Mayoral candidate Eric Adams vows to mandate COVID vaccinations for NYC school kids, de Blasio says he won’t
They may be “allies,” but they certainly don’t agree on everything.
Democratic mayoral contender Eric Adams signaled a significant gap between he and Mayor de Blasio’s thinking when it comes to COVID vaccine mandates Friday when Adams said he’d mandate that school children receive shots in order to attend class.
“This is a city and country where we do vaccinate. I was vaccinated for smallpox, for mumps, measles and so many others,” said Adams during an interview on WCBS 880. “We already have a system in place that states before you start school you receive your vaccination. It is to protect the child and the student population.”
Adams, who’s facing longshot Republican candidate in this November’s election, said as long as a COVID vaccine for kids has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, it should be mandated as required to attend school.
For weeks, de Blasio has urged the federal government to move forward with approving vaccines for kids under 11, a tool he views as essential to returning the city to some semblance of pre-pandemic normalcy. But while he’s issued vaccine mandates for teachers and other school workers, he’s remained hesitant about announcing similar directives for students 12 and older, who are now eligible to be inoculated.
“I feel very strongly that our kids need to be in school,” he said Friday during an interview on WNYC. “I’m not ready to exclude a child because their parents don’t want them to be vaccinated.”
De Blasio has said, though, that he’d be issuing more mandates in the days ahead. But when asked to provide more detail, he’s been short on specifics — even as elected officials and health experts have urged him to require cops, fire fighters and correction officers by required to get their shots.
On Friday, Adams said he would support such mandates as well.
“I would sit down with union leaders, and we would map out a real plan of how we get those officers engaged,” he said. “I believe there’s a way to work this out.”
