A New York restaurant owner is speaking out following New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s (D) plan to force private businesses to discriminate against unvaccinated individuals, questioning how the government will police the edict.
Joe Fauci, owner of Staten Island’s La Fontana and La Fontana Sorellena and distant relative to Dr. Anthony Fauci, reacted to the mayor’s announcement of the “Key to NYC Pass” initiative, telling the New York Post that “things are getting a little crazy.”
“I’m vaccinated myself, but I don’t see how, in this day and age, a non-FDA-approved drug is required,” Fauci said.
“I don’t see how we’re going to police this,” he told the Post. “If a guy comes in without a valid [vaccination] card, how can we police it? We can’t call the big database.”
“All we’re doing is going back to things that didn’t work,” he said, referencing stringent enforcement rules imposed last year.
Mayor de Blasio proudly announced the vaccine passport initiative on Tuesday, painting a picture of a “wondrous” city only available to the vaccinated population and admitting that the end game is making people view vaccination as “literally necessary to living a good and full and healthy life.”
“And if you’re vaccinated, all of that’s going to open up to you. You’ll have the key, you can open the door. If you’re unvaccinated, unfortunately, you will not be able to participate in many things,” he said.
“That’s the point we’re trying to get across,” he continued, adding that he believes the initiative will coerce more people to get the jab.
On Wednesday, de Blasio thanked President Joe Biden, specifically, for his support of the vaccine passport program.
“Now as to the fact that this should be picked up all over the country, and emulated, what clear, clear support we got from President Joe Biden,” de Blasio said.
“This was just a few hours after announcing the policy, Joe Biden 100 percent said yes, cities and states and counties should do this,” he continued.
“It’s the right thing to do. I want to thank Joe Biden for his support, and I think that’s going to be tremendously helpful in convincing a lot of jurisdictions to follow this model which will keep us all safer,” de Blasio added
The mayor said there will be an educational initiative about the new rule over the next month, and inspections and enforcement of the policy will begin the week of September 13.
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