They say that the owners pressured NYC Mayor Eric Adams to end the mandate
Inside New York City’s Decision to End Vaccine Mandate for Pro Athletes
Less than two weeks ago, Mayor Eric Adams had a quick response to a heckler who implored him to drop the vaccine requirement that kept the Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving from playing in New York City.
“Kyrie can play tomorrow,” Mr. Adams retorted. “Get vaccinated.”
But privately, efforts were already underway by the owners and executives of some of the wealthiest and most influential sports franchises in the country to persuade Mr. Adams to change his mind.
The Yankees president, Randy Levine, personally reached out to the mayor’s team and encouraged officials to consider that baseball is played outdoors where Covid transmission rates are lower than indoors.
Steven A. Cohen, the hedge fund manager and Mets owner who last year gave $1.5 million to a super PAC supporting Mr. Adams’s mayoral campaign, has been paying $10,000 a month to a lobbying firm, Moonshot Strategies, to push state officials and City Hall on several issues, including Covid protocols.
Those teams bring in an enormous amount of revenue for NYC. You have the Nets, Knicks, Yankees, Mets, and Rangers. The Islanders, Giants, and Jets do not play in NYC. They also provide a lot of jobs.
By this week, Mr. Adams decided to change course: He formally announced on Thursday that he was lifting the vaccine mandate in New York City for professional athletes and performers based here.
The mayor insisted that lobbying efforts played no role in his decision; instead, Mr. Adams said that the economic recovery of the city from the pandemic was the driving force behind the move. He said that sports and entertainment played vital roles in generating jobs and tax dollars.
This is the second time in recent weeks that the mayor has rolled back regulations designed to incentivize vaccination. Earlier this month, he suspended rules that required patrons of indoor establishments, such as restaurants, to be vaccinated. The mayor’s executive order still requires most employers to require proof of vaccination from their employees.
But, he refuses to remove them for everyone else, showing that vaccine mandates are less about the science and more about other things. Like a big loss of economic revenue. There’s a lot of people who avoid going to NYC due to the mandates, even if vaccinated. They just do not want to have to show their papers. There’s a lot of people who can’t get jobs because of the mandate in NYC, because the employee one still applies. It apparently applies for those who want to work at, say, Yankees Stadium, but, not the baseball players. It’s all about the science, you know.
Of course it’s science – political science, that is.