SRDTF News
UPDATED 8:40 am PT – Tuesday, December 28, 2021
New York Representative Nicole Malliotakis says new yorkers are fed up with government overreach amid the pandemic.
During an interview Monday the Republican said a growing number of Americans are concerned about continued vaccine and mask mandates on both a federal and local level.
Malliotakis made those comments just as New York City mayor Bill De Blasio’s rule mandating all private-sector employees be vaccinated took effect. Malliotakis said she’s looking forward to De Blasio leaving office next week and also the supreme court taking up challenges to Joe Biden’s federal vaccine mandate.
Outgoing New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio touts his newest covid-19 restrictions. In a press conference Monday De Blasio hailed the measure which went into effect Monday as a preferable alternative to a full lockdown.
One America’s Tom McGrath had more on the mandate. “The reason the city keeps going, the reason we are open when some other places are shut down is because of our focus on vaccination, because we use mandates and incentives”, he said. “We got to double down because one thing we can all agree, and I’ve talked a lot of business leaders about this, Covid is bad for humans, it’s bad for our health, but it’s also bad for business. and if we want to avoid shutdowns, and I believe we must, we need more and more people vaccinated.
De Blasio assured citizens that the mandates are for their own good as the Omicron variant dominates new Covid cases. Doctor Dave Chokshi of NYC Health and Hospitals declares the mandate is actually good for businesses as the move will keep the new variant out of the workplace. We seek to work with businesses and business owners so that everyone can come into compliance for the simple reason that vaccination is good for business. it helps us to keep our economy open and running, and it helps to keep employees and all new yorkers healthy and out of the hospital.
This despite a Columbia University study showing that Omicron is largely vaccine resistant and is 70-times more transmissable than Delta. Furthermore, Omicron has only one recorded fatality in the United States despite accounting for 73% of new cases but, de Blasio’ stresses that one can never be to careful.
Although it is not yet mandatory the Mayor is offering a lucrative $100 pay out to New Yorkers who receive a booster shot.”
“We announced the booster incentive back on Tuesday. I’m very happy to say New Yorkers are responding. Almost 180,000 New Yorkers have gotten that booster just since Tuesday; 180,000 more, and you’ve got till the end of this week Friday to get that $100 incentive.”.
New York’s municipal employee mandate went into effect in November while the Key to NYC vaccine passport has been required for various leisure activities since September.
Businesses that fail to comply with the newest mandate will initially be fined one-thousand dollars, an amount that will gradually increase with successive violations.
De Blasio leaves office on January first leaving incoming Mayor Eric Adams with the responsibility of enforcing the policy.