(Headline USA) The union chief for New York City’s firefighters blasted Democrat Mayor Eric Adams this week for exempting high-profile athletes and performers from his COVID-19 vaccine mandate while forcing thousands of first responders to still get the jab.
Andrew Ansbro, president of the FDNY Uniformed Firefighters Association, told Fox News on Monday that Adams’s decision to loosen some COVID-19 restrictions is rife with hypocrisy.
“You can’t have [the city] reopened for some and put others on the unemployment line at the same time,” he said.
“For the last two years, we’ve been through the entire pandemic, every single wave of it. We’ve borne the brunt of it, as have all the essential workers in New York City,” Asbro said. “And now, many of those essential workers are at risk of losing their jobs because of Adams’s vaccine mandate.”
More than 500 firefighters are still being threatened with termination if they do not comply with the mandate, while another 1,400 have already been fired.
“I want someone to talk to his doctors that said it’s OK for athletes and performers to go back to work, and, at the same time, fire employees – fire their essential workers and fire teachers and everyone else who works for the city,” Ansbro said. “I want [Adams] to explain why it’s OK.”
Adams announced last week that he would exempt the city’s athletes from the COVID-19 vaccine mandate after Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving, who is unvaccinated, pointed out how ridiculous the standards are. Irving was prevented from playing on the basketball court because he is not vaccinated, but was still able to attend games and sit front-row.
Ansbro isn’t the only New Yorker upset with Adams’s double standards.
A fellow Democrat and City Council Speaker Adrienne Adams also took issue with the mayor’s exemption, saying it “sends the wrong message that higher-paid workers and celebrities are being valued as more important than our devoted civil servants.”
