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New York City Mayor Eric Adams may soon face a wave of lawsuits over his inexplicable decision to keep the city’s vaccine mandate in effect for all workers except for basically rich and wealthy professional athletes.
On Thursday the mayor “announced an executive order exempting New York City-based professional athletes and performers from the private sector COVID vaccine mandate while leaving it intact for the vast majority of employees,” according to station WNBC.
He proceeded to defend the decision by essentially complaining that the mandate was making the city’s sports teams less competitive since outside teams didn’t have to be vaccinated to play.
“Hometown players had an unfair disadvantage to those who were coming to visit, It’s unimaginable — treating our performers differently because they lived and played for home teams. Unacceptable. It’s a self-imposed competitive disadvantage,” Adams said during a Thursday presser.
But critics say it’s all about the money.
“I’m not as important as a Met is, because a Met will fill Citi Field, which fills the coffers of New York. They don’t care about little ol’ me, who pays middle-class taxes. The elusive ‘they’ don’t care that I have been out of work and that I have been at my breaking point,” one critic, Harlem resident Elissa Embree, told the New York Post.
Embree is among a growing cohort of angry NYC residents who’ve begun reaching out to lawyers in the hope of suing Adams.
“Scores of workers who got fired for refusing to comply with the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates are eager to sue Mayor Eric Adams over his decision to exempt local pro athletes and performers,” according to the Post.
“This morning alone we have received over 100 different calls asking for our help,” one Staten Island attorney, Louis Gelormino, told the outlet.
He called the mayor’s executive order “shameful” and vowed to “aggressively” pursue legal action — including potentially filing complaints to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission — on behalf of his clients.
“I already got five calls this morning from private-sector employees that were let go because of the mandate and they want to sue the city. I’m going to have them in my office over the weekend,” another attorney, James Mermigis of Long Island, added.
He further called the mayor’s latest move “another slap in the face to regular New Yorkers who just want to earn a living.”
“We are going to allow the $50 million-per-year-salary athletes play on their sports team, but what does the city need more: a healthy Yankee team or a healthy police department? Look at the crime that’s going on in the city. This is absolutely ridiculous and backwards,” he said.
NYC sees a 75% increase in subway crime… they see a 58% increase in street crime. Adams tells athletes and movie stars ‘no masks’ while everyday NY’er’s, police, fire, EMT, teachers etc..MUST wear a mask to protect us….What am I missing?
— Kenny Polcari (@KennyPolcari) March 25, 2022
Mermigis is reportedly also representing 41 New York Police Department officers who’re appealing their terminations. If their appeals fail, they plan to sue as well.
They were fired despite the city suffering from a devastating crime wave. Ironically, the crime wave is so bad that many of the city’s private employees are reportedly considering moving elsewhere, according to a new Morning Consult poll.
“Forty percent of employees who reside in Manhattan said they’re thinking of leaving as did 48% — nearly half — of workers who live in the city’s other four boroughs, the online Morning Consult poll of 9,386 employees found. It was commissioned by the Partnership for The City of New York,” the Post notes.
“Public safety concerns are an obstacle to persuading more employees now working remotely to return to their Manhattan offices. Of those respondents working remotely all or part of the time, 43% cited public safety as their No. 1 concern, followed by 27% who cited exposure to COVID-19.”
Note that NYC is one of a tiny handful of far-left cities that still boast a vaccine mandate. Other cities like Washington, D.C. and Boston have meanwhile forgone a mandate amid a rapid reduction in COVID cases and hospitalizations.
Regarding the mayor’s exemption for athletes, it’s also annoyed the vaccinated, who too allege that all he cares about is the money:
@NYCMayor @NYCHealthCommr The Mayor’s purported C-19 vaccine exemption to athletes/entertainers would be a slap in the face to all of us who got vaccinated to protect ourselves and each other. If true, this is an asinine decision based in economics and not the public good.
— Hemansu Mangal (@Hemansu) March 24, 2022
Very disappointed in Mayor Adams lack of responsibility to protect NYC citizens against COVID. There may be short term profits for a few but will risk the health and well-being of the many.
— Rosemary Abendroth (@rabendroth) March 24, 2022
I’m vaccinated and boosted, but the hypocrisy that our leaders show is incredible. Our wonderful @NYCMayor has chosen money over health. So will he lift this for those more important jobs like Police, Firefighters, Teachers and those in the medical field. https://t.co/w7MQX5FKDI
— L. Arena (@illumimommie) March 24, 2022
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
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