Mayor Bill de Blasio was notorious for his sheer combination of corruption, ineptitude, and wokeness. That made him stand out even in a crowded field of insane and incompetent mismanagers. And now everyone is trying to make sense of New York City’s bizarre and corrupt pandemic rules. Probably the most notorious of those rules allowed entertainers passing through the city to play games or appear at concerts to be exempt from those very same rules.
While the vaccine mandate applies to babysitters and therapists, to workers unloading crates of cucumbers, and even to independents renting a WeWork space, it doesn’t apply to celebrities.
Or as the order states, “non-City residents who are performing artists, college or professional athletes, or individuals accompanying such performing artists or college or professional athletes.”
Science, of course, tells us that NBA players and SNL guest stars can’t spread the virus.
Residency isn’t actually the issue because the vaccine mandate FAQ sneers, ”Do I need to verify proof of vaccination for workers who do not live in New York City? Yes, the requirement is specific to New York City workplaces, and where the worker lives is not relevant to the order.”
Unless the worker is a celebrity. Then their residency is suddenly very relevant to the order.
That was obviously a corrupt mess. And it’s having unexpectedly expected consequences.
Mayor Eric Adams said Wednesday he thinks his city’s rule that prevents unvaccinated Nets star Kyrie Irving from playing home games while allowing unvaccinated out of town athletes to play is “unfair.”
Adams told reporters he is hesitant to change the rule because he doesn’t want to send “mixed messages,”
The only mixed messages are in the rules that Adams insists on enforcing which make absolutely no sense to anyone. At this rate, New York City teams will have to play their home games out of state.
The mayor’s comments come after NBA commissioner Adam Silver criticized New York City’s rule.
“This law in New York, the oddity of it to me is that it only applies to home players,” Silver told ESPN. “I think if ultimately that rule is about protecting people who are in the arena, it just doesn’t quite make sense to me that an away player who is unvaccinated can play in Barclays but the home player can’t. To me, that’s a reason they should take a look at that ordinance.”
I’m sure the rules were just “following the science”. The fact that they make absolutely zero sense proves it.
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