I looked up the definition of public safety, thinking maybe my long-held understanding about what it meant was wrong, or that I had missed a nuance. But no, my quick search confirmed my primary meaning of the word matched the definition by legal scholars: Public safety is defined as “the protection of the general public.”
Chief among the protectors of public safety in most cities and towns? Well, public safety officers, of course. The police, firefighters, state troopers and other essential workers. So why are public safety officers who’ve sworn to uphold their mission to protect the public refusing to protect?
Last time I checked, the United States — and the world — are still working to combat one of the biggest threats to public safety ever. Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States are topping 750,000. And while 191 million Americans, 59%, are fully vaccinated, that’s leaves 41% who are not. And too many of the unvaccinated are public safety officers who now pose a danger to public health, becoming potential agents of infection spread.
I couldn’t believe it when I first heard that the professionals in these positions were refusing to get vaccinated. Like so many others who have ignored pleas from health care experts, friends and family, they claim “the right to make a choice about what I put in my body.” Maybe that would be okay if this weren’t a public health crisis, if they planned to isolate themselves and stay out of public spaces, and if they didn’t have jobs that often involve close contact with other people. But their individual choice is threatening the health and safety of the rest of us. Given that, the city and state vaccination mandates for public employees couldn’t come fast enough.
In August, acting Mayor Kim Janey mandated vaccines for Boston city workers to make sure all 18,000 city employees got the shot. Of the thousands, 812 were suspended without pay because they failed to comply by the September and October deadlines. Last Monday, the deadline for state employees, Gov. Charlie Baker announced that 94% of the state’s employees are vaccinated. But a small number — 362 workers — have been suspended and 151 were fired or quit. Still in question? The 2,138 who are waiting to see if their requests for religious or medical waivers are approved.
But bottom line, most of the 42,000 employees and contractors, including state troopers and state officials, are vaccinated. That’s after failed legal challenges and predictions from the state troopers’ union of mass resignations. So far that hasn’t happened. On GBH’s Boston Public Radio talk show, Gov. Baker said he didn’t understand the pushback given the extraordinarily high rate of law enforcement officers who’ve died of COVID-19, adding he thought it wasn’t “unreasonable” for them to want to get “a safe and effective vaccine.” And it’s not unreasonable for the rest of us sharing communal space with these employees to want to be certain about their vaccination status.
I’m upset that some of the public safety workers who have quit or were fired are apparently looking for similar jobs in places where vaccinations are not mandated. I can’t get my head around their apparent inability to grasp that it’s not just about them. Or that it’s not fair to people who will unknowingly interact with them. And it doesn’t solve the problem.
Two years since the beginning of this pandemic and there are still thousands of mostly unvaccinated dying from COVID every day. Why can’t we all do our part so we can all be safer? Is that really too much to ask?
