Time
The Coronavirus Brief
Monday, December 6, 2021
In early November, the U.S. federal government issued an emergency rule that would require COVID-19 vaccination or frequent testing for all employees of companies with more than 100 workers. It was almost immediately challenged by a number of states and remains tangled up in legal battles.
Now, we’ll find out how successful a city can be at imposing a similar rule: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio today announced a sweeping, first-of-its-kind vaccine mandate for all private-sector workers, which will affect about 184,000 businesses. The measure is a “preemptive strike” against the Omicron variant, de Blasio said during an interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
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We’re under attack … from the coronavirus,” de Blasio said, citing several factors compounding the virus’ spread: colder weather, which will push people indoors; holiday gatherings; and the still-active Delta variant, which remains the dominant strain in the U.S. He later added during a press conference: “We need to take very bold action. We’re seeing restrictions starting to come back. We’re seeing shutdowns. We cannot let those restrictions come back. We cannot have shutdowns in New York.”
New York City’s municipal employees are already subject to a vaccine mandate, which means-coupled with today’s rule-almost everyone who works in the city will be required to get inoculated. The new mandate for private-sector employees goes into effect on Dec. 27. At that time, employees must have at least one dose of the vaccine; those who work remotely won’t be required to get their shots. Getting tested regularly will not be an alternative, though exemptions will be allowed for valid medical or religious reasons. (De Blasio has not yet specified whether employees who receive exemptions are subject to frequent testing; additional guidance will be released on Dec. 15.)
De Blasio’s aggressive move comes as reports say the Omicron variant has been detected in at least 17 U.S. states. “We are everyday hearing about more and more probable cases,” U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Rochelle Walensky yesterday told ABC News. Some of those affected were exposed to the virus at a recent New York City anime convention, at which a Minnesota man who contracted the virus met up with about 35 friends-half of whom have since tested positive for the virus, per the Washington.
Kathryn Wylde, president of the Partnership for New York City-a prominent business group-told the New York Times that she was surprised by de Blasio’s announcement. “We were blindsided. There’s no forewarning, no discussion, no idea about whether it’s legal or who he expects to enforce it,” she said.
An interesting twist to de Blasio’s mandate: his term as mayor is about to expire. A spokesperson for Eric Adams, who takes office on Jan. 1, told the Times that “the mayor-elect will evaluate this mandate and other COVID strategies when he is in office and make determinations based on science, efficacy and the advice of health professionals.”
Originally published at https://view.newsletters.time.com.
