A handful of  Maimonides Medical Center staff members are protesting New York City’s vaccination mandate outside the hospital.

     On a sunny day and under blue skies, the protesters are holding signs that say, “An Ultimatum is not a Choice,” “My Body My Choice,” and “Say No to the Prick,” and yelling about their right to fight the city’s mandate that all healthcare and city workers get vaccinated or submit to weekly COVID tests, which will go into effect on Sept. 27.

    On Aug. 16, when only 25% of the state’s healthcare workers remained unvaccinated, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo mandated that all New York state healthcare workers will be required to get their shots by Sept. 27, the date on which New York City teachers also are also mandated to get vaccinated.

     More than one million New Yorkers have been reported to have had COVID, which killed 33,645 of those patients.

    New York City health officials say 12% of those COVID patients, were hospitalized: a number that the city’s top physicians say can only be driven down by vaccination.

     On Aug. 23, Pfizer upgraded its approval of its vaccine from emergency-use approval to full approval. Since December, when COVID vaccines first became available, more than 11 million residents of New York City have got their shots.

   When Mitch Katz, MD, the CEO of Health + Hospitals was asked whether vaccination is necessary for New Yorkers who had COVID, he said, "While prior infection does create a level of immunity that is 'protective,' the antibodies only protect against the strain of the virus that caused the original infection,” but not delta, mu, or any other potential mutations of the virus.