Striking harder than President Joe Biden for the vaccine obligation in the United States, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has decided that as of December 27 all businesses and private businesses in the city will impose on their employees be vaccinated to come to work.
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The democratic councilor, who will leave his post on December 31 to be replaced by the mayor elected on November 2, Eric Adams, therefore goes further than Joe Biden whose vaccination obligation – which must come into force on January 4, but is suspended by court decision – only concerns employees of companies with more than 100 people.
“Here in New York, we have decided to launch a preventive attack (against the coronavirus) to really do something daring to stop the progression of the Covid and the dangers it poses to all of us,” hammered Mr. de Blasio on the MSNBC channel by announcing to everyone’s surprise the vaccination obligation for some 184,000 businesses, companies and businesses.
He said in a statement that all “private sector employers in New York would be affected by the vaccine requirement from December 27”.
“I think it’s a good idea (…) for the common good,” responded Sarah Dejam, 30, who works in the legal sector. “A lot of people still get sick with this virus, even with the vaccine.”
But not everyone welcomed this decision, taken by an already extremely unpopular mayor.
“I am not surprised that our mayor is using such a brutal means, which ignores our traditions” of protecting individual freedoms, commented Jeff Bollerman. “Nothing he does surprises me anymore.”
In addition, “New Yorkers aged 12 and over will have to show proof that they have received two doses of the vaccine”, with the exception of those who received the single-dose serum from Johnson & Johnson, according to the mayor.
As for children aged 5 to 11, they will have to show from December 14 that they have received a dose of vaccine to participate in “high-risk extracurricular activities such as sports, music and dance”, added the town hall.
“New York will not give up an inch of ground in the fight against COVID-19”, insisted the Democratic mayor, who was rather very active during the pandemic in 2020, like the former governor of the state of New York Andrew Cuomo.
Mr. de Blasio had already imposed on November 1 the compulsory vaccine on all municipal officials, a measure well applied despite some protest movements from firefighters, police and garbage collectors.
The Omicron variant of the coronavirus is now confirmed in at least 15 US states – with a few cases in New York state.
The largest city in the United States has been particularly ravaged by the epidemic from the spring of 2020 with at least 34,000 deaths and images of a completely deserted city of its more than 8.5 million inhabitants.
According to city hall data, “New York has administered over 12.5 million doses of vaccine (and) nearly 6.5 million New Yorkers – 89 percent of whom are adults – have received at least one dose.” , (as well as) 125,000 children aged 5 to 11 ”.
But these measures risk being challenged in court.
Last Thursday, Joe Biden called on his fellow citizens to overcome their political divisions to fight COVID-19, at the time of the arrival of winter and the new Omicron variant.
The 79-year-old Democratic president is trying at the national level to impose vaccination in public and private companies, but he meets strong opposition from many Republicans and stumbles on legal proceedings launched against these restrictive measures.
A handful of Republicans had even tried Thursday to block a finance law to prevent the paralysis of US federal services, on the pretext that it would help finance the implementation of vaccine obligations which they oppose.
The budget was finally adopted in the evening.
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