Woman says she was fired from her job as a server in New York because of the COVID vaccine

NEW YORK – A woman said she was fired from her job at a New York restaurant because she did not want to get the coronavirus vaccine, which the restaurant said was a requirement.

Bonnie Jacobson, 34, told Good Morning America that she was fired on Monday from the Red Hook Tavern in Brooklyn after she told management that she wanted to postpone because she and her husband are trying to have a child and are not unclear whether vaccines could have any impact on that.

She said that employees received an email from the restaurant stating that they needed to be vaccinated, and when she said she wanted to wait, she received an email saying, “At this point, your contract will be terminated. We are sorry to leave. If you changed your mind, please don’t hesitate to let us know. “

The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said that employers may require employees to be vaccinated.

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In a statement, the owner of the restaurant, Billy Durney, said: “Since the state of New York allowed restaurant employees to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, we thought this was the perfect opportunity to put a plan in place for keep our staff and guests safe.

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

Jacobson said it was not about being anti-vaccines.

“I fully support the vaccine,” she said. “If it weren’t for that, I would probably make it.”