State must OK school vaccines

Gov. Kathy Hochul and the State Legislature demonstrated Wednesday an ability to be nimble, to work together and to address pressing concerns quickly.

Now they have to do it again.

The expected extension of the eviction and foreclosure moratorium will help thousands of renters and homeowners. But an even more significant emergency requires elected officials' immediate attention.

The rise of the delta variant and continued persistence of the COVID-19 pandemic, just as schools begin to reopen, have created a dangerous situation, one that puts at risk children still unable to be vaccinated, and those who are immunocompromised. Intensive care units once again are filling up. More children across the country were hospitalized last month than anytime in the last year. And while New York is in a somewhat better position, and the variant might be reaching its peak, protecting our children remains a critical priority.

Hochul made clear this week that if she could, she'd require teachers and school staff across the state to be vaccinated. But she's unable to make that move because the State Legislature ended many emergency powers of the governor. Instead, she's searching for legal ground, probably fruitlessly, for the state Health Department to require school employees to be vaccinated or tested weekly.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio instituted a pure vaccine mandate for city schools, but no school district on Long Island has done so and some say they don't think they have the legal authority.

So, the task falls to Hochul. But she'll need the legislature to show some intestinal fortitude to get it done.

Hochul asked lawmakers to return to Albany to handle the eviction moratorium. Now she must work with State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie to get the legislature to convene again to either pass a mandate law or confer emergency powers that would allow her to order vaccine mandates in schools. While they're at it, they should also give the mask mandate the force of law, to avoid the legal challenges now percolating.

This has to happen quickly. School has started in many districts, and will commence in many more in the days ahead. A vaccine mandate likely would have to include a short grace period before it goes into effect, to give teachers and staff the chance to get their first shots if they haven't already. Since the two-shot regimen takes up to six weeks to complete, including the waiting time before immunity takes hold, it could take until November to get every adult in every school building fully protected.

If the legislature doesn't reconvene on its own, Hochul must call the body back again to face the pandemic head on. And as the school year begins, the legislature must pass that test.