On Wednesday, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) announced a coronavirus vaccine mandate for all city employees, something he called on mayors across the country and CEOs in the private sector to impose on their employees.
De Blasio told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that the “voluntary phase” was now over and “now, it’s time for mandates.” He argued that when people are forced into either getting the vaccine and being paid or not getting paid, the “vast majority” will get vaccinated.
“We know just from everything we’ve seen previously, Jonathan, that people will come back in the end,” de Blasio explained. “Look, we’ve given people every opportunity. The voluntary phase was very long. But now we’re saying, we need you to do this. Everyone else has done it. We need you to do it.”
“This is my message to mayors. This is my message to CEOs in the private sector: It’s a very fair point now to say it’s time. All the voluntary opportunities have been exhausted. Now it’s time for mandates. And what we found is when people are really staring at a mandate, and it’s come to work, get paid, or don’t come to work, don’t get paid, the vast majority choose to get vaccinated and move forward,” he concluded.
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