New York City Mayor Eric Adams has not enforced the city’s coronavirus vaccination requirement for employees at private businesses, nor does it plan to begin inspecting businesses or begin penalize businesses that do not comply.
Newsday first report about the lack of enforcement of vaccination mandates for private employers.
Fabien Levy, a spokesman for New York City Mayor Eric Adams, said in an email.
Former Mayor Bill de Blasio Vaccine mission announcement for employees at private businesses in December, the most far-reaching local measure in the United States at the time. The mandate applies to approximately 184,000 businesses of all sizes with on-site employees in New York City.
Those concerns are not unfounded. During the first week of the mandate, from December 27 to December 31, only 31% of the 3,025 businesses inspected were compliant. But the Adams administration stopped those inspections, and under his stewardship, no businesses actually faced fines.
The city has been stricter in enforcing mandatory vaccinations for public sector employees, many of whom have been fired for non-compliance.
Ninety-one percent of people in New York City have received at least one dose of the vaccine and 78 percent are fully immunized, According to The New York Times’ coronavirus vaccine tracker.
Dr Denis Nash, an epidemiologist at the CUNY School of Public Health, said the mandates on vaccines and their enforcement remain essential.
“I believe that making vaccination mandatory in certain settings such as workplaces or locations has the potential to increase population-level vaccine coverage,” said Dr. Nash.
However, he added, the mandates should have “some incentive or disincentive”, otherwise it’s unlikely people will adhere to them.
