A group of Republican pols from Staten Island are drafting a letter to Mayor de Blasio demanding a reversal of the city’s new vaccine mandate for indoor venues including restaurants, gyms and movie theaters.
“This ‘vaccine passport’ directive not only forces small businesses to deny services to their customers, but it prohibits large swaths of our communities from participating in regular society,” Rep. Nicole Malliotakis wrote in the missive that’s signed by four other local GOP members.
Sixty percent of city residents have received one dose of the coronavirus vaccine.
“Reverse this unfair directive immediately,” Malliotakis states the letter, that’s still being circulated and is scheduled to be delivered to Hizzoner Thursday.
So far Councilmen Joe Borelli and Steve Matteo have signed on as well as state Sen. Andrew Lanza and Assemblyman Michael Tannousis.Â
“The vaccines work beyond our wildest expectations, but that must come with a new phase of personal responsibility,” Borelli told The Post.
“Anyone can get a shot for free that will make them statistically immune from COVID, so it shouldn’t be the gym owner in The Bronx or a waiter in Brooklyn who pays the price. If people don’t want to get vaccinated, it’s their problem, not society’s,” Borelli said.
The New York Young Republican Club is planning a protest outside the mayor’s Gracie Mansion residence on Aug. 15 — the day before the mandate is scheduled to go into effect.
Two gym owners told The Post they opposed the mandate.
“My biggest gripe is the mayor passing mandates without having any of the final resources to back them up and having zero focus on the economic impact of the decision,” said Joseph Cannizzo of Staten Island Judo Jujitsu Dojo. Cannizzo said his martial arts studio has been closed for a year due to the pandemic and he has not received any financial help from the government.
David Plasse, owner of Plasse Strength & Fitness in Queens, told The Post that most of his clients are vaccinated but a few haven’t gotten the shot due to their doctors’ orders including one woman who is getting over colon cancer.
“I don’t want to lose them as clients. I know working out has been keeping them healthy,” Plasse said.
But with the mandate it “seems like they’re probably not going to come anymore,” he said.
A spokesman for de Blasio said, “Public health experts praised the mayor’s decision because it does exactly what this moment calls for: It gets more New Yorkers vaccinated and it saves lives.
“The Delta variant isn’t messing around, and neither are we. This is the right way forward and we’re moving full steam ahead,” the rep said.