Woman Says She Was Fired From NYC Server Over COVID Vaccine

NEW YORK – A woman said she was fired from her server job at a restaurant in New York City because she didn’t want to get the coronavirus vaccine yet, which the restaurant said was a requirement.

Bonnie Jacobson, 34, told “Good Morning America” ​​that she was fired from the Red Hook Tavern in Brooklyn on Monday after telling management she wanted to wait because she and her husband are trying to have a child and it is unclear whether the vaccines can have any effect on that.

She said employees had received an email from the restaurant that vaccination was a requirement, and when she said she wanted to wait, she received an email saying, “At this point, your employment is being terminated. We find it sorry you’re leaving. if you change your mind, don’t hesitate to let us know. “

The Federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has said employers can require workers to be vaccinated.

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In a statement, Billy Durney, the restaurant’s owner, said: “Once New York State allowed restaurant employees the COVID-19 vaccine, we thought this was the perfect opportunity to create a plan to help our team and our guests to protect.

No one has faced these challenges before and we made a decision that we thought would best protect everyone. And we now realize that we need to update our policies so that it is clear to our team how the process works and what we can do to support them. We made these changes immediately. “

Jacobson said it wasn’t about anti-vaccination.

“I fully support the vaccine,” she said. “If it wasn’t for this one thing, I probably would get it.”