New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Monday a new vaccine mandate for all private sector employees, and confirmed that children 5 or up must get the jab to participate in normal activities, such as band, or school sports.
From December 27, all private sector workers in New York City will be forced to take the vaccine, with a mandate being imposed by the de Blasio administration on their employers. The Democrat mayor described the mandate as a “first-in-the-nation” measure against the virus.
“From workplace mandates, to $100 incentives, to mobile and at-home vaccination offerings, no place in the nation has done more to end the COVID era. And if you have not taken this step yet: there’s no better day than today to stand up for your city,” de Blasio said in a press conference.
More stringent measures would be placed onto children living in New York City, with all children over 5 to be required to take the jab from December 14 in order to gain access to indoor dining, entertainment, and “high risk” extracurricular activities, including school bands, sports, and dance groups.
“A lot of parents want to take their kids out to wonderful things happening in the holiday season. Here’s a reminder, get your child vaccinated. One dose will immediately qualify a child in any of those activities. I’m a parent, I remember vividly when my kids were going to school.”
“You don’t end up in the situation where a child is left unprotected. I urge parents really strongly get that vaccination. It’s safe, it’s proven. Here’s another incentive to do it,” de Blasio argued.
Speaking to Morning Joe, de Blasio said there were a number of factors that warranted what he described as a “preemptive strike” against further COVID spread.
“We’ve got Omicron as a new factor. We’ve got the colder weather, which is really going to create additional challenges with the Delta variant. We’ve got holiday gatherings,” de Blasio argued, reiterating that New York City residents had to get the jab to “get ahead of Omicron,” despite most documented cases of the Omicron variant being in vaccinated individuals, who only saw mild symptoms.
Over the weekend, a scientific study was released in which researchers suggest the Omicron variant may share genetic code with the virus responsible for causing the common cold, potentially explaining both why the Omicron variant of the virus is generally described as mild and spreads quickly. The paper is awaiting peer review.
Despite the Omicron variant repeatedly surfacing in vaccinated individuals and scientists maintaining that it is a very mild variant of COVID-19, Democrats including Joe Biden and his key advisors have insisted that even more mass vaccination is the only viable option.
