Years after the impact of COVID waned and the vast majority of Pennsylvanians have moved past the pandemic, one of the Delaware Valley’s most liberal communities just voted to end its attempt to impose a COVID vaccine mandate for its employees.
The West Chester Borough Council okayed the reversal at its Wednesday meeting, revoking the mandate rule as part of the council’s “consent agenda,” which allows several items to be voted through at once.
The vote came roughly two months after the White House ended the COVID-19 national emergency in April.
Last September, President Joe Biden said the pandemic was “over” in the United States.
“We still have a problem with COVID,” he said at that time. “We’re still doing a lotta work on it.”
But “the pandemic is over,” he said.
Still, it took another six months or so until Biden finally lifted the formal federal emergency declaration. And yet West Chester continued its fight to force employees to get the jab.
The borough had already sunk more than $100,000 in court fees and proceedings in an attempt to force its employees to abide by its vaccine mandate. The policy had originally passed in the fall of 2021, with employees expected to comply by Dec. 31 of that year.
Polling has long shown the coronavirus declining in importance for most people.
An Ipsos poll in October 2021 showed the virus falling from the top spot of global worry to be replaced by concerns such as poverty and unemployment.
By December 2022, most Americans had ceased considering COVID a major concern.
