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USNS Comfort Leaves NY Harbor As NYC Coronavirus Cases Decline

Source: Jeenah Moon / Getty

Data shows that anti-vaxxers who threaten to quit their jobs over vaccine mandates rarely do so because once they weigh their misguided convictions against the idea of losing their paychecks they realize they might as well stop pretending the shot is going to hurt them the way loss of income absolutely will.

Data also shows that COVID-19—not gun violence, not Black Lives Matter protests, not severe donut allergies—is the leading cause of death for police officers in the U.S.

The latter point doesn’t seem to have dissuaded cops from protesting against vaccine mandates, but the former point apparently rings true among those in uniform because despite the threats that some 10,000 NYPD officers would quit over New York City’s vaccine mandate for municipal workers, the actual number of officers placed on unpaid leave after refusing the shot—which indicates that even they didn’t follow through with outright quitting—stands at a whopping *checks notes* 34 cops. 

According to The Independent, hundreds of city workers protested the mandate—which also applies to firefighters, medical workers and other civil servants—after it was announced by Mayor Bill de Blasio.

The Police Benevolent Association—which is a police union group and not an oxymoron fan club—warned last week that NYC’s mandate would end in a shortage of police as officers would quit in droves rather than adhere to the public safety measure that reasonable people consider an appropriate response to an ongoing global pandemic.

“As of Thursday morning, there were approximately 10,000 unvaccinated, uniformed NYPD members–which equals the staffing of dozens of patrol precincts–who will be barred from reporting for duty on Monday, Nov 1, unless they have applied for a religious or medical exemption,” the PBA said in a statement.

The union’s president, Patrick Lynch, echoed the hollow threat while going after Police Commissioner Dermot Shea saying, “Commissioner Shea and his team should have told the Mayor that this mandate and his arbitrary Friday deadline were going to throw NYPD operations into chaos.”

One can only imagine Shea’s glee when he was able to announce Monday that “members of the police department responded to this [vaccine mandate], they came to work as they always do, and there is literally no effect on service at this point.”

According to the New York Post, Shea said only 34 cops and 40 civilian members of the force failed to comply with the mandate by receiving at least one shot by Monday. That number represents fewer than .15 percent of NYPD employees.

Shea also admitted that the number of just a few dozen cops is “very fluid” and that it “could go up as the day goes on,” but he also said, “It could also go down and people get their vaccinations.”

According to the Post, NYPD’s vaccination rate was 85 percent as of Monday morning. That’s a 15-point increase from where the vaccination rate stood (70 percent) before the mandate was announced, CNN reported.

Now, to be completely fair, officials told the Post that roughly 6,500 of the fewer than 8,000 NYPD cops who remain unvaccinated have put in requests to be exempt from the mandate, and they are still allowed to work while their requests are being processed. That means, depending on how things shake out regarding those requests, it is entirely possible that the number of officers placed on unpaid leave will increase.

Still, so far, it appears that all this talk about a mass exit of NYPD officers is just that—talk.

SEE ALSO:

NYPD Commissioner Blames Violence On BLM Demonstrators During March Honoring Martin Luther King Jr.

Letitia James Sues NYPD In Landmark Suit Over Handling Of Black Lives Matter Protests

Here Are The Other NYPD Officers Involved With Eric Garner’s Death Who His Family Wants Fired
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