The city of New York will require proof of vaccination for those dining in indoor restaurants and using indoor gym facilities, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced at a press conference on Tuesday.
The requirements come as the nation continues to grapple with rising rates of coronavirus. With vaccinations having stagnated in recent weeks, and the Delta variant posing a greater risk to individuals (particularly those who are not vaccinated), total COVID case numbers across the country have increased by 142 percent, with hospitalizations having gone up by 83 percent, in the past two weeks.
In New York City, where 55 percent of the population is fully vaccinated, case numbers have increased by 135 percent, and hospitalizations are up by 36 percent, in the same two-week period.
To address these concerns and to encourage more people to get vaccinated, Mayor de Blasio said it was imperative to limit who can go to some public spaces.
“It is time for people to see vaccinations as literally necessary to living a good, full and healthy life,” the mayor said on Tuesday. “If you’re unvaccinated, unfortunately, you will not be able to participate in many things.
“If you want to participate in our society fully, you’ve got to get vaccinated,” de Blasio added.
The requirement to be vaccinated in order to dine in or go to gyms in New York City will not be implemented right away, and will follow a transition period, city officials have said. The program, called “Key to NYC Pass,” will begin in mid-August. Full implementation and enforcement of the program is slated to begin the week of September 13.
Polls on the subject of requiring proof of vaccinations have shown mixed feelings among Americans. A Gallup poll published in May, for example, asking respondents if they would support implementing vaccination requirements for a range of activities found that 57 percent supported it for air travel and 55 percent for events with large crowds. When it came to dining in at restaurants, however, support dropped off sharply with only 40 percent saying vaccine requirements should be implemented.
It’s possible that attitudes toward vaccine requirements may have changed, given the prevalence of the new Delta variant and increases in hospitalizations across the country, especially among the unvaccinated. Indeed, a poll from The COVID States Project, conducted from June 9 through July 7, found that in general 64 percent of respondents would approve of requiring everyone to get vaccinated.
Other parts of the country that are being hit harder than New York City are responding to the latest coronavirus surge in other ways. In Louisiana, a state that has seen its COVID-19 hospitalization rates increase by 182 percent in the past two weeks, Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards reinstated a mask mandate he had ended less than three months ago.
“This is bad. And it’s not this bad anywhere else in the country today,” Edwards said in a statement announcing the reinstated mandate. “This is having an adverse impact on people’s lives today. And the least we can do is put a mask on. It is not an onerous burden.”
We’re not backing down in the face of Trump’s threats.
As Donald Trump is inaugurated a second time, independent media organizations are faced with urgent mandates: Tell the truth more loudly than ever before. Do that work even as our standard modes of distribution (such as social media platforms) are being manipulated and curtailed by forces of fascist repression and ruthless capitalism. Do that work even as journalism and journalists face targeted attacks, including from the government itself. And do that work in community, never forgetting that we’re not shouting into a faceless void – we’re reaching out to real people amid a life-threatening political climate.
Our task is formidable, and it requires us to ground ourselves in our principles, remind ourselves of our utility, dig in and commit.
As a dizzying number of corporate news organizations – either through need or greed – rush to implement new ways to further monetize their content, and others acquiesce to Trump’s wishes, now is a time for movement media-makers to double down on community-first models.
At Truthout, we are reaffirming our commitments on this front: We won’t run ads or have a paywall because we believe that everyone should have access to information, and that access should exist without barriers and free of distractions from craven corporate interests. We recognize the implications for democracy when information-seekers click a link only to find the article trapped behind a paywall or buried on a page with dozens of invasive ads. The laws of capitalism dictate an unending increase in monetization, and much of the media simply follows those laws. Truthout and many of our peers are dedicating ourselves to following other paths – a commitment which feels vital in a moment when corporations are evermore overtly embedded in government.
Over 80 percent of Truthout‘s funding comes from small individual donations from our community of readers, and the remaining 20 percent comes from a handful of social justice-oriented foundations. Over a third of our total budget is supported by recurring monthly donors, many of whom give because they want to help us keep Truthout barrier-free for everyone.
You can help by giving today. Whether you can make a small monthly donation or a larger gift, Truthout only works with your support.