Top New York City Democrat Councilman Mark Levine claimed on Monday that the more than 2,000 firefighters who opted to take sick days over the last week in protest of the city government’s Nov. 1 forced COVID vaccine deadline are selfish.
“Let’s be clear: firehouses are closed not because of the mandate. They are closed because of people who are refusing to protect themselves, their families, their colleagues and the public by getting a safe and effective vaccine,” Levine tweeted on Monday.
Let’s be clear: firehouses are closed not because of the mandate.
They are closed because of people who are refusing to protect themselves, their families, their colleagues and the public by getting a safe and effective vaccine. https://t.co/t5ksODmp12
— Mark D. Levine (@MarkLevineNYC) October 30, 2021
Levine’s response was mocked as ridiculous after multiple users pointed out that firefighters who worked all throughout the height of the pandemic and put their lives on the line for others on a daily basis are far from the selfish people the Democrat councilman made them out to be.
https://twitter.com/seanmdav/status/1455230737146425353?s=20
They risked their lives the entire pandemic. Many of them got COVID in the process. The chutzpah of the City to put this on them after their service is unimaginable.
— Bethany S. Mandel (@bethanyshondark) October 31, 2021
Yes, the guys that regularly run into burning buildings don't care about the welfare of others. Go with that. https://t.co/fVkrex3a1g
— Mark Hemingway (@Heminator) November 1, 2021
Ok – so folks who put their lives on the line every day for others are the bad guys here for wanting to choose for themselves without a mandate… Got it. #HealthcareFreedom https://t.co/0lUBbZ5ZeO
— Chip Roy (@chiproytx) November 1, 2021
Ahh yes, the real problems are those self-centered folks who put their lives on the line every single day, including the worst of the pandemic, to indiscriminately pull people out of burning cars and buildings.
Those selfish bastards. https://t.co/Hg0E82eljt
— Kylee Griswold (@kyleezempel) November 1, 2021
The NYC fire commissioner also blamed the firefighters — who were at risk of losing their jobs on Monday due to the city’s looming COVID-19 shot deadline — for leaving the other roughly 9,000 firefighters in the city’s network to staff all of the firehouses, which are at risk of closing.
“Irresponsible bogus sick leave by some of our members is creating a danger for New Yorkers and their fellow firefighters,” the fire commissioner, Daniel A. Nigro, said in a statement to The New York Times.
“He attributed the uptick in sick leave to ‘anger at the vaccine mandate,'” the Times noted.
Hundreds of firefighters gathered Friday in front of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s mansion to protest the city’s vaccine coercion and call attention to the potential staffing crisis FDNY could face if it follows through with putting firefighters on unpaid leave.
As of Sunday, 23,000 NYC government workers across multiple departments such as law enforcement, sanitation, and correction were still defying the city’s vaccine mandate.
