For the five months before being fired, the city refused to pay my salary despite my not having been brought up on any disciplinary charges. They would not allow me to report to work, despite public awareness that our kids have been deeply harmed by over a year of shuttered schools, not seeing friends and family, and being exposed to the stress of the adults around them. New York City says the kids matter most, but it seems what matters most is saving a lot of money off the cost of running public services, as well as pleasing big special interests. Not paying me and 1,430 other teachers and counselors helped them with the first goal; they've come up with other ways to accomplish pleasing and making money for big special interests.

For example, large corporations such as pharmaceutical companies. The New York City Department of Health (DOH) has an incentive program for doctors who promote COVID-19 vaccines. It was quietly begun in September 2021 and has been going since with $35 million in taxpayer dollars. The official announcement on its website says it is "supporting" doctors and nurses in their work to get New Yorkers vaccinated. When doctors and nurses talk favorably to patients about taking a COVID-19 vaccine, they get paid. When a patient actually takes a dose, the doctors and nurses get paid. The plan to pay doctors and other medical staff a lot of money to convince New Yorkers to take a COVID-19 vaccine did not get coverage in the press (I'm not sure that news story would have gone over well, so the media did the politicians a favor and didn't report on it).