Mayor Big Slow's pandemic response lab missed both Omicron and Delta variants

 Progress New York 

 The COVID-19 testing operation created in 2020 by Mayor Bill de Blasio (Working Families Party-NYC) when New York City was the epicenter of disease and death was supposed to lead the City out of uncertainty. Since then, the testing company has blossomed in testing contracts and worth, but its record of leading has been called into question after it was late in reporting the newest strain of the Coronavirus to threaten New York’s future : the Omicron variant.

As global worry has spread about the reported rapid rise in cases of the Omicron variant in Africa — a “heavily mutated” strain, which has led to border closings and travel bans amidst a new round of confinements — the world turned to Minnesota health officials to learn about the first case of Omicron in New York City. The silence from the City-created testing facility, the Pandemic Response Lab, did not go unnoticed by online critics of the Government’s pandemic response. Mayor de Blasio has been praising the Pandemic Response Lab since it’s creation, even as some media questioned the return on the City’s unknown investment in the company. Though Mayor de Blasio has hailed the testing being done by the Pandemic Response Lab for public schools as the “gold standard,” that claim was later rejected by a report published by the Gothamist news Web site.

After Progress New York made an interview request to the Pandemic Response Lab for this report, its parent company published a news release, announcing the sequencing of the lab’s first detection of the Omicron variant. Representatives from the parent company later promised to appear for an interview with Progress New York, but they never answered the request after inquiring about the subject of the interview.

Visit C’est Vrai to learn more about Pandemic Response Lab .

The Pandemic Response Lab has reportedly succeeded in cutting the time and cost it takes to process COVID-19 tests. Since it operates as a private sector business, its first order of business is profit, not the use of its funding to promote or protect the public health, regardless of cost.

The fortune-making from the Coronavirus pandemic has triggered accusations that the Government response to COVID-19 has led to large transfers of wealth. It’s unknown how much Government assistance the Pandemic Response Lab has received. It was created in 2020 by the City of New York’s corporate welfare arm, the New York City Economic Development Corporation. It began receiving testing contracts from the City’s public hospital system, and that has reportedly been expanded to include test contracts for individuals in the City’s jail system and the public school system.

As a result of its growth in Government contracts, the corporate owner of the Pandemic Response Lab, Opentrons Labworks Inc., was able to finance an expansion to Washington, DC ; Los Angeles, CA ; and Seattle, WA. In September, Opentrons secured $200 million in new investments by a team led by Softbank Group Corp., which valued the parent company at $1.8 billion, according to a report published by the Bloomberg news service. The pandemic has created a lot of wealth at Opentrons. Last year, the company’s valuation was only $90 million, according to the Bloomberg report, making its current valuation a 20-fold jump in worth.

The Pandemic Response Lab’s focus appears to be profit-making for its parent company. As a result, the City of New York was late in reporting the Delta variant. As revealed by Progress New York, the first time that the Delta variant was reported in New York City was in mid-May, in a retroactive disclosure in an overdue weekly variant sequencing study, even though the virus had by that time spread from India to Europe. Later, as the Delta variant was itself evolving into new sublineages, Progress New York noted that the City of New York was not reporting the AY.3 subvariant at a time when its spread was possibly threatening another confinement in the State of Israel.

What was that about vaccinations again de Blasio?

 PIX 11 News

 

Oh, I've been waiting to use this and to use it this soon is the chef's kiss

how's that key to NYC working y'all

No vax, no test, no dice

  

SI Advance 

 Members of the NYPD will need to either get a COVID-19 vaccine or test negative every seven days as part of a new city mandate, or else forego their pay for every day of noncompliance, sources told the Advance/SILive.com.

The policy is set to begin Monday after data in late August showed about 47% of the department’s 35,000 uniformed officers and 18,000 civilian employees were vaccinated.

The testing must be done off-the-clock and the department will not accept at-home antigen tests as sufficient evidence of a negative test result. In a memo issued Wednesday to officers by the Police Benevolent Association, union president Pat Lynch wrote:

“Contrary to our previous conversations with the department, the order indicates that unvaccinated MOS must obtain a COVID-19 test on their own time. In the PBA’s view, any testing mandated by the Department must be conducted on job time and at the city’s expense, and any test received outside of the MOS’s regular working hours should be subject to overtime compensation.”

The blowback blight and anarchy from NYC's Open Restaurants Law

 

 

Impunity City

Since eating indoors was still a major risk of contagion for months on end last year, City Council and Mayor de Blasio addressed the existential threat the virus had on the dining and drinking industry and started the Open Restaurants initiative which lifted restrictions and eased regulations for restaurants to build sheds on the street curbs so patrons can come back and dine again outside of their establishments. Despite usurping parking spaces from residents, these businesses were able to recoup some losses and were able to make money again. The city also integrated this program with the Open Streets initiative to “re-imagine” public streets initially centered on cycling and pedestrian commuting by evolving them to plazas with the intent to foster community activity and keeping vehicular traffic out (both initiatives annoyingly prodded by bike zealot/car abolitionist lobby Transportation Alternatives). With the sheds on the asphalt, restaurants were able to extend their businesses by placing tables on the street, enabling to serve more customers. At the time it was logical and necessary.

Even though this was enacted for emergency purposes to keep businesses thriving in a still near dead city (with more prodding from agent of the city TransAlt weaponizing this program to banish cars)  the City Council Cronies and The Blaz decided to make restaurant outdoor sheds permanent, which was buoyed by a bill written by the State Senate and signed by Mario’s Son Governor Cuomo. Now even though restaurants are under the regulatory purview of the Department of Health, the Blaz left the responsibility of monitoring the street sheds under the Department Of Buildings. If this isn’t bizarre enough, the Department of Transportation seems are wholly left out of this even though the streets are officially under their purview. And as expected with the Blaz and the Council Cronies, they conjure these laws without considering the ramifications of them as some restaurants and even non-food related establishments opportunistically took advantage of the bureaucratic fugazi of  NYC’s Open Restaurants and Streets policy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Vaccine mandate makes COVIDIOTS out of tennis fans clustering on line at the U.S. Open

 

Gothamist

 Tennis fans who flocked to the first in-person U.S. Open in two years were forced to endure hours-long lines on Monday, leading to “completely chaotic” and dangerous crowding outside the stadium, according to attendees.

The full capacity tournament drew thousands of visitors to the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens. But while the event was slated to begin at 11 a.m., fans said they were forced to wait outside for close to 2 hours — keeping them from some of the early matches and leaving attendees at risk of heat-related illness.

 Jessica Pearson, a Greenpoint resident who previously worked at the U.S. Open and has been coming to the tournament for more than two decades, said the lines and confusion were unprecedented.

“It was out of control,” said Pearson. “There was no crowd control from the stadium all the way back to the subway.”

In a statement, the U.S. Tennis Association said the delays were primarily caused by fans bringing an “inordinate number of bags this year.” They also said that patrons had arrived at the gates earlier than usual. "Previously, the number of patrons arriving to the grounds prior to 11 a.m. averaged approximately 10,000," the group said. "This year, the number arriving prior to 11 a.m. was only 3,000."

Others speculated that a last-minute decision to require COVID-19 vaccinations at the tournament was to blame. The USTA announced the mandate on Friday, after facing criticism for their original plan not to require vaccines or masks.

Pearson said the hold-up seemed at least in part due to broken metal detectors and a lack of staff. However, the association denied that vaccination requirement was a factor.

“The slow down seems to be centered on the Bag Check area,” the USTA statement noted. “The process to check proof of vaccination seems to be working smoothly and is not a major contributor hampering entrance to the site.

Mexican restaurant says no to Bill de Blasio

 

Community Boards want to keep hearings virtual during pandemic resurgence

 

Patch

Community board chairs are pushing back on a requirement that their meetings resume in person next month — with some saying they plan to defy state law if necessary to keep their sessions COVID-safe.

And as interpreted by New York's official watchdog for public access to government, the state's open meetings law means that every community board member who Zooms into a meeting now technically must advertise in advance the address they are dialing in from — even if that is their home — and open their doors to all who wish to join.

"Opening up people's homes? That's insanity. That's ridiculous," scoffed Frank Morano, chair of Staten Island's Community Board 3.

After Gov. Andrew Cuomo suspended in-person government meetings last year in declaring a state of emergency at the dawn of the pandemic, the city's 59 community boards migrated to online video platforms such as Webex and Zoom.

Civic engagement soared as members of the public, the boards and government agency reps easily participated from the comfort of their homes via the internet, mastering the mute button and other video conferencing features.

But once vaccinations made gathering safer, the state lifted the emergency order on June 24. Community boards were once again subject to the state's open meetings law — requiring public access to the physical premises of an official gathering.

With the return of board meetings following a summer break coming up in September while virus risks remain, volunteer board members and boards' government-employed managers are sounding the alarm on the risks of in-person gatherings, pleading with city and state officials to allow them to continue meeting remotely.

"Not only are we still in the midst of this ongoing health crisis, but we're on a trajectory with cases going up," said Alexa Weitzman, chair of Queens Community Board 6, which represents Forest Hills and Rego Park. "This is not a time to reconvene in person."

Because board members are not employed by the government, the vaccine and testing mandates covering city workers do not apply. Nor can boards screen members of the public in the way that restaurants, gyms and theaters now must.

All in the room must wear masks, according to a City Hall memo, which also directed community boards to keep six feet of distance between participants.

Morano and Weitzman told THE CITY that they plan to keep holding virtual-only meetings, either because of virus concerns or because of a lack of space to socially distance.

It took less than 2 days...

 

 

NY Post

A group of restaurants and businesses have filed suit against Mayor Bill de Blasio in opposition to a mandate requiring proof of vaccination at city eateries, gyms, movie theaters and other establishments, new court papers show.

The businesses argue that the mandate violates their constitutional rights and unfairly targets certain establishments but not others like churches, grocery stores, schools, offices and medical facilities, the lawsuit filed Tuesday in Staten Island Supreme Court alleges.

The suit says that the mandate is “arbitrary and capricious” for a slew of reasons including that the highly contagious COVID-19 Delta variant can spread among both vaccinated and unvaccinated people, the court documents claim.

The mandate also doesn’t accommodate certain exceptions for getting vaccinated such as those who’ve already gotten the virus; those who are allergic to ingredients in the vaccine; those who have pre-existing conditions that make getting the vaccine risky; and those whose religious beliefs stop them from getting it, the filing argues.

“The decision to get the vaccine should ultimately lie with the individual and his doctor, who knows that persons’ complete medical history, rather than a politician,” the court papers claim.

Further, emergency orders have been in effect for almost two years and instead of easing off, “the mayor implemented even more arbitrary executive orders, trampling more recklessly on constitutional rights,” the suit charges.

The mandate also threatens people’s livelihoods, making it “impossible for anyone who chooses not to be vaccinated for whatever reason, to work in the designated industries,” the court papers claim.

Mask the police

 NY Post 

 The NYPD will discipline unvaccinated cops who don’t mask up while on the job — regardless if they are indoors or outdoors — as city officials try to prevent a surge of serious coronavirus cases in response to the highly infectious Delta variant, The Post has learned.

The department’s new guidance for masking was shared with the entire police force Tuesday evening in an administrative bulletin that spelled out instructions for officers to provide proof of the vaccination with the NYPD’s Medical Division, according to a copy of the bulletin obtained by The Post.

The move comes as the department has struggled to convince its workforce to get the jab, with only 43% of its uniformed and civilian employees vaccinated as of last month.

“Members who do not have official proof of COVID-19 vaccination on file with the Medical Division must wear a face covering at all times while working, whether indoors or outside, including while driving in Department vehicles,” according to the bulletin.

“These members may temporarily remove their masks when engaging in reasonable activities such as consuming food, drinking beverages, adjusting the face coverings due to temperature or to correct a breathing condition.”

 

 

Senator Liu warns City Hall to be prepared for the Delta school year

 

NY Post 

 The chairman of the state Senate’s New York City education committee warned Wednesday of a troubled start to the school year — and didn’t rule out a delay if ongoing issues aren’t solved in the coming weeks.

State Sen. John Liu told The Post that a lack of clear guidelines from City Hall is fueling uncertainty among parents and staffers.

“All the ingredients are there for another chaotic reopening — and possibly a delayed reopening — based on this administration’s track record,” he said. “There are still so many unanswered questions that don’t make me totally confident.”

Liu cited a raft of concerns ahead of the new term — including confusion over social distancing rules, the lack of a concrete plan for COVID-19-infected students, and stalled vaccination rates among school staffers.

“The mayor is trying to project certainty,” he said. “But unfortunately, people are not confident in the certainty he is trying to project. I hope there’s not going to be any delay. But everyone remembers what happened last year.”

Adapt or die small businesses

  

Crains New York

 

Restaurants, bars and indoor venues may face up to $5,000 fines if they don't require patrons to show proof of vaccination, under an executive order by Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Monday.

All indoor venues will have to check that everyone age 12 and up who enters their premises shows proof of vaccination, under de Blasio’s edict. That proof must match the information on their official identification document, which they must also show.
 
Enforcement will begin Sept. 13. After that, violations will incur penalties of at least $1,000, which will rise to at least $2,000 for a second violation and at least $5,000 for a third. The city will send out inspectors from various agencies to check compliance. 

Between now and the enforcement date, the city has said it will send out 570 canvassers to all businesses in the city to help them understand the plan. Venues must all put up a sign communicating the vaccination requirement.
 
The executive order defines a wide range of indoor venues that must check for vaccine passes, including movie theaters, casinos, indoor portions of botanical gardens, adult entertainment spaces, commercial event and party venues, museums, aquariums and zoos, sports arenas and indoor stadiums, convention centers and exhibition halls, bowling alleys, arcades, indoor play areas and billiards halls, as well as any indoor part of a restaurant, and all indoor gym and fitness settings, including pools, dance studios and hotel gyms.

Some venues were surprised to see themselves included on this list, which the mayor had not previously detailed beyond mentioning "indoor entertainment venues."

"I am extraordinarily hesitant to instruct my staff to do this," said Eli Klein, owner of the Eli Klein Gallery in the far West Village, noting that he would not have known the mandate applied to his business if he had not tuned into the mayor's announcement this morning.

 

 

Vaccine mandate has restaurants standing up to them and running scared about them

 

 

 CBS NY

 Starting next week, proof of vaccination will be required in New York City for some indoor activities, including going out to eat, but not all restaurants are on board.

“Whether you’re vaccinated or not, you are welcome,” said Mary Josephine Generoso, manager at Pasticceria Rocco’s of Bay Ridge.

There’s a sign of protest in the window of the restaurant, defiant against Mayor Bill de Blasio’s upcoming vaccine mandate.

It reads, “We do not discriminate against ANY customer based on sex, gender, race, creed, age, vaccinate or unvaccinated. All customers who wish to patronize are welcome in our establishment.”

“I just do not feel that we’re gonna be able to sit there and ask customers to show if they’ve been vaccinated or not,” Generoso told CBS2’s Ali Bauman.

 

 Queens Chronicle

 Starting Monday, everyone is getting carded.

Mayor de Blasio’s latest initiative requires proof of vaccination to get into a variety of indoor public spaces, such as restaurants, gyms and performance venues.

Customers and workers need proof of at least once inoculation shot to be inside, the new mandate outlines. The move, which de Blasio dubbed the “Key to NYC Pass,” is an aggressive switch from the mayor’s previous incentives, which included free museum tickets, free meals and even $100 payments.

“If you want to participate in our society fully, you’ve got to get vaccinated,” de Blasio said Aug 3. “It’s time.”

According to city Department of Health data, about 73.2 percent of all New York City adults have received at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. Children under the age of 12, who are not eligible to get the shot, are exempt from the new mandate and will be allowed entry into restaurants, gyms, performance venues and more without proof. De Blasio said he expects kids from 5 to 11 to become eligible in the next few months.

That leaves just 26.8 percent of the New York City population, as well as the fluctuating rate of tourists, who would be barred from indoor businesses beginning Aug. 16.

The number is low enough that the mandate doesn’t worry many business owners. Plenty are actually hopeful that placing restrictions will finally force people into getting the vaccine.

“It’s a draconian measure that has to be taken,” said Carl Clay, the founder of the Black Spectrum Theatre Co. The St. Albans venue had self-imposed the rule on its workers and customers over a month ago because it was the “right thing to do.”

“Did anybody have a problem? Not at all,” Clay continued. “I think to anybody who has any sense of what’s going on around them it makes sense.”

Clay equated proof of vaccination to having a driver’s license. You can drive on the road if you have one, but you can’t sit in the driver’s seat without one.

Other business owners believe the mandate may actually result in an increase in business — according to already established Covid-19 guidelines, social distancing within a venue can be eliminated if all customers and workers are vaccinated.

Theoretically, Annette Runcie said, restaurateurs can boost sales by packing their space with vaccinated customers rather than by catering to those who are not.

“There’s a lot of people who told me they won’t be comfortable coming out because the infection rate is increasing, so this will make them feel more secure,” said Runcie, who owns Pa-Nash Eurosoul in Rosedale.

Update: One more time from Louis Rossmann

Getting vaccine mandate access is going to be a snap

 

 Gothamist

 Pictures of cats, Mickey Mouse, even a takeout menu from a BBQ restaurant: Users of New York City’s COVID SAFE app have discovered they can upload just about any photo into the new vaccine verification software.

Though the app only debuted this week, its vulnerabilities have come under scrutiny as the city announced a new policy to require proof of at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine for entry to indoor dining, gyms and entertainment performances.

“The New York City app is nothing more than a glorified photo storage app,” said Brian Linder of cybersecurity research company Check Point. He added, “When someone shows a picture of a card in this app, it's believed that it's real, but there's absolutely no verification of it whatsoever.”

City officials said it’s up to the staff at restaurants, gyms and event spaces to verify the authenticity of the pictures in the app--no different than bouncers checking drivers’ licenses at bars.

“The NYC COVID Safe App was designed with privacy at the top of mind, and allows someone to digitally store their CDC card and identification,” Laura Feyer, spokesperson for Mayor Bill de Blasio, said in an emailed statement. “Someone checking vaccination cards at the door to a restaurant or venue would see that those examples are not proper vaccine cards and act accordingly.”

 But the COVID SAFE app creates an opening for a black market based on fake vaccine cards. While a bill criminalizing the falsification of vaccine records under state law is now awaiting Governor Andrew Cuomo’s signature, the opportunity for fraud is rampant on many levels.

 

Vaccination papers please

 

 NY Daily News

 Anyone who wants to dine, drink, exercise or enjoy a live performance indoors in New York City will soon have to show proof of coronavirus vaccination or be denied entry, Mayor de Blasio announced Tuesday in his most aggressive push yet to jack up the city’s flagging immunization rates.

The requirement, which mirrors mandates on leisure activities enforced in some European countries, is presumed to be the first-of-its-kind in the U.S. and comes as the Big Apple is seeing a delta-variant driven surge in new COVID-19 infections.

The program, dubbed “Key to NYC Pass,” will launch Aug. 16 and phase in over the coming weeks before officially kicking off Sept. 13, the start of the school year, de Blasio said in his daily briefing from City Hall.

“This is crucial because we know that this will encourage a lot more vaccination,” the mayor said.

Blaz makes mandatory shots order for city workers in September

 

 

Queens Post

All 300,000 city workers will need to be vaccinated against COVID-19 or adhere to weekly testing under a new mandate by mid September, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Monday.

The city will require all municipal workers to be vaccinated by Sept. 13 — the first day of public school — or be subjected to testing for the virus each week.

De Blasio announced the new mandate as COVID-19 cases are rising citywide due to the highly contagious delta variant.

“We all know the delta variant has thrown us a curveball and we are really really focused on fighting the delta variant,” he said Monday morning.

Police officers, firefighters, teachers, correction officers along with previously announced healthcare workers will be subject to the vaccine or testing mandate.

Public hospital workers and the City Department of Health staff will have an earlier deadline, Aug. 2., to get vaccinated by. Weekly testing will commence that day for such workers who are unvaccinated.

Furthermore, starting Aug. 16, city employees who work in congregate, residential settings such as homeless shelters will need to be vaccinated or tested weekly.

All other city workers, including those who work in offices, will be subject to the Sept. 13 deadline.

“We’re going to keep … adding additional measures as needed — mandates and strong measures whenever needed to fight the delta variant,” de Blasio said. “The number one way to fight it is to get vaccinated.”

He also announced that the city will be doubling down on mask use for unvaccinated city staffers starting Monday, Aug 2. All unvaccinated workers will be required to wear a mask at their workplace at all times while indoors.

“If a city government employee does not wear a mask indoors and they’re unvaccinated, there will unfortunately have to be consequences,” de Blasio said.

The mayor also urged private employers to follow suite in requiring vaccines or weekly testing.

Delta Blazlooza

  

NY Daily News

Hizzoner is in the mood for a party — COVID-19 be damned.

Mayor de Blasio announced Thursday that the city will host five large-scale concerts next month and urged people from near and far to flock to the Big Apple for the “unforgettable” events — even though New York is in the midst of a troubling uptick in coronavirus cases due to the delta variant.

The five free concerts, one in each borough, will take place during the week starting Aug. 16, culminating in a previously announced Aug. 21 gig on the Great Lawn in Central Park, because “we got to celebrate our recovery,” de Blasio said at City Hall.

“I am issuing a FOMO alert,” he said, using the “Fear of Missing Out” acronym popular with younger generations. “Unless you want to spend the rest of your life saying, ‘oh my god I missed it,’ you should get to New York City in the month of August, where amazing things will be happening.”

The Aug. 21 performance will feature Bruce Springsteen, Paul Simon and Jennifer Hudson, among others. Acts for the other four shows are forthcoming, as well as ticket details, but these are the basics:

• Aug. 16: Orchard Beach, the Bronx
• Aug. 17: Richmond County Bank Park, Staten Island
• Aug. 19: Brooklyn Army Terminal, Brooklyn
• Aug. 20: Forest Hills Stadium, Queens

The party-hungry mayor compared the bashes to the legendary Woodstock festival of 1969.

“I’ve talked to people who missed Woodstock. My own oldest brother could’ve gone to Woodstock,” he said. “Don’t let that FOMO thing happen to you. This is going to be amazing.”

But underpinning the plans for the party week of the century is New York’s steady rise in coronavirus infections.

The city’s test positivity rate — which provides a glimpse of COVID’s pervasiveness — cracked 2% for the first time in over two months Thursday, with 644 new infections and 98 new hospitalizations reported by the Health Department.

For context, the city last year operated under the assumption that the pandemic was under control only when daily reported infections did not exceed 550.

Still, de Blasio has rejected calls from a growing chorus of public health experts and lawmakers to reinstate indoor mask mandates and slow down other relaxations of pandemic restrictions.

Instead, the mayor has argued the focus should be squarely on jacking up vaccination rates — a sentiment he reiterated when asked by the Daily News during Thursday’s briefing if he’s sending a dangerous message by calling for a pilgrimage to the city for next month’s “homecoming week” concerts.

“If they think the solution is for everyone to go home and not participate in recovery and allow ourselves to slip backwards into the world we were in — yeah, if that’s an option people want, I want to see that they have their head examined,” he said. “I mean this is crazy, get vaccinated ... We’re not going to cower.”

The Blaz goes full anti-mask

 

 NY Daily News 

 Mayor de Blasio balked at the idea of reinstating an indoor face mask mandate in the city on Monday even though COVID-19 infections are ticking back up. Instead, he called for more vaccination efforts throughout the five boroughs.

“Masks have value, unquestionably, but masks are not going at the root of the problem. Vaccination is,” the mayor said during a live-streamed press briefing. “So we do not intend a mask mandate. We do intend to double down on vaccination.”

Over the weekend, some local public health experts and lawmakers began calling for a resumption of indoor mask wearing for all New Yorkers — regardless of vaccination status — citing a slow but steady rise in coronavirus infections driven by the Delta variant.

But de Blasio said in his briefing that it would be “a disservice” to heed those calls and argued all focus should instead be on boosting vaccinations.

“Let’s address the problem by getting more people vaccinated and going right at it, and knocking down this variant,” he said from City Hall. “You know, a mask doesn’t arrest the progress of the variant — vaccination does. So we’re gonna go where the real impact is. That’s the bottom line.”

Democratic Manhattan Councilmember Mark Levine, who chairs the City Council’s Health Committee, took issue with de Blasio’s argument and said an indoor face mask mandate could safeguard New York against a major COVID-19 outbreak while the vaccination campaign continues.

The Blaz keeps mask mandates going for schools as he promotes restaurant weeks where masks don't apply as infections spread

 

AMNY

New York City doesn’t have plans to change its current mask-wearing policy in schools and adhere to recently updated guidelines from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday. 

In a major policy shift last week, the CDC called for the full reopening of schools across the country even if doing so meant dropping its three-foot social distancing requirement and recommended only unvaccinated adults and children wear masks while inside school buildings. 

The New York State Department of Health is currently reviewing the amended guidelines and their decision on whether to relax mask wearing requirements in schools could impact whether the DOE adopts the new CDC recommendations. But for now New York City public school families should expect that teachers, staff and students regardless of vaccination status will need to face coverings in classrooms this fall, according to de Blasio. 

“There will be a lot of communication before school and once it begins for now assume we are wearing masks,” de Blasio told reporters during a morning press conference. “ But that could change as we get closer…we will be driven by the data and see what the science has to say.” 

The CDC guideline changes come amid a national push to boost slowing vaccination rates across the country. De Blasio started off his Monday press conference touting New York City’s vaccination rate stating that 4.4 million city residents are now fully vaccinated against the virus.  

According to the CDC, about 4.9 million New York City residents are fully vaccinated against the virus and 5.4 million, or about 64% of the city’s population, has received at least one dose of the vaccine which falls just a little below the nation’s overall rate.

 NY Post

New York City diners will be able to enjoy temporarily discounted meals at more than 500 restaurants for five weeks this summer, in a lengthened Restaurant Week aimed at helping struggling restaurants recover from the pandemic, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday.

The newly extended tourism and hospitality industry promotion will start on July 19 and end Aug. 22, the mayor said at his daily press briefing.

“Restaurant Week is launching next week, in a new, amazing form,” de Blasio said, boasting of more than a month of “great discounts, great specials” across the five boroughs.

“This is going to be amazing,” he said. “Think about restaurants you’ve always wanted to go to. Here’s the opportunity to experience them, and it’s a wonderful, super Restaurant Week that’s going to be really inviting again for New Yorkers and a special opportunity to come out and celebrate for folks who are not from around here.

de Blasio and the EDC are playing down the capability and spread of the Delta Variant

 

Progress New York

 Two days after the de Blasio administration released the findings of its recent weekly COVID-19 variant sequencing study, showing that the prevalence of the dangerous new strain known as the Delta variant had fallen from 8,4 per cent. to 6,7 per cent., a London newspaper, the Financial Times, published a report, estimating the prevalence of the Delta variant in the U.S. at 31 per cent.

For weeks, Progress New York has published reports, which have raised questions about the accuracy of the weekly variant sequencing studies. These reports initially focused on the plunge in the sample size used in the studies. The de Blasio administration responded by changing the presentation of the variant study results. Then, last week, some data was restated almost wholesale.

It is unknown how Mayor Bill de Blasio (WFP-New York City) will explain the divergence in the variant data. The press office supporting Mayor de Blasio refused on Sunday to admit that the administration was presenting unreliable variant study data.

There’s little transparency to the methodology used by the laboratory to sequence the COVID-19 variants.

Many critics are coming to the fore about the de Blasio administration’s lack of transparency about its weekly variant sequencing studies. One critic, known as @BWMosher on the Twitter social media platform, published some analysis of the latest sequencing study, noting some of the restatements to the data underpinning the weekly studies. In that review, it was noted that the laboratory used by the de Blasio administration to conduct the variant studies, the Pandemic Response Lab, was a creation of the City’s controversial arm that intervenes in the free market system to provide subsidies to large corporations.

The lab, also known by the mnemonic “Pearl” for its initials, or PRL, was created in the summer of 2020 by the New York City Economic Development Corporation, or the NYCEDC, first to conduct tests for COVID-19, according to City Hall information. At some point, PRL began to sequence for variants. That the NYCEDC is behind PRL presents a conflict of interest, because the chambres of commerce in New York City have been pressuring Mayor de Blasio to reopen the economy, so that workers can return to office buildings that still remain largely empty. To that end, the titans of industry have been pressuring for the full reopening of public schools from mere months into the pandemic, so that working families could rely on schools as day care. The reliance on public schools as day care for working families was noted in a mid-year budget report issued in 2020 by the Office of the Comptroller of the City of New York Government. “If public schools don’t reopen, parents of up to a million school children will have to provide their own childcare on at least a part-time basis, inhibiting many parents’ ability to return to full-time work,” the report noted.

Were PRL to report prevalence rates for the Delta variant that mirrored the Financial Times model, then businesses, office buildings, and public schools would face pressure to delay, or cancel, their reopenings. It is not known whether the unreliable sequencing data is a result of the appearance of a conflict of interest for the NYCEDC.