A New York waitress has been fired after telling her bosses she won’t get a Covid jab while trying to get pregnant.
Devastated Bonnie Jacobson was sacked on Monday after the Red Hot Tavern in Brooklyn introduced new rules for all staff to be vaccinated.
This is despite US health authorities saying the jab is a “personal choice for people who are pregnant”.
Bonnie told NBC that she was let go after she emailed bosses saying she didn’t want to get the jab as she and her husband are trying for a baby.
She said: “I was honest, I’m not going to do it quite yet.
“I do have my reservations about it, I need to talk to a doctor, just see how I feel. She said no problem.”
She claimed she was initially told by the restaurant that the vaccine wasn’t mandatory.
But days later received an email telling her there was a new policy “to maintain a safe working environment”.
It said all employees had to be vaccinated and added: “At this time your employment will be terminated.
“We are sad to see you go.”
Bonnie said she won’t be attempting to get her job back or file a lawsuit and insisted she wasn’t anti-vax or against vaccinations.
The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention says the vaccine is safe but the “actual risks of mRNA vaccines to the pregnant person and her foetus are unknown because these vaccines have not been studied in pregnant women”.
Billy Durney, who owns Red Hook Tavern, said in a statement to NBC: “Once New York State allowed restaurant workers to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, we thought this was the perfect opportunity to put a plan in place to keep our team and guests safe.
“No one has faced these challenges before and we made a decision that we thought would best protest everyone.
“And, we now realize that we need to update our policy so it’s clear to our team how the process works and what we can do to support them.”