NYC Mayor de Blasio urges vaccine mandate for public transportation

AP Photo/Jeenah Moon

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In a Wednesday post on Twitter, de Blasio called on New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to institute a vaccine mandate to ride any of the city's public transit, the Metropolitan Transit Authority.

“We know vaccine mandates work,” de Blasio wrote. “New York City is proof of that. Now let’s go even further. I’m urging [Gov. Kathy Hochul] to institute an MTA vaccine mandate. Let’s do what we can to keep our city, our residents, and our workforce safe.”

We know vaccine mandates work — New York City is proof of that. Now let's go even further.

I'm urging @GovKathyHochul to institute an MTA vaccine mandate. Let's do what we can to keep our city, our residents, and our workforce safe.

— Mayor Bill de Blasio (@NYCMayor) November 23, 2021

If implemented, the vaccine mandate currently in place to visit gyms, restaurants, theatres and other public venues would be extended for any New Yorker who wishes to commute. The city’s subway system is a necessity for those working in the city.

If implemented, New Yorkers will have to show proof of vaccination wherever they travel for work.

While some of de Blasio’s defenders tried to make excuses for the mayor, suggesting that he meant a mandate for MTA workers, de Blasio’s remarks did not single out workers. Many expressed their opposition to de Blasio’s proposal, asking him if it was his intent to bring Europe's riots to New York City.

In many European countries, including Austria, Italy, France and the Netherlands, tens of thousands of civilians have protested, sometimes violently, over draconian measures taken in response to the ongoing pandemic and the surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.

These measures include banning unvaccinated individuals from being able to partake in society, to even stricter vaccine mandates that impose fines on anyone refusing the vaccine.

You are doing everything you can to bring the rioting taking place all over Europe to NYC, aren’t you?...

— Let’s Go Brandon 🏳️‍🌈 (@cyn8102) November 23, 2021

That’s what you’re worried about? Trains have a worse in time performance than in 2017 when we had a literal state of emergency, bc of 20 min intervals mid rush hour there’s dangerous overcrowding, and you’re worried about a mandate?

— a tribe called Chris 🗽 (@iamChrisVolpe) November 23, 2021

Nope. This is insane. You are not instituting an internal passport with conditions for free movement around the city that disproportionately impacts the homeless, brings everyone into greater contact with the NYPD, and is logistically impossible anyway. Are you high?

— Shea (@shearogersnyc) November 23, 2021

This is the reason why people protest mandates. It's never going to end. And it will become stricter and stricter. Now he wants to stop movement and travel. Later, they will lock down people with medical conditions for their safety as hospitals become overwhelmed.

— James M. (@JamesRedElk) November 23, 2021

COVID cases are higher today than when you implemented the vaccine mandate on October 20th.

— Kevin Walsh (@ForgottenNY) November 23, 2021

At least 9,000 city employees have been put on unpaid leave as the city imposed its vaccine mandate. The New York Times reported earlier this month that de Blasio announced that the city saw no disruptions to any city services despite protests by firefighters and sanitation workers.