Omicron Cases Continue to Increase: Lawsuits Against Vaccine Mandates Do As Well

By Yehudit Garmaise

Omicron cases nationwide are increasing, but that has not stopped New Yorkers from filing lawsuits against New York City's vaccine mandates. Yesterday, New York Supreme Court Judge Frank Nervo, granted a hearing that will be held on Dec. 14, to hear the arguments of NYPD detective Anthony Marciano, who has asked for a temporary restraining order (TRO) on the mandates, which would put the inoculation requirement on hold.

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office has until Dec. 13 to reply.

Although on Twitter, one of Marciano’s lawyers already claimed that he was already granted a TRO, Judge Nervo, who has only scheduled Marciano’s hearing, has not granted a TRO.

Marciano, who was previously infected with COVID, said in the affidavit he filed yesterday, that the mayor’s mandate unfairly disregards his natural immunity.

Vaccination rates of city workers have shot up to a rate that is now 94%, however, ever since the days leading up to and following Nov. 1, when NYC’s vaccine requirement went into effect for all municipal workers, except those who work in prisons, many of city workers loudly protested.

Just last night, a few dozen protesters disrupted traffic outside Gracie Mansion to express their outrage over vaccine mandates.

At the end of October, some on-duty sanitation workers refused to pick up garbage on their routes, many city workers marched across Brooklyn Bridge in protest, and at the beginning of November, thousands of firefighters called in sick for a few days to avoid the vaccine mandate.

In addition, the city’s largest police union has several times attempted to thwart the mayor’s vaccine mandate for city workers in court cases, all of which were lost, as judges continue to support City Hall.

Marciano claims that city officials lack the legal authority to pass vaccine mandates, however, on Monday, at Mayor Bill de Blasio’s morning press briefing, New York City’s Corporation Counsel Georgia Pestana said that the city’s commissioner of health, Dave Chokshi, MD, who officially issues the vaccine mandates, has the authority to do so to protect the public health.

In court, Pestana said, the health commissioner’s authority to issue mandates “has been upheld time and again.

“The health commissioner has an obligation and a responsibility to protect the public health.

“Here, he is issuing an order that is intended to do just that in a public health emergency.

Marciano, however, said in his affidavit that state lawmakers have not yet passed any laws that allow vaccine mandates.

In addition, Louis Gelormino, a Staten Island lawyer, wants to file a class-action suit on behalf of any New Yorker who does not want to get vaccinated, after Mayor de Blasio announced that non-public school staff and teachers must get their shots by Dec. 20 and that private-sector workers must be vaccinated by Dec. 27.

The consequences that non-compliant New Yorkers will face will not be clarified until Dec. 15, when the mayor said he would publish guidelines, penalties, and details about how the mandate will be enforced.

Many educators and businesses are worried that the mandates could leave them short of workers, however, the mayor has said many times that most businesses appreciate the mandates, so “they can provide a safe environment for everybody.”

"[Businesses] like to see the government lead," the mayor said. "We did that with our own public employees, our own public schools. We proved it works. And then what we also heard from business leaders is, ‘Whatever you do, don't let us go back to shut down. Don't let us go backward.’"

Gelormino, however, said, "We are going to be filing a class-action lawsuit, [after] we received dozens, dozens of calls yesterday and dozens more today, on behalf of any employee.

“Anybody who works in New York City, who is between 16 and 75 years old, and who doesn't want to get the vaccination: we are going to be filing a class-action lawsuit on their behalf."

Photo: Flickr