Dumb on many levels, not the least of which is that it comes from Governor Put-COVID-Cases-Back-Among-Elderly himself. Someone must have explained to Andrew Cuomo that a renewed mandate on private businesses would not work, either legally (perhaps) or practically. Instead, Cuomo said this morning that he’s “only suggesting” to them to adopt a de facto vaccination-passport policy:
GOV. CUOMO: “Private businesses… I am asking them, and suggesting to them, go to ‘vaccine only’ admission.”
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) August 2, 2021
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday he is asking private businesses such as bars and restaurants to require proof of vaccination against Covid-19 as a condition for admission.
The number of daily Covid cases in New York has increased “4-fold” to more than 2,000 cases over the last month as the highly contagious delta variant spreads, Cuomo said during a news conference on the pandemic. Data shows fully vaccinated individuals are less likely to catch, get infected with the virus or suffer from severe disease, he said.
“I am asking them, and suggesting to them, go to vaccine only admission,” he told reporters, referring to private businesses. “I believe it is in your best interest.”
Infectious disease experts and public health officials fear Covid cases, fueled by the delta variant, could continue to surge into the fall season, when Americans head back indoors and employers begin to bring workers back to the office.
I’ve already covered the first level of stupid above, but let’s recap anyway. Cuomo himself couldn’t be bothered to impose a restriction on nursing homes to prevent known positive cases from being readmitted. In fact, Cuomo ordered those facilities to readmit positive cases as well as employ known-positive staff, and then cooked the books in an attempt to hide the horrific consequences his orders had. Who still thinks Cuomo is a credible authority on how to impose admissions restrictions in this pandemic? We might as well take advice from Typhoid Mary.
The second level of stupidity: How are business owners supposed to police a “vaccine only admission” policy? The state doesn’t have vaccine passports (for good reason) and the cards created by the CDC to note vaccination dates and types are hardly a secure system. Nor were they meant to be.
Third level of stupidity: Why would business owners feel empowered to ask about someone’s vaccination status at the door of their business? Imagine, if you will, what Andrew Cuomo would do if a business owner in New York started asking people about their HIV or tuberculosis status as a condition of entry. Furthermore. business owners could stick a sign on their window saying “vaccinated only,” but they have no means by which to enforce it. To the extent that the non-vaccinated simply don’t reveal their status, it makes the situation worse by creating a false sense of security. It’s empty virtue signaling, which is a pretty good description of Cuomo’s overall handling of the pandemic, too.
Ben Shapiro handles the fourth level of stupidity:
This is insanely and wildly counterproductive. If you separate the vaxxed from the unvaxxed, all the unvaxxed will congregate by necessity. Which means…wait for it…vastly increased spread, not decreased spread. https://t.co/FV3MXW4wEE
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) August 2, 2021
Fifth and finally, this is all entirely unnecessary. Those who are fully vaccinated have mitigated all of the risk they can; those who won’t get vaccinated have accepted that risk. If they choose to enter businesses where others might be circulating a variant of COVID-19, then that risk is on them, not on those who have already all-but-eliminated the risk for themselves.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member