Lame-duck New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio had already locked up the title of worst mayor in the country. He’s hoping that his legacy can continue for years.
De Blasio has decided that the omicron variant, which still appears to cause less serious complications than other strains, means he should hand down more mandates in his final month in office. He has handed down a vaccination mandate for private businesses, requiring that their employees be vaccinated by Dec. 27. De Blasio will leave office four days later.
Even more gallingly, de Blasio is mandating that children as young as 5 be vaccinated if they want to eat in restaurants, go to any indoor entertainment venues, or participate in extracurricular activities such as sports, band, and dance.
The cruelty of this is only amplified by the laziness. With less than a month to go, de Blasio is using his remaining time in office to feed into hysteria over the omicron variant at the cost of people’s jobs. Mandating that children get the vaccine if they want to play sports or go to a restaurant with their family is especially absurd, given that all evidence shows omicron is not a more lethal COVID variant and we have known for months that even unvaccinated children are safer from COVID than are vaccinated adults.
So what purpose is there for this? It has nothing to do with science or public health. It certainly isn’t done in good faith, considering he leaves office just after the deadline that he set. Perhaps de Blasio thinks this will help his future political ambitions, but given the miserable failure of his presidential campaign, he has already hit his political ceiling.
There is no logic here other than the twisted principle of using power just because he can. Perhaps de Blasio is lashing out at New Yorkers on his way out the door because of how broadly despised he is, so much so that his successor, Eric Adams, ran against de Blasio on crime as much as he ran against any of his opponents in the Democratic primary.
Adams has not committed to enforcing this new ridiculous mandate. He should dismiss the possibility outright. It is an embarrassing final act of defiance by a laughingstock who has left New York City worse than he found it. The next time we hear about Bill de Blasio will be too soon.
