People Are Still Being Punished For Refusing To Take COVID Vaccines

COVID vaccines were ostensibly meant to provide protection against severe illness for at risk individuals. Almost immediately, those perceived benefits were altered to include protection against infection and transmission. 

Institutions, administrators and politicians then rushed to impose policies designed to coerce or outright force employees, individuals or students to get vaccinated. As overwhelming proof emerged that the vaccines did not protect against infection or transmission, many began to wonder what possible point or justification remained for continuing to coerce compliance.

Even in late-2024, we can see that the point seems to be a punitive desire to control behavior. 

The latest example being a teacher in Queens who was fired for refusing to take a COVID vaccine. That teacher was reinstated by a judge, thankfully overturning the absurdist policy. Except the school just…didn't listen. 

Daphne Halkias, a teacher for roughly 30 years, spoke to The New York Post about her treatment, her fight against the school and the harassment she's faced. Halkias told The Post she "did everything right" and is now "disgusted" by the treatment she'd received.

"I’m not a criminal, and yet they are making me feel like I’m breaking the law," Halkias said to The Post. 

What makes her case especially infuriating is that she'd been fired in September 2022 for not getting vaccinated. September 2022, a year and a half after it was overwhelmingly obvious that COVID vaccines did not prevent transmission or infection. She fought the termination, and after a lengthy battle, a judge ruled that she be reinstated starting August 1st. 

Still, as she explained to The Post, "I went today for work, and I was told that there was nothing for me. The principal said that she had no directions given to her about my case, there was no position for me, and I couldn’t get a time card because I’m not officially in the system.

"And she was told that if I were to stay there, I would have to be escorted out — which my old security guard had to escort me out."

BETHESDA, MARYLAND - DECEMBER 22: Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, prepares to receive his first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at the National Institutes of Health on December 22, 2020 in Bethesda, Maryland. (Photo by Patrick Semansky-Pool/Getty Images)

COVID Vaccine Mandates Still Causing Immense Harm

The judge's ruling said that the Department of Education was "arbitrary and capricious, lacking a factual basis and adequate explanation" when firing her, and ordered she be re-hired with back pay.

She was "absolutely relieved" when the ruling seemed to end the lengthy process. But the school then started in on punishing her, saying she was still under review and would have to work with the union and DOE. "She was making a very good salary, and they probably replaced her with someone making a minimum salary," her lawyer, James Mermigis said. "She did everything the right way. … Now they are still turning their backs on her."

As if there were any doubt that the DOE didn't intend to comply with the ruling, a City Law Department lawyer Kathleen Linnane, told Mermigis that she would not be allowed to stay on school property.

"Please be advised that because your client is not an employee of the DOE, she will not be admitted into the school building," the email says. "It is my understanding that your client is refusing to leave school grounds and that her attorney has advised her ‘to stay and not leave.’ Please ask your client to vacate DOE grounds immediately."

"This action by the city is not only a blatant violation of the court’s ruling but also a grave injustice to an educator who has already endured unwarranted hardship," Marmigis said.

The city, meanwhile, says it's appealing the ruling and believes its acted properly. Welcome to the absurdity of COVID vaccine mandates.

That's what we mean when we say the vaccine mandates and defenses of them in 2024 are about control. The school, the city, the Department of Education; they all know that there's no possible justification for continuing to punish a teacher for refusing to get a COVID vaccine. Just like there was no justification for firing her in 2022 for it. But if they acknowledge a mistake, admit that their policies were flawed, it undermines their authority and sense of infallibility.

That infallibility has been a key tenant of administrative policies since the pandemic started. As former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Arden once said, "We will continue to be your single source of truth," and "Unless you hear it from us, it is not the truth."

That mentality has been a pervasive, consistent feature of COVID policy debates since 2020. The government is right, you are wrong, even when you can prove the government is wrong. Halkias is the latest in a long list of victims who had the audacity to show the government is wrong. And she's still being punished for it.

Halkias and Mermigis join "OutKick The Morning with Charly Arnolt" on Tuesday to tell her side of the story. Tune in to hear more.