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Federal judges ruled in favor of New York City Monday, allowing vaccine mandates among teachers. The ruling comes out of the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan.

According to NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, 90% of public school teachers received the vaccine. But roughly 7,500 remain without a single dose of the vaccine.

Then, the city’s Department of Education lauded the ruling. “Vaccinations are our strongest tool in the fight against COVID-19 – this ruling is on the right side of the law and will protect our students and staff,” their statement read. Meanwhile, 87% of the department’s employees received the vaccine. Now, the mandate will officially go into effect on October 4th.

However unvaccinated teachers simply said, through their lawyers, that they will appeal the ruling. They would rather lose their jobs than accept the mandate, predicting that students will suffer the most without teachers.

“Imminent and irreparable harm exists,” their lawyers argued to the federal panel.

“To remain unvaccinated while teaching vulnerable schoolchildren is dwarfed by the public’s interest in safely resuming full school operations for a million public school students,” the judges’ ruling read.

According to the city’s Department of Health, the average number of shots per day has increased 45 percent since the mayor announced the mandate.

You can follow Jenny Goldsberry on Twitter @jennyjournalism.