New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a Democrat, has no plans to rehire the 1,000+ city workers who lost their jobs for refusing to abide by the city’s vaccine mandate, yet he is providing a vaccine exemption for athletes and performers in the city.
Adams made the announcement on Thursday, exempting athletes and performers from abiding by the vaccine mandate on private workers.
“Today we take another step in our city’s economic recovery — leveling the playing field for New Yorkers and supporting local businesses and performance venues across the city,” he said.
“By expanding an existing exemption, we are simply making sure the rules apply equally to everyone who is a performer, regardless of where they are from. The old exemption put our sports teams at a self-imposed competitive disadvantage and was unfair to New York performers,” he claimed.
All the while, however, other private workers will still need to abide by the rule, earning him mockery across social media.
That same day, Adams told reporters that he is not considering rehiring the roughly 1,400 city workers who lost their jobs over the jabs, either.
“I want to take my hat off to those countless number of New Yorkers, municipal employees, that understood what we were going through as a city,” the Democrat said, applauding them for doing “the right thing.”
Adams’ callous response is reminiscent of the attitude displayed by his predecessor, former Mayor Bill de Blasio (D), who often bragged about his carrot and stick approach to vaccines.
“If you’re unvaccinated, unfortunately, you will not be able to participate in many things,” he said last year as he announced the introduction of the city’s vaccine passport program, adding that it is “time for people to see vaccination as literally necessary to living a good and full and healthy life.”
Months later, de Blasio bragged about vaccine exemption denials for city workers, proudly telling reporters that “the vast majority are going to get vaccinated.”