NYC fired 5,511 teachers over COVID shots, far more than first reported

New York City officials’ early count of mandate firings missed the mark by thousands. Attorney Jimmy Wagner, using Freedom of Information Law requests, uncovered Department of Education records showing 5,399 public school teachers were terminated in 2022 for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine, with another 112 fired the following year. That 5,511 total dwarfs the February 2022 city report that claimed only 914 DOE workers had been let go. The discrepancy raises uncomfortable questions about what else city hall hasn’t told taxpayers about the mandate that stripped veteran educators of their careers.

“We know it is a lie, because it was 5,500 teachers,” Wagner told The Defender.

The newly obtained figures only cover teachers, leaving out an unknown number of non-teaching school employees who also lost their jobs. Advocates say the full picture is far worse. Michael Kane, founder of Teachers for Choice, noted that aides, therapists and other support staff aren’t included in the count. When factoring in more than 16,718 teachers who resigned in 2022, a figure that the records say includes vaccine-related terminations, Kane estimates the city lost at least 10,000 educators due to the mandate.

Kane, who called even that figure likely a huge underestimate, said the city’s silence five years later is telling. “If this was really not a big deal, and if the numbers were low, New York City would have reported them publicly a long time ago,” he told The Defender.