SHOULD HAVE LISTENED TO DR. FAUCI
A new report released Wednesday by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund looked at preliminary data and found that 226 federal, state, tribal and local law enforcement officers died last year while in the line of duty.
Of those deaths, 70 can be attributed to COVID-19. However, this is an 83% decline compared to the 405 officers who died from COVID-19-related complications in 2021.
“While America’s law enforcement officers are still battling the deadly effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a significant reduction in such overall deaths, likely attributed to reduced infection rates and the broad availability and use of vaccinations,” the report read.
Last fall, it was reported that more than 460 American law enforcement officers had died from Covid-19 infections tied to their work since the start of the pandemic. With no comprehensive accounting of how many officers had been sickened with the virus, departments from coast to coast reported large outbreaks in the ranks. Vaccinations, which have proven to be effective in preventing severe illness and death, have remained a hard sell for some officers.
In recent months, as local governments began implementing vaccine mandates for workers, some police officers and law enforcement unions have pushed back, threatening resignations and legal action.
In October, New York City’s largest police union sued over the city’s vaccine mandate. The Police Benevolent Association of New York said it opposed a vaccine mandate for officers that does not allow an option of being tested weekly instead of being vaccinated. A federal judge this week dismissed a lawsuit filed by several Los Angeles police officers who had sued over the city’s vaccine mandate.
