Nearly 1,500 NYC workers fired for flouting vaccine mandate
NEW YORK — Nearly 1,500 city workers lost their jobs Friday after failing to comply with a mandate that they are vaccinated for COVID — a bloodletting that included dismissals from the ranks of the NYPD, FDNY and the Department of Education.
While staggering in their sheer number, the firings were a long time in the making.
Mayor Eric Adams’ predecessor, former Mayor Bill de Blasio, announced the vaccine mandate for city workers in October. Adams kept it in place when he took office, and by Friday, the city had hit a key milestone: for nearly 3,500 city workers, it was either time to show proof of inoculation or be sent packing.
Adams appeared to downplay the firings on Monday when the city announced the numbers, and instead of addressing them at a press conference or in a Q-and-A, he issued a written statement through a spokesperson.
“City workers served on the frontlines during the pandemic, and by getting vaccinated, they are, once again, showing how they are willing to do the right thing to protect themselves and all New Yorkers. Our goal was always to vaccinate, not terminate, and city workers stepped up and met the goal placed before them,” he said.
The United Federation of Teachers released a statement Monday evening disagreeing with the city’s legal authority to terminate employees based on the COVID vaccine mandate.
—New York Daily News
Camilla tests positive for COVID-19 days after Prince Charles
LONDON — In Britain, the Duchess of Cornwall has tested positive for COVID-19, Clarence House has announced.
Camilla, 74, caught the virus for the first time just days after the Prince of Wales contracted the illness for a second time.
A Clarence House spokesman said: "Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall has tested positive for COVID-19 and is self-isolating.
"We continue to follow government guidelines."
Camilla is triple vaccinated, sources said.
Clarence House declined to confirm how Camilla was feeling or whether the prince and the duchess were isolating together on Valentine's Day. The duchess carried out a string of engagements last Thursday — the day Charles tested positive.
Camilla described herself as "luckily" negative the same day, saying of her testing regime during a visit to Thames Valley Partnership in Buckinghamshire: "I've taken it so many times."
Concern for Queen Elizabeth II's health mounted after the monarch was in direct contact with eldest son Charles two days before he tested positive.
Buckingham Palace has continued to refuse to confirm whether the Queen had tested positive or negative, citing medical privacy, and saying last week only that she was not displaying any symptoms.
—PA Media/dpa
Billionaire plans new SpaceX mission with spacewalk
ORLANDO, Fla. — One trip to space was not enough for billionaire Jared Issacman, who has paired up with SpaceX again for a new mission following last year’s Inspiration4.
Once again, Isaacman is spacebound, but this time looking to be among the first civilians to perform a spacewalk while trying to reach the highest ever Earth orbit flown by humans. The mission, called Polaris Dawn, is the first of up to three missions of the Polaris Program, which announced its plans Monday with a website and social media channels. Similar to Inspiration4, Isaacman is taking three passengers with him on board a SpaceX Dragon to launch atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center.
And once again Isaacman is partnered with the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, for which his Inspiration4 mission raised more than $240 million.
The new flight will launch no earlier than the fourth quarter of 2022, according to the website.
The other three passengers are Scott Poteet, given the title of mission pilot; specialist Sarah Gillis; and specialist and medical officer Anna Menon.
The mission aims to fly for five days in orbit and test an upgraded SpaceX-designed extravehicular activity spacesuit.
—Orlando Sentinel
1 body found after plane carrying 8 crashes off Outer Banks
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — One body has been found in the search for a plane with eight passengers that crashed Sunday, east of Drum Inlet on the Outer Banks, the U.S. Coast Guard reports.
Searchers do not believe there were any survivors, according to a news conference video posted by Fox 8.
The identity of the person who was found has not been released. The body was discovered Feb. 13, officials said.
A search is underway for the other seven passengers and plane, which is described as a Pilatus PC-12 single-engine passenger aircraft. There are three debris field associated with the crash — some as far as 15 miles offshore — but the fuselage has not been found, officials said at the news conference.
The eight people may have included four teens “returning from a hunting trip,” station WCTI reported.
An air traffic controller at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point on the North Carolina coast first reported observing an aircraft “behaving erratically on radar and then disappeared from the radar screen,” officials said.
The plane departed from Hyde County and was bound for Beaufort, N.C., when it fell off radar, officials said.
—The Charlotte Observer
