New York City will exempt performers and athletes from its Covid-19
vaccine mandate for private-sector workers, Mayor Eric Adams announced
Thursday, allowing unvaccinated professional athletes like Brooklyn Nets
star Kyrie Irving to play at venues across the city.
Adams announced Executive Order 62—which he said was signed and is effective immediately—during a press conference at Citi Field.
The mayor said “we’re making [this change] because this city has to
function,” as he noted the need for more employees and tourists to
improve the city’s economy.
Adams also said the change will allow New York City’s players to be
on “an even playing field,” and will affect venues such as the Barclays
Center, Yankee Stadium and Citi Field.
Adams lifted the city’s vaccine mandate for customers in indoor venues earlier this month, but left vaccine regulations in place for private-sector employees, meaning New York City athletes could not compete unvaccinated.
The previous rule did not apply to unvaccinated players on
competing teams who traveled to New York City for away games, leading
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver to ask city officials to review the “oddity” last month.
Several labor unions criticized Adams for lifting the mandate for
wealthy and famous performers while leaving vaccination rules in place
for other employees in the city, including public-sector workers.
“There can't be one system for the elite and another for the essential
workers of our city,” Harry Nespolli, chair of a group of unions
representing about 350,000 city workers called the Municipal Labor
Committee, told the Associated Press.
The exemption comes amid pressure from the sports world ahead of the NBA playoffs and the MLB’s opening day
next month. Due to his vaccination status, Irving has only been playing
during away games since returning to the Nets this season, although he
was allowed to attend the Nets’ home game as a spectator. The NBA has a vaccination rate of about 95%, while the MLB has the lowest vaccination rate among the four major U.S. sports leagues, ESPN reports.
Mayor Adams plans to roll back the city’s coronavirus vaccine and mask
mandates for indoor settings as infection rates continue to drop across
New York.
The mayor didn’t give an exact timeline for when he envisions ending
the longstanding pandemic precautions, but told reporters at an
unrelated press conference in Brooklyn Wednesday that rescinding the
“Key to NYC” vaccination requirement for dining and other indoor
activities is a top priority for him.
“I can’t wait to get it done,” Adams said.
Unprompted, Adams then suggested he’s also looking to relax or even outright scrap the city’s rules on mask-wearing.
“I look forward in the next few weeks to going through a real
transformation that I don’t have to wonder what you look like. I will
know what you look like again,” he said, motioning to masked reporters
in the room.
Under current city rules, masks must be worn in schools, health care
settings, many entertainment venues and while on public transit. The
city also recommends that masks be worn in congested public indoor
spaces, like grocery stores.
Coronavirus vaccinations, meantime, are mandated for most public indoor
activities, like drinking and eating at restaurants and bars.
Though he’s targeting “Key to NYC” for tweaks, Adams has no plans to
revisit the private employer mandate, according to a City Hall official.
Jennifer Vitagliano has been in perpetual pivot mode for over a year
now. Since the start of the pandemic, the owner of the Michelin-starred Musket Room in Manhattan’s SoHo has hatched a delivery menu and a brunch menu to lure new customers and borrowed a 1962 van
from a friend to sell doughnuts and cocktails in front of her
eight-year-old restaurant, which is known for its inventive spin on new
American dishes. Of all the flexes she’s made, playing bouncer has been
the most exhausting.
In early June, after several Covid-19 cases
hit the industry, Vitagliano and her business partners decided that
Musket Room customers who wanted to dine indoors needed to be
vaccinated. When a group of five guests arrived for dinner one evening,
two covertly passed a phone between them, trying to prove that they were
vaccinated by using the same Excelsior Pass, an electronic vaccination
record created by New York state. Vitagliano, doubling as the vaccine
card checker, caught the pair and stopped them from entering.
“It’s the largest cultural clash we’ve ever faced,” says
Vitagliano of trying to enforce Covid-19 protections. “We didn’t get
into business to be bouncers, but here we are.”
Vitagliano’s experience is a preview of what the thousands of New
York City dining, fitness, and entertainment establishments will
experience in mid-September, when Mayor Bill de Blasio’s new policy requiring vaccinations to enter these indoor
venues kicks in. “If you want to participate in our society fully,
you’ve got to get vaccinated,” de Blasio said at a press conference on
August 3. “It’s time.”
Vaccination rates have stalled in recent weeks, even amid an uptick in cases and hospitalizations.
Nationwide, 57.9% of the population has received at least one dose of
the vaccine. New York City is just above the national average, with
59.5% vaccinated. The new mandate, which will begin on Sept. 13,
requires that all employees and patrons in these establishments have at
least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine.
Under the system, patrons will have to show a vaccine card, the
new NYC Covid Safe app (where users can upload their identification,
vaccine card, and recent Covid-19 test results), or the state’s
Excelsior Pass app. But forging fake cards, considered a felony, or
using the legitimate cards of others will inevitably be an issue. The
NYC Covid Safe app doesn’t actually check the validity of the
vaccination card or cross reference it with outside databases, such as
state records. There are also public concerns around handing more
personal information over to the government.
Assessing vaccination
status is the latest headache restaurant owners face. The industry was
already dealing with the stresses of getting indoor dining back up and
running, along with a labor shortage. The number of workers is down an estimated 1.3 million, 10% below what it was before the pandemic, according to the National Restaurant Association.
Meanwhile,
restaurateurs find themselves in the crosshairs of a culture war. Salil
Mehta, chef and owner of the Singaporean restaurant Laut,
says the mayor’s announcement “freaks him out.” Although he’s
pro-vaccine, he says this dynamic will be especially hard on Asian
restaurants, where racism is already a problem. Mehta says that when he
spoke with his local police precinct about the new mandate, officers
told him they won’t be monitoring restaurants but he has a right to kick
out customers who won’t leave. “Then you’re in close contact with
someone who isn’t vaccinated, and it shouldn’t be our job,” says Mehta,
who can’t afford to hire security. “I don’t want to be the guy policing
these things.
Others are preparing their staff to disarm potentially heated situations. At Dhamaka,
a new Indian restaurant on the Lower East Side, front-of-house lead
Tina Dolker is anticipating cancelations when the rule goes into effect,
along with contentious interactions. “We are going to have special
training on how to say ‘no,’” she says. Danny Meyer, the chief executive
officer of Union Square Hospitality Group LLC, says staff at his
restaurants will receive guidance on how to deal with aggressive guests.
“We have been working on de-escalation techniques for months,” Meyer
says.
Now I'm sure you all noticed in that video above that the cops are checking people's vac passes outside.And whatever plan Shake Shack Shithead and NYC EDC figurehead Meyer has for de-escaltions, inevitably the NYPD will be summoned if it gets rowdy. Then the NYPD will inevitably wind up enforcing the mandate because of whatever latest iteration it is to keep customers, workers and business owners safe. And we will have to refund the police all over again...
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