A crowd of protesters opposed to vaccine mandates — including city teachers — chanted “F— Joe Biden” Monday while crossing the Brooklyn Bridge en route to a City Hall gathering.
Videos of the raucous group posted to Twitter show some participants disparaging the chief executive along with COVID-19 vaccine restrictions.
Department of Education teachers must get at least their first dose of the shot by September 27th unless they get a religious or medical exemption.
Those who don’t claim either accommodation but still refuse the vaccine can be placed on unpaid leave for a year or exit the DOE with a severance package.
The United Federation of Teachers has encouraged its members to get the jab as a precaution against the virus — especially the highly transmissible Delta variant.
So far, the UFT said that roughly 80 to 85 percent of city teachers have been vaccinated.
The issue has divided educators in the nation’s largest school district, with some union factions blasting their anti-vaccine colleagues for endangering their health.
Marching anti-mandate protesters held signs denouncing the vaccine requirement and other restrictions Monday.
“I have lived and worked in this city as a civil servant for 28 years of my life,” retired teacher Amy Carroll told PIX11. “I should be able to make my own health decisions and make a decision that doesn’t affect my employment that doesn’t affect my right to go to a restaurant, or a Broadway play, a museum.”
Mayor Bill de Blasio has argued that vaccinations will guard against outbreaks and hasten the city’s return to normalcy in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
