Need stronger COVID mandates
A poll found nearly two-thirds of Americans supported requiring a vaccine for air travel. Credit: Getty Images/Spencer Platt
The pushback on New York's mask mandate in schools and the recent lawsuit filed by two Syosset Hospital nurses against the state's vaccine requirement for health care workers are proof of the importance of clear-cut, legally ironclad requirements when it comes to both masks and vaccines.
Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Wednesday a Sept. 27 deadline for most state health care workers and SUNY and CUNY students to get vaccinated, with no alternative for testing. Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Port Authority employees have until Oct. 12, but are allowed to take weekly tests instead.
State officials say they believe the state Health Department's requirements on masks and shots are on solid legal ground. And the state Bar Association also has said mask and vaccine mandates are within the law. But the all-too-predictable challenges to vaccine requirements show how important it is that state and federal officials issue new mandates without any legal wiggle room. Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie and Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins must convene a session of the legislature as soon as possible to give Hochul the emergency powers to issue such an order.
President Joe Biden is expected to weigh in Thursday with new federal guidelines for students and private employers. Such mandates remain necessary, especially amid the troubling persistence of COVID-19 variants and growing worries about their impact on children; 27% of new cases are now among children and teens, more than 250,000 last week alone.
But the efforts can't stop there. The Federal Aviation Administration should follow the lead of others in the international community, including Canada, and mandate the vaccine for anyone aboard an airplane. Airlines aren't setting the requirement themselves, even for their own employees, instead only going as far as providing incentives or disincentives.
Last month, one poll found nearly two-thirds of Americans supported requiring a vaccine for air travel and also showed those surveyed were making — or changing — travel decisions based on the delta variant and COVID-related concerns. Meanwhile, there have been disturbing instances of travelers refusing to wear masks while on planes. Altogether, it's a dangerous combination, one where concerns can be alleviated by requiring proof of vaccination. If the FAA makes the move, it would take the pressure off individual airlines, protect employees and travelers alike, and make would-be tourists and business travelers feel safer and more willing to fly.
That, in turn, could pump up the economy, both nationally and locally. New York depends on international and domestic air travel for tourism dollars and for its economic growth. The region needs people to return for pleasure and business.
Make the skies safer now and, hopefully, classrooms, offices and other spaces on the ground soon will become safer, too.
MEMBERS OF THE EDITORIAL BOARD are experienced journalists who offer reasoned opinions, based on facts, to encourage informed debate about the issues facing our community.
