Senseless vax mandate policy could cost NYC million$

 Tuesday morning, Mayor Eric Adams, flanked by a masked Health Commissioner Ashwin Vasan and Chancellor David Banks, ceremoniously lifted the private-sector COVID vaccine mandates for the city.

As a parting gift, former Mayor Bill de Blasio implemented the mandate, forcing all workers to have their first shot by Dec. 27, 2021, the first dictate of its kind in the nation. De Blasio would then hand over the office five days later, leaving pesky implementation on newly minted Mayor Adams’ doorstep.

Approximately 184,000 businesses and millions of their employees were bound by this mandate. Adams could have been a hero on Day One of his administration by lifting the mandate but instead chose to let it ride out. In June, Newsday first reported that the mandate was not being enforced by the administration.

After Omicron, it became glaringly obvious that the vaccines did little to nothing to prevent the spread of COVID. Yet it took the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention until August of this year to announce “CDC’s COVID-19 prevention recommendations no longer differentiate based on a person’s vaccination status.”

Apparently, COVID now has the capacity to distinguish between public and private employees. And even then, private employees won’t be let off the hook until Nov. 1, seemingly due to some undisclosed, unspecified brand of “Science.” If it’s safe then why isn’t it safe now?

This hypocrisy will surely lead to a slew of new lawsuits against the city. The public-sector mandate goes squarely in the face of current CDC guidance, bringing any rational person to question: What purpose does it hold?

When Adams was asked directly if he has plans to lift the city mandate, he replied, “Right now that is not on the radar for us.” With respect to lawsuits, he answered, “that’s where we have a legal team. Our corporation counsel is looking over every decision that we are making and we are in complete compliance with the law.”

Paul DiGiacomo, president of the Detectives’ Endowment Association, offered this statement in response to today’s events: “Today’s City Hall announcement dropping the vaccine mandate for only private sector workforce is irrational pseudoscience. . . . Based on this arbitrary decision, the union will be in court tomorrow and expects us to have our highly-experienced Detectives, who were unjustly cast aside, reinstated and reimbursed.”

It’s not just cops. Amidst a nationwide teacher shortage, the city laid off an additional 850 teachers and classroom aides this week due to the vaccine mandates. And yet it appears that Adams has been backed into a corner financially (if not morally) because the funds simply are not available to hire back the thousands of city workers affected by job loss due to the mandates.

Ongoing lawsuits will likely gain steam in light of these developments. Recently the three major lawsuits against the city (Kane v. de Blasio, Keil v. NYC, and New Yorkers for Religious Liberty v. NYC) were consolidated into one as they head to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.

The city’s workforce is losing their talent, many with decades of experience. At any time, Adams could have done the right thing and pulled the city worker mandate. If the courts do it for him, it will cost New York taxpayers millions upon millions of dollars. It’s already cost him the trust of many voters.

https://nypost.com/2022/09/20/senseless-vax-mandate-policy-could-cost-new-york-million/