New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) begged parents to get their children vaccinated “right away,” while New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) instructed parents to also “ensure” that children are masked up as well, making the remarks Thursday during a joint press conference detailing cases of the omicron variant popping up in the Empire State.
“We know we now have cases here in New York City,” de Blasio said of the omicron variant. “We have to assume that means there’s community spread. We have to assume that means we’re going to see a lot more cases. But we also have tremendous tools as the governor said.”
The mayor identified the vaccination apparatus as the “best capacity to protect everyone against this variant or any other form of COVID,” despite the fact that Hochul, mere minutes before, admitted they “don’t have specific information on how the vaccines are holding up or the boosters are holding up to this variant.”
What is more, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has not provided detailed information on the number of breakthrough cases in the country.
“So the message today is, let’s do the thing we know works with COVID. Let’s get vaccinated,” de Blasio continued, begging parents to get kids vaccinated.
“We need you to get your kids vaccinated right away,” he said, adding fully vaccinated individuals should get booster shots as well to “protect yourself, your family, and everyone in this city.”
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“We know vaccination works. It limits the impact. We know this. It limits the impact of COVID. It helps reduce the spread of COVID. We need that more than ever,” he added. The number of breakthrough infections is largely unknown to the general public, which Dr. Anthony Fauci admitted over the weekend.
“It’s a very complicated situation,” Fauci said during an appearance on Face the Nation after Margaret Brennan asked why the U.S. decided “not to track those breakthrough infections.”
“And often the public doesn’t hear yet in time things that are being collected. So there’s a lot of data, clearly a lot of data, that’s being collected by the CDC that people don’t know about yet,” Fauci said, admitting the data is largely under wraps.
Per the transcript:
MARGARET BRENNAN: But is there data being collected now in the United States about breakthrough infections that the public doesn’t know about?
DR. FAUCI: Yes, yes. Yes. The CDC is collecting data, yes.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Beyond just health care workers, everyday people. You have an idea of what’s happening with breakthrough infections?
DR. FAUCI: I don’t have the data for you right now, that’s obviously- we’ll have to get the CDC to get us that.
Director of the National Institute Of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci, testifies during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on the federal coronavirus response on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, March 18, 2021. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker / POOL / AFP) (Photo by ANNA MONEYMAKER/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Meanwhile, Hochul also urged people to get vaccinated and delivered a pointed message to parents, asking them to “ensure that our children are masked up as well as making sure that they get their vaccinations.”
“[I] also recommend that people continue to wear their masks indoors and avoid large gatherings at this time,” she added.
New York City, specifically, has some of the strictest vaccine mandates in the nation, as de Blasio implemented requirements for all city workers and introduced the Key to NYC Pass, which requires certain businesses to bar unvaccinated individuals.
Mere weeks ago, de Blasio declared New York City the “safest place to be” in the United States due to vaccines. Meanwhile, current data actually shows Florida to be one of the “safest” places in the United States in terms of the Chinese coronavirus, as it continues to have the lowest daily case rate per capita in the nation alongside Hawaii and Alabama.