Bill De Blasio Calls for Vaccine Passport Programs in Other Parts of the Country

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) on Monday defended his updated vaccine mandates — expanding to private-sector employees as well as young children —  claiming that “vaccine mandates work” and that such vaccine passport programs should be emulated across the country.

De Blasio listed a series of new mandates on Monday, one of which is a “first in the nation” expansion to private-sector employees, covering about 184,000 businesses. Additionally, he is now requiring businesses to discriminate against unvaccinated children ages 5-11, including them in the Key to NYC vaccine passport program beginning December 14.

“This is something that is going to keep kids safe and families safe. Go get your child vaccinated. As long as they’ve gotten that first dose by December 14, they can continue to participate [in] indoor dining, entertainment, all these great things,” he said Monday.

The far-left mayor attributed the “aggressive” actions to the Omicron variant, as well as the winter months and upcoming holiday gatherings.

“We cannot let those restrictions come back,” he said, suggesting that the solution is doing things that “work.”

“Vaccinations work and vaccine mandates work. That’s the bottom line,” he asserted.

“Use the thing that works. Vaccination,” he continued, calling it the “central weapon in this war against COVID.”

“It’s the one thing that has worked every single time across the board on a strategic level. It’s the reason New York City is back in so many ways, and it’s the reason we can avoid shutdowns and restrictions,” de Blasio claimed, calling the Key to NYC Pass “extremely effective” and calling for similar programs across the country.

“[It] needs to be more,” he said of the program, adding it “should be used in more and more places.”

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In August, Mayor de Blasio bragged about having President Biden’s support for a vaccine passport program, claiming that Biden said, “100 percent said yes, cities and states and counties” should follow suit and implement similar coercive mandates.

“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 at the time.

Notably, it was over one year ago that Biden promised he “wouldn’t demand” mandatory vaccinations.