Good luck with this one, Bill: New York City’s unpopular Mayor Bill de Blasio announced this morning that his administration would impose a vaccine mandate on all NYC private-sector businesses. De Blasio made the announcement on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
New York City is set to require a vaccine mandate for all private sector workers, @nycmayor announces on Morning Joe pic.twitter.com/ZTQQsYe2mS
— Morning Joe (@Morning_Joe) December 6, 2021
“We’ve got omicron as a new factor, we’ve got the colder weather, which is going to really create additional challenges with the Delta variant, we’ve got holiday gatherings,” said de Blasio, explaining the seasonal rationale behind the authoritarian move. “We in New York City have decided to use a preemptive strike to really do something bold to stop the further growth of COVID and the dangers it’s causing to all of us.”
In reality, the controversial novel vaccine hasn’t exactly halted the spread of the virus. Breakthrough cases are common. The latest example is a Norwegian cruise ship that set sail with a 100% fully vaccinated crew and passengers — and brewed up a boatload of COVID cases nonetheless.
“As of today, we’re going to announce a first-in-the-nation measure,” trumpeted the Marxist mayor, as though he were in a mayors’ race to see who could run the most totalitarian town. “Our health commissioner will announce a vaccine mandate for private-sector employers across the board. All private-sector employers in New York City will be covered by this vaccine mandate as of December 27.”
Guidance for businesses to comply with the order will be issued on Dec. 15, leaving private employers all of 12 days to get their employees in line. It is unclear how a vaccine that requires three or four weeks between doses will be universally administered within that time window.
There is a precipitous feel to the announcement of the new mandate. It appears the de Blasio administration hadn’t even the courtesy to loop in incoming mayor Eric Adams, who will assume office at midnight on Jan. 1. “The Mayor-elect will evaluate this mandate and other COVID strategies when he is in office,” said Adams’s spokesman, Evan Thies, “and make determinations based on science, efficacy and the advice of health professionals.”
I sure hope Adams is on board with the mandate, because outgoing de Blasio will be handing off an unforced poop show of unenforceable regulation, short-staffed companies, lawsuits, and furious business owners.
Related: 6th Circuit Delivers Another Body Blow to Biden’s OSHA Vax Mandate
The New York Post printed a nice round-up of Republican reactions among the local representation.
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R- Staten Island/Brooklyn) didn’t pull any punches. “Mayor de Blasio can’t leave fast enough. He has crushed small business, the economy and quality of life. How many more New Yorkers does he want to see move to the free state of Florida?”
“When you dangerously combine a far-left, lame duck politician, who is anti-business, one dimensional, unaccountable, not bright and has a perpetual ‘I always know best’ attitude, you get Bill de Blasio, the worst mayor in America,” said Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-Long Island). “There is no way this job-killing, small business-suppressing mandate is legal!”
Hizzoner also packed an additional mandate wish-list into the new rules. The graphic displayed by MSNBC as de Blasio made his announcement detailed that, besides mandating shots for all private-sector workers, the order extended the requirement to children over age five who wished to participate in indoor dining, fitness, or entertainment. Also, everyone will now be required to get two shots, instead of the previously decreed single dose.
NYC’s jab pushers like to refer to getting the shot as the “Key to NYC.” They have steadily fenced off more and more activities from the dirty unvaxed: restaurants, gyms, entertainment, and earning a living. Their vision is to exile the disobedient from the city altogether. They think that locking away NYC’s cultural riches behind a wall of mandate that can only be opened with the “key” of submitting to an injection is a winning strategy. But state emigration trends show more and more people are saying, “They can keep it.”
Join the conversation as a VIP Member