A lot of people rejoiced when NYC Mayor Eric Adams announced Thursday that he was rolling back the city's workplace vaccine mandates for entertainers, performers and athletes - but not everyone agreed that it was righting a wrong of inequality.
Tiki Barber, during Thursday's Tiki & Tierney show, took the situation to task, sort of explaining why the optics of the situation aren't good, vis-a-vis Mayor Adams' previous statements that making exemptions for players like Kyrie Irving would set a bad precedent.
"To me, it feels like the vaccine mandate was about money," Tiki said. "It's about the economic engine that is tourism in NYC - but if you go back to Mayor de Blasio's mandates, it almost felt like it was also about money. The city was losing tons of revenue because no one was here."
Tiki then relayed a story of coming to dinner in NYC during the early months of the pandemic and said it felt "odd," "eerie," and "scary" how empty it was, and made him realize how "economically distraught" the city was.
"But not too long after that, you saw the vaccine mandates, and if people didn't get vaccinated, they'd get fired - and they did, some 1,400 workers," he said. "To me, it was like, did they do that because of the mandate, or because they needed to save money? So when Mayor Adams announces this, he's making it about money, but ignoring that it was always about money."
And then, Tiki laid it out: while it's great for the fans they'll be able to watch their favorite stars, and good for the teams who employ them, it's the everyday New Yorkers suffering from the mandates who are now doubly hurt.
"This is clearly not fair, and it's frustrating; it feels like there should be a better solution, and I hope in time there will be one where this gets lifted for everyone," Tiki said. "On one hand, you're saying our entertainers need to be on a competitive playing field - but you're not talking about life. I hope in time he realizes it was an error to just include athletes, and exclude those who really need to work."
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