Those who don’t rally around in a crisis shouldn’t expect some kind of remuneration when the crisis fades.
That, however, is what some people are pushing for as Mayor Brandon Johnson lifts the city’s COVID-19 mandate, which required that city employees be vaccinated. Some city workers who refused the vaccine mandate and were suspended or terminated now want back pay for the days they missed.
The courts will decide whether the city should have negotiated the mandate as part of collective bargaining.
But let’s look back at the height of the pandemic. People were dying at a frightening rate. Public health officials were scrambling to do whatever they could to save lives. Health care workers were feeling the trauma of their exhausting efforts to rescue a huge number of patients, even as those workers feared they might bring a dangerous virus home to their families.
The same could happen if another pandemic emerges.
Looking back today, the public knows COVID-19 vaccines saved many lives, prevented many people from getting far sicker than they did, did not have widespread dangerous side effects and helped slow the spread of the virus. Officials estimate COVID-19 vaccines saved 14.4 million lives worldwide in 2021 alone.
Yet there was Fraternal Order of Police President John Cantanzara back in 2021, urging police officers to resist the mandate and refuse to report their vaccination status, something other people had to do just to gain admission into a corner bar. How was this supposed to help vulnerable people? Not to mention police officers themselves, whose jobs — they have to show up for work and interact with the public — put them at high risk for COVID-19? Thousands of officers became ill with the virus and hundreds died nationwide, including five in Chicago by the end of 2021.
When police officers insist on talking to someone, perhaps at a traffic stop, individuals don’t have the right to refuse on health grounds. There is a greater responsibility on the shoulders of “public-facing” employees to ensure they are not spreading a dangerous contagion.
What about the next pandemic?
As the Sun-Times’ Fran Spielman reported, the Illinois Labor Relations Board has ruled that those who were terminated must get back pay and interest. It’s not clear whether the Illinois Appellate Court will agree with the board. Other police officers received various lengths of “no-pay” status plus five-day suspensions.
At the heart of this are issues that easily may become extremely significant once again. Public health experts worry contagious and lethal bird flu could break into the general human population, though at this point the risk to humans is considered low. Last week, hundreds of birds killed by bird flu washed up on the southern shore of Lake Michigan, and a new type of bird flu has been found in dairy cows.
The risks of another worldwide pandemic are real and increasing, according to a report from the Global Preparedness Monitoring Board, an initiative of the World Health Organization and the World Bank.
The federal government, under a Trump administration, seems poised to be of less help in any new public health crisis, and might even busy itself pouring gasoline tanks of misinformation onto the conflagration should a new pandemic break out. The administration has been busy wiping away online information about vaccines and scientific research, and vaccine denier Robert F. Kennedy Jr. just had his nomination as U.S. Health and Human Services secretary advanced by the Senate Finance Committee on Feb. 4.
If another public health crisis emerges, far more of the credible decision-making will be left up to local officials, who will have to deal with collective bargaining negotiations at a time when prompt action will be needed.
It’s a complicated issue. In handling a crisis, government might overreach.
But in the case of COVID-19, let’s face it: a simple jab in the arm was not that much to ask. Desperate people drove long distances or hovered over their computers into the wee hours looking for scheduling vacancies just in hopes of getting their shot.
The military requires vaccines. Schools require vaccines. No one gets compensation for refusing. Chicago’s vaccine mandate included exemptions for documented religious or medical reasons.
Health crises really should be a moment when people come together as a community — and aren’t rewarded for stubborn refusal to do their part.
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