“Not everyone’s going to agree with this,” Bill de Blasio said Tuesday.
It was an understatement. He was referring to a new initiative called “Key to NYC Pass,” which mandates proof of vaccination for patrons and employees across a variety of businesses and attractions. Both customers and workers will be required to prove they’re vaccinated in order to dine indoors, visit gyms and enter entertainment venues in the city, including Broadway and movie theaters.
Thankfully for the vaccine skeptics, New York City isn’t known for restaurants and entertainment. (I’m just kidding.)
As far as news which suggests the most recent surge in cases has, in fact, changed the game for the US on the path to reopening, it doesn’t get much more dramatic than this. “If you want to participate in our society fully, you’ve got to get vaccinated,” de Blasio said, bluntly, during a news conference announcing the program, which starts in two weeks and will be enforced from September 13.
To be sure, de Blasio simply said what needed to be said. But his candor in spelling it out was somewhat remarkable (video below). “This is a miraculous place, literally full of wonders. And if you’re vaccinated, all that’s going to open up to you,” he said. “If you’re unvaccinated, you will not be able to participate in many things.”
He continued: “This is going to be a requirement. The only way to patronize these establishments is if you are vaccinated, at least one dose. The same for folks in terms of work.”
In case it somehow isn’t clear enough from the above, this is a mandate in the most literal sense of the term. Patrons will be required to produce evidence of vaccination to get in the door at indoor venues, using either a paper card or the city’s app.
This is likely to be replicated in other cities across the country, both large and small. And, as de Blasio put it, “not everyone’s going to agree” with it. In fact, one certainly imagines protests are forthcoming. France is grappling with a public backlash against its own, similar program.
Invariably, purported “libertarians” will pretend to be aggrieved. Far-right portals of various sorts will feign surprise at what some conservatives will characterize as an intolerable infringement.
But don’t kid yourself: The writing was on the wall. Mask mandates are proliferating commensurate with the spread of the Delta variant, and as was the case during some of last year’s most harrowing bouts with the virus, states where elected officials are reluctant to acquiesce to containment protocols may ultimately be left with no choice should hospitalization rates rise. The 7-day moving average for new cases nationally is back at ~80,000 (figure below).
The Biden administration is desperate to beat back the never-ending deluge of misinformation blamed for vaccine hesitancy among tens of millions of Americans who, according to the CDC, are 25 times more likely to be hospitalized and/or die than vaccinated citizens.
The White House has enlisted an “army” of social media influencers including, ironically, TikTok stars, in an effort to win back the internet. “While influencer campaigns can be useful, they may be no match for mass, organic online movements,” The New York Times wrote last week, citing Renee DiResta, a researcher who studies misinformation at the Stanford Internet Observatory. DiResta “noted the contrast between creators who have been asked to spread pro-vaccine messaging versus vaccine skeptics, who have made it a personal mission to question the injections.”
Although New York City’s mandate will likely get more press coverage, don’t forget that many private employers are already requiring vaccinations for workers, including some of the most recognizable names in corporate America. Biden last week made shots mandatory for all civilian federal employees unless they’re prepared to submit to regular testing. The worse the current surge gets, the more inclined hospitals and health systems will be to mandate the shot. And so on, and so forth.
The point is, calls for corporations and, ultimately, the government, to exercise benign paternalism on the way to instituting a de facto national vaccine mandate (albeit in piecemeal fashion) are being heeded.
My guess is, the word “optional” will cease to have any real meaning within three or four months. Technically, Americans won’t “have” to get the vaccine and obviously, nobody will be physically compelled. But, as de Blasio put it Tuesday, “it’s time for people to see vaccination as literally necessary to living a good and full and healthy life.”
Oh, and make no mistake: Your “favorite” propagandist is vaccinated. So are the conservative TV anchors tacitly suggesting you shouldn’t get the shot. If you end up intubated, they won’t be there with you.
Read more:
Late Tuesday, the CDC extended a moratorium on evictions, citing public health concerns. The ban expired last week, imperiling millions of Americans, including families, at a particularly delicate juncture in the nation’s quest to end the epidemic.
“The emergence of the Delta variant has led to a rapid acceleration of community transmission in the United States, putting more Americans at increased risk, especially if they are unvaccinated,” Rochelle Walensky said. “This moratorium is the right thing to do to keep people in their homes and out of congregate settings where COVID-19 spreads.”
Over the last three days, Progressives piled pressure on the Democratic leadership after Nancy Pelosi’s last minute bid to marshal enough support in the House to extend the moratorium fell short. Walensky called it “imperative that public health authorities act quickly to mitigate an increase of evictions, which could increase the likelihood of new spikes in [COVID] transmission.” The public health consequences of mass evictions “would be very difficult to reverse,” she said.
Essentially, the administration is buying time for state and local governments to disburse monetary aid authorized by Congress. The new CDC measure is narrower in scope than the previous moratorium, but is sure to face legal challenges. Fortunately for renters, America’s legal system moves at a snail’s pace.
Snark level at hundo p. Love it.
As Dean Wormer might say: Fat, drunk, and unvaccinated is no way to go through life.
WHEN will it be a good time for the eviction moratorium to expire? Perhaps during the school semester? Or during the winter? Or really anytime there’s anecdotal evidence of some poor soul just suffering out there? This sort of short-sighted helicopter governing is the exact thing that gets republicans elected.
Speaking of anecdotal evidence, at work yesterday, whoever used the computer before me was googling renters assistance numbers. Lucky for whoever that was, we’re short staffed and begging people to pick up extra shifts.
And yes, your conservative news host will visit you in the hospital. Many of the covid patients rooms have Fox News holding vigil above their bed
I don’t think the Biden admin or the cdc is under any delusions about the moratorium extension surviving court challenges. As H said, it’s basically just a delay tactic to allow the rental assistance programs more time to distribute funds and hopefully help those most in need.
Also a political gesture.
“WHEN will it be a good time for the eviction moratorium to expire? Perhaps during the school semester? Or during the winter? Or really anytime there’s anecdotal evidence of some poor soul just suffering out there?”
Housing, like healthcare, and a decent job, should be a right, not a privilege, in the nation that prints the world’s reserve currency.
It’s clear from one of your previous comments (“…it had to expire,” “rent can’t be cancelled forever”) that you were going to be irritated by another extension. Well, here you go. And here you’re irritated (using all caps on “when,” for example). You said “I feel for those caught up in financial trouble.” Well, I’m sure they “feel for those” like yourself who were irritable to learn of the extension. But you’ll get over it.
You’re correct, I am irritated. I’ve been a small-time landlord for 20 years. My tenents have been great people, and I remain friends with most of them. I had to evict one of my tenants a few years ago. She started using heroin, stopped paying rent. I tried to work with her for 6 months but to no avail. She also lost her job (RN btw). The whole episode was a sad slow motion meltdown. She had access to a good paying job, to healthcare, and housing-things you consider rights, but her addictions/choices ran counter.
IMO ‘Rights’ is where the progressive wing loses the political middle. I want to see better jobs, better safety nets, more affordable healthcare etc too. But for me these things are ‘rights’ only to a point.
What point is that?
Well, Eddie, I don’t think anyone in their right mind would argue with you when it comes to the first paragraph. I mean, clearly, you can’t have a heroin-addicted renter who quits their job and never pays you when the economy is functioning fine and there’s no public health crisis. I don’t think AOC would suggest you should keep a renter like that, either.
Congratulations Eddie, you pulled off a classic Ronnie Reagan move. You controlled the narrative with a tale that makes you a long suffering hero at the expense of your dead beat drug addict renter. You know, it’s not easy to become an RN. It takes intelligence, commitment and drive to get that title and a job that requires long stressful hours in less than ideal circumstances. So before we give you a medal, I’d like to hear the RN’s side of the story.
What’s Ronnie Raygun got to do with it? Well, he told similar stories about a “welfare queen driving her Cadillac” and “the strapping young buck using food stamps to buy T-bone steaks” as a way to convince the public that the welfare state had to be dismantled. And here we are after four decades of Reaganomics; with homelessness, recessions, endless wars, income inequality, coast to coast demonstrations and riots in the capital. To paraphrase the great purveyor of voodoo economics: Are we better off than we were four decade ago?
Great, so now I’m RR. I’m familiar with the man, and not a fan of Reaganomics. For the record, this renter was my real renter, not a hypothetical composite made up for convenience sake.
Eviction in my state is a many month long process. It’s hard work legally speaking. Renters have extensive rights here (as they should), and being mildly behind on rent isn’t going to result in eviction if the tenent is showing a good faith effort to get caught up.
Again, renters have extensive rights here (as they should). My complaint is that for political reasons, the government has/is trampling landlord rights. Meanwhile the far left is driving around with “Cancel Rent” stickers.
Now for another RR anecdote, except also true. Every landlord I know has a disaster renter story or two. I have an inexperienced landlord friend whose renter stopped paying at the start of covid. Last I heard he’s still there.
He’s been working full time throughout the pandemic. She’s still paying the mortgage and trying to get a judgement.
And since I’m RR, one more (also true) I went 3 months without a rent check this last winter because my tenent died of covid. I’m not going after his estate, so that cost me 4K
I’m inclined to believe Eddie Z about the RN — cancer is the most likely culprit behind this tragic story. Various types of cancer diagnoses are more survivable now than even 5, sometimes just 2 years ago. But proper pain management has not improved as rapidly as the medical advancements concerning cancer treatment.
Even if the cancer guess is wrong, don’t doubt the genuine need for relief from chronic pain as a motivator for getting on the path to addiction.
Ps. I’m a reader here to learn. Sorry I vented on social media. Lesson learned
For what it’s worth, you’re mostly right Eddie, because we’ve structured society the way we have.
If we incentivize property investment and rent collecting of various sorts, we can hardly blame the rent collectors for expecting to be paid.
My only point is that we may need to start rethinking things, because what COVID showed is how vulnerable the setup is to total collapse.
As a smarter man than me put it last year:
“In the absence of a major disruption, the system is capable of moving along by collecting small installments of rent (‘clipping the coupons’) from a large segment of the population. However, if an exogenous shock disrupts the fragile order of these cashflows, there is a chain reaction of collective insolvency ready to sink the entire system”.
Agree. Thanks H