New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) at a press conference on Thursday touted the city’s aggressive action against the unvaccinated — forcing private businesses to discriminate against them — and declared the voluntary phase “over” while predicting that NYC-style vaccine passport requirements are “going to be happening all over the country.”
“Is there anyone out there that wants to go back to 2020? Does anyone want to go back to restrictions? Does anyone want to go back to seeing a huge loss of life?” de Blasio said, painting a bleak picture of returning to the lockdown era if New Yorkers do not succumb to government edicts and get vaccinated, regardless of their personal concerns.
“If you don’t want those things, take the delta variant seriously, and that’s why New York City is doing some of the most aggressive actions in America. We are setting the pace on purpose,” he boasted.
“We are taking bold action for ourselves but also to help everyone else take bold action. The Key to NYC Pass, this is what’s going to be happening all over the country,” he predicted, describing the ban on unvaccinated individuals entering indoor restaurants, gyms, and entertainment venues as the “shape of things to come.”
“Make no mistake. What we have put in place related to indoor dining, indoor entertainment, indoor fitness is the shape of things to come, and you’re going to see more and more companies do the same thing,” he said, predicting that cities, counties, and states will follow suit because “it’s time.”
“I want to thank President Joe Biden who embraced this idea immediately–literally within hours. This needs to be done all over this country to stop the delta variant,” the Democrat continued:
We can talk about any and all other issues, but the first thing we should be talking about is stopping this delta variant before it does more harm, and the way we do that is vaccination. And the way to get more people vaccinated is not just voluntary approaches, which I applaud, the incentives which we believe in and are working, but it requires mandates as well.
The Democrat mayor appealed to human nature as a primary reason for the rollout of these mandates, admitting the government is doing so to coerce Americans into complying with a desired behavior.
“We know human nature. A lot of people hearing there’s a requirement or requirement coming respond to that. It’s normal. It’s natural. The voluntary phase was great,” he said.
“[It] went on for seven full months, lots of incentives, lots of dialogue, lots of communication, lots of opportunity to talk to your doctor or pediatrician. The voluntary phase is over,” he declared.
“It’s time to mix mandates into this approach everywhere to defeat this enemy,” he added, explaining that NYC saw a 41 percent increase in people seeking their first coronavirus shot, comparing this last week to the first week in July.
Indeed, President Biden approved of New York City’s plan to force businesses to discriminate against the unvaccinated, responding “I do,” after a reporter asked Biden if he thought states and cities should take similar action.