Indictment of Garvey, a NYC Sanitation Worker for Vaccine Irrationality and Unconstitutionality

Nowadays, he gets up, makes breakfast for his teens, finds some time to do some leisure activities around the house or outside, and then sits down to work on his lawsuit.

Garvey was one of the 16 New York City Sanitation workers fired for not getting the vaccine, and one of thousands nationwide who lost their jobs for not getting the vaccine. It’s a group of people that also includes teachers and health care workers.

A New York state judge ruled that the city’s vaccine requirement for public employees was irrational and unconstitutional. The city was ordered by the court to restore employees who were fired for failing to comply with the mandate.

New York City has had some of the strictest and broadest vaccine mandates in the country. By the end of 2021, the city was enforcing rules for both public and private sector workers.

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“We don’t deal with the public at all. We don’t respond to 9-1-1 calls. He says we don’t even go on people’s property. I kept thinking, “There’s no way that they’re going to fire us.”

He was denied a religious exemption after he was faced with the mandate. He was terminated on February 11th after being on leave for January and February.

The next day, New York City filed a notice of appeal indicating its intent to fight the decision. (The city won’t comment on the case, other than to say it has no obligation to reinstate workers while the appeal is pending.)

On that day, the vaccine mandate for private sectors was changed by the city. The city’s Board of Health voted unanimously on October 25 to approve a plan to remove the private sector mandate after Mayor Eric Adams announced his intent.

“I don’t think anything dealing with COVID is — makes sense, and there’s no logical pathway,” he told reporters in September. You make the decisions based on how we can keep our city safe.

There’s no doubt that COVID vaccines have saved lives. A recent study by the Commonwealth Fund found that widespread vaccination in the U.S. has had the cumulative effect of preventing 18 million additional hospitalizations and 3 million additional deaths.

At the end of March, United Airlines returned a few thousand unvaccinated workers who had been put on leave because of declining case counts and hospitalizations.

Tyson Foods and Goldman Sachs were among employers that dropped their vaccine mandates recently. The vaccine mandate for the U.S. military was eliminated by Congress in the National Defense Authorization Act.

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Smith is now driving a bus at LaGuardia Airport, earning far less than he used to in sanitation. If the court ruling is upheld, and city workers are offered reinstatement, he says he’ll definitely go back to his old job.

“I don’t regret what I’ve done. I don’t regret anything that’s happened so far,” he says as he waits for his case to play out. “Might be a long way. It might be a short way. It’s not exactly what we want, but we’ve won.

The change will take effect Friday, following the next Board of Health meeting the day prior, and also applies to city Department of Education employees. People will no longer have to show proof of vaccine dose when they visit Department of Education schools.

It’s clear these mandates were necessary to meet the moment and saved lives. As the emergency phase of the Pandemic begins to an end, we are thankful we can modify more of the rules that have gotten us to this point.