NEW YORK (1010 WINS) — Mayor Eric Adams announced Thursday that athletes and performers will be exempt from New York City's vaccine mandate for private workers.
"New York City is at a low risk environment and so today we take another step in the city’s economic recovery and support local businesses, entertainers, performers, and those performance venues across the entire city," Adams said at Citi Field, where the Mets play.
The executive order, which will take effect immediately, will allow Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving to play home games and let unvaccinated baseball players take the field when their season begins.
The previous emergency mandate allowed visiting performing artists and professional athletes to avoid vaccination requirements, but Adams' order broadens the exemption to include New York City-based performers and athletes.
"This exemption has been putting our sports teams at a self-imposed competitive disadvantage, but this new order would help boost our economy," Adams said.
Deputy Mayor for Economic and Workforce Development Maria Torres-Springer said the move Thursday will level "the playing field."
"We are leveling the playing field and we're giving another significant boost to our concert halls, theaters, nightclubs, and the many bars, restaurants, and many small businesses that really depend on the visitors to those venues to drive customers," she said.
The decision has been met with swift pushback from some union leaders as the city's sweeping vaccine mandate for workers will still apply to people with other types of jobs, including government employees.
Earlier this year, hundreds of the city's public employees were terminated for failing to comply with the city's vaccine mandate.
“We have been suing the city for months over its arbitrary and capricious vaccine mandate — this is exactly what we are talking about," PBA President Patrick J. Lynch said in a statement issued Thursday. "If the mandate isn’t necessary for famous people, then it’s not necessary for the cops who are protecting our city in the middle of a crime crisis. While celebrities were in lockdown, New York City police officers were on the street throughout the pandemic, working without adequate PPE and in many cases contracting and recovering from Covid themselves. They don’t deserve to be treated like second-class citizens now.”
Paul DiGiacomo, president of the Detectives' Endowment Association, told the New York Post that Adams "must be kidding."
Dr. Jay Varma, an advisor to former Mayor Bill de Blasio, expects the exemptions will be met with court challenges.
"To me it sends a message that if you're rich, powerful and connected you get to make your own rules," Varma told 1010 WINS. "You know, 300,000 city employees rolled up their arms and did what's best for both themselves, their families and their neighbors."
Republican Councilman Joe Borelli of Staten Island said it's time for all mandates to end.
"The futility of so much of what we have done has become evident," Borelli told 1010 WINS. "In this case the problem is that we're doing it for just a small select group of fancy people."
Borelli said the exemptions are not fair.
"As wrong as the vaccine mandate might be, we should all agree whatever your political persuasion is, that everyone should be treated equal under the law," Borelli said.
Adams had said he felt the vaccine rule was unfair when it came to athletes and performers because a loophole in the measure, imposed under his predecessor, allowed visiting players and performers who don't work in New York to still play or perform even if they are unvaccinated.
On Thursday, he reaffirmed his decision, claiming that as mayor, he must "make difficult choices."
"I'm mayor of the city and I"m going to make some tough choices. People are not going to agree with some of them," he added. "I was not elected to follow. I was not elected to be fearful, but to be fearless. I must move this city forward."
When asked if he would consider rehiring municipal employees who were fired for refusing to take the vaccine, Adams said, "not at this time."
Adams stressed the need for everyone, including players and performers, to get vaccinated and boosted.
"I’ve said it and I will continue to say it — all of us should be vaccinated, even our players, we will continue to promote vaccinations and booster shots," he added. "It’s imperative that we do so."
The mayor has been rolling back vaccine mandates and other coronavirus restrictions, including on Tuesday when he said masks could become optional for children under 5 starting April 4.
Mask mandates for older children have already been removed, as well as rules requiring people to show proof of vaccination to dine in a restaurant, work out at a gym, attend a show, or go to an indoor sporting event.
"I think generals come during wartime and peacetime, this is a wartime." Adams said. "COVID is a battle, our economy is a battle, crime is a battle, I’m not a peacetime general, I’m a wartime general and I’m not going to lead this city from the rear, I’m going to lead this city from the front, and that’s what generals do."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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