As of November 1, 2021, City of Durham employees who have made their own personal decision not to be injected with a COVID vaccine or declined to disclose their vaccination status could be fired. They will be allowed to keep their jobs if they submit to testing on a weekly basis and pay a fee of 840 dollars ($70/month for a year). The City has signed an approximately 850,000-dollar contract with a wealthy pharmaceutical company to administer testing, rather than pursuing cost-saving alternatives. The contract covers testing for only 12 weeks. The City has not announced plans for after the testing period, but they have stated 100% vaccination is their goal. *No consideration is being given to employees who have achieved natural immunity through suffering from COVID, despite growing scientific evidence.*  

The purpose of this petition is to urge City leadership to RESPECT their employees--ALL their employees. Rather than punishing those who have made a personal decision to refuse the injection of a foreign substance into their own bodies, City leadership must RESPECT employees who have made that decision.