corrections workers; U.S. Postal Service workers; public transit workers; grocery store workers.
Yes. The C.D.C. says the Covid vaccine may be administered without regard to the timing of other vaccines, and many pharmacy sites are allowing people to schedule a flu shot at the same time as a booster dose.
“I don’t have much confidence there will be any punishment,” said Mr. Gilbert, who added that he planned to seek legal guidance before determining whether he would file a grievance with the Civilian Complaint Review Board, which investigates complaints from the public about officer misconduct.
It is unclear whether any officers have ever been disciplined for mask violations.
Between May 2020 and August 2021, the Civilian Complaint Review Board referred about 316 complaints about officers who failed to adhere to Covid-era protocols, including social distancing guidelines and mask mandates, to the Police Department. But the department did not respond to questions on Wednesday about whether any personnel had been penalized for such behavior.
The Rev. Fred Davie, who chairs the review board, said in an interview that while mask-related complaints are referred back to the police, the issue could fall within the group’s purview as an abuse of officers’ authority.
“We see it quite a bit in the body-worn camera footage that we get,” he said. “It may be time for the board to review this and now start investigating ourselves.”
Janno Lieber, the acting chair of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said Wednesday that incidents with officers like the one in the video were “really undermining” broader efforts to enforce mask-wearing on public transit, which has begun to decrease.
Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/20/nyregion/nypd-unmasked-covid.html
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