Mayor Wu this morning announced "one more step" in an aggressive battle against Covid-19: Starting Jan. 15, everybody over 12 entering private venues in Boston will have to show proof of Covid-19 vaccination.
The policy applies to both visitors and workers at these locations. Wu added that that is also the deadline for Boston city workers to show proof of vaccination - she is eliminating a current city alternative that lets employees who don't want to get shots to show weekly proof of a negative test.
Under the policy, by Jan. 15, people over 12 who want to eat in a Boston restaurant or go to a theater, gym or sports event will have to show they've gotten at least one shot. After Feb. 15, they will have to show proof of two shots. The age will be lowered to 5 years on March 1.
The same dates apply to city workers, she said. The Boston firefighters union, which has long opposed mandatory vaccination, is already looking at possible legal action.
Wu said some 80% of Bostonians have already gotten one shot; 70% both.
Dr. Bisola Ojikutu, executive director of the Boston Public Health Commission said Covid-19 numbers up 90% over 2 weeks ago, Boston's test positivity rate is now 6.7% and there 369 new diagnoses a day. She said there are 229 people in the hospital, up 60% from 2 weeks ago and that two-thirds of the hospitalized are unvaccinated.
Ojikutu kept speaking even as a small group of protesters entered City Hall's lobby, sang the Star-Spangled Banner then began chanting loudly, their voices amplified far beyond their numbers because the City Hall atrium is a giant echo chamber. They booed when Ojikutu announced the city would be making free rapid test kits available at libraries, community centers and other places.
As outgoing Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone began speaking, they started blowing whistles. Curtatone had to scream about what he and other officials are doing to try to save lives in a state that will soon surpass 20,000 deaths from the virus.
Among the screamer organizers: Tony Federico, who lives nowhere near Boston, but who seems to like to come to Boston to yell. Also among the screamers: Trump-supporting Republican gubernatorial candidate Geoff Diehl. Diehl also doesn't live in Boston.
Boston City Councilor Ed Flynn (South Boston, South End, Chinatown, Downtown) said: "We stand with the mayor and her team today. This is a difficult decision the mayor made, but it's based on science."
The new policy, Wu said, will help reduce the strain on exhausted Boston hospitals - and small businesses, which she said "have been forced to act on their own" for so long.
Vaccinations, she said, remain our strongest tool against Covid-19.
She added that, starting tomorrow, the city will be announcing new vaccination clinics, in particular in minority and low-income neighborhoods, which have continued to lag behind other city neighborhoods in getting shots.
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Comments
Great!
By Michael
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 10:21am
Except that by January 15th, Omicron will have wrapped up with the East Coast and will be busy killing by the truckload in the heartland, but I guess this will help when the next one comes along.
Sadly, it will not help.
By Mjolnir
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 10:28am
They'll probably repeal the policy between the nadir of the Omicron wave and the next variant's emergence like what happened earlier this year between WT/Alpha and Delta.
Not much will help
By BostonDog
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 10:42am
What I'm hearing from friends in other cities (NYC, SF) is that businesses are good about checking for a QR code but don't follow up by checking IDs so it remains an honor system.
Still probably better then ignoring the pandemic like most cities.
Really?
By lbb
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 10:36am
Really? Based on what?
Based on
By Michael
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 10:45am
How fast this is spreading in NY, with Boston and DC probably a few days behind...if everyone gets it in the next week and most of us are vaccinated, there will be a few crappy weeks for a lot of people, some tragic days for a few, and then there won't be anyone left to infect.
But, hey I could be wrong! Covid has taken some exciting twists and turns all along and there could always be more!
Wrong
By SomerVillain
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 10:57am
For the unvaccinated, you’re looking at a winter of severe illness and death for yourselves, your families, and the hospitals you may soon overwhelm.
not really. the majority of
By slowman4130
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 1:11pm
not really. the majority of people (both pre vax availability and now unvaccinated) have minor symptoms unless they have underlying health conditions. Sure there will be outliers, but lets not make it like you will absolutely have severe illness and/or death if you didn't get the vaccine.
Sure,but...
By Kaz
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 1:18pm
I can't look at an unvaccinated person and determine if they're an outlier or not.
But I do know that their likelihood of dying compared to their vaccinated self is much higher and for no reason.
So, they get the same warning because the warning will be right a percentage of the time and the alternative is to get vaccinated and not even need a warning.
fair enough, I don't really
By slowman4130
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 1:51pm
fair enough, I don't really disagree with you myself. I just think at some point the unvaccinated are only putting themselves at risk, and won't have any effect on the majority of people who chose to get vaccinated.
Depends on how many of them there are
By Kaz
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 1:59pm
The more times the virus gets passed around, the more opportunities for it to mutate. That could be fine or it could be detrimental since we already know it has lethal ability.
Look at pre-Omicron numbers. Basically zero breakthrough cases. Now we have a strain that can infect the vaccinated even if the vaccine has given us enough immunity to prevent serious disease and death. It has given the vaccinated the ability to spread the virus again...and it can mutate in ever more people again. The unvaccinated did this.
ADE
By SomerVillain
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 2:01pm
Or ADE.
these mutations have happened
By slowman4130
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 2:29pm
these mutations have happened in parts of the world with low vaccination rates, or pre-vaccination programs, where the majority of the population is susceptible to the virus. Where we are ~80% vaccinated, the likelihood of mutation is probably low or nonexistent.
Not really an argument for people to not get vaccinated, but lets not make it like mutations are the result of those now very few here, who are holding out for whatever reason, tinfoil hat or not. Maybe that's what you meant, but we'd probably be better off beating this pandemic by funding vaccination programs for the parts of the world who are severely lacking, instead of going after our own ~20% or whatever the minority portion may now be. Probably just wishful thinking
He's quoting the President
By Mjolnir
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 1:18pm
From earlier today:
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/press-bri...
Counselor to the President,
By SomerVillain
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 1:35pm
Counselor to the President, but yes
The people that will be
By anon
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 10:26am
The people that will be bearing the brunt of the hatred/backlash for this move are going to be the service industry workers asking people for vax cards at the door
Awww
By SomerVillain
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 3:47pm
They're free to quit if they dont like being mandated to do this.
There it is
By Will LaTulippe
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 4:29pm
The argument for UBI.
I was behind a car with a Yang 2020 sticker today. Wish I could have shaken their hand. New Yorkers are morons who suck at voting.
I object
By emac
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 11:01pm
You can support UBI or the EITC without supporting that clown.
You know that some people
By anon
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 9:17pm
You know that some people less fortunate than yourself (it's obvious from the way you're talking) don't have a choice, right?
Look at this wingnut, thinks
By SomerVillain
Tue, 12/21/2021 - 4:27am
Look at this wingnut, thinks people should have "choices".
The shtick is tired
By lbb
Tue, 12/21/2021 - 10:01am
Move along, Magoo.
I've been called a lot of
By SomerVillain
Tue, 12/21/2021 - 11:33am
I've been called a lot of things in my life, but daaaammnnn dude, I didn't deserve that.
Ok, granted
By lbb
Tue, 12/21/2021 - 4:41pm
OK, granted it was a low blow. But your shtick got tired like three comments back.
Fine, but what constitutes proof?
By CopleyScott17
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 10:34am
The paper card? A scan or photo of the card? Or will our highly educated high-tech hotbed belatedly adopt a smartphone-based solution? The Commonwealth should have done it months ago, of course, but apparently Smilin' Charlie Baker had other priorities.
A photo of your card on your phone will work
By adamg
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 10:44am
The city says "a City of Boston app or any other COVID vaccine verification app" will also work, although there are no further details on a city app.
Ok
By SomerVillain
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 11:31am
Photoshop myself a vaxx card, got it.
sure
By perruptor
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 12:36pm
You go ahead and do that.
Yeah, if you print a card
By SomerVillain
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 12:47pm
It's not a card. It's a picture on a phone. Are they going to confiscate it and call the police? Can they then compel you to unlock & decrypt your phone? Will they just kick you out and you'll have to go see Keney Chesney somewhere else?
We need an app to make sure that everyone has ALL of their shots, be it the four that Fauci is currently hinting at, or however many will be required per year going forward.
Do you know what MIIS is?
By SwirlyGrrl
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 7:12pm
If you don't, then your little act of FREEDUMBassery might land you in court.
If you survive your own stupidity.
It's being a contrarian
By lbb
Tue, 12/21/2021 - 10:02am
Don't bother, it isn't going to do any of these things it's talking about.
mbta
By A
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 10:53am
wish this could be enforced on the T
no thanks
By Cedric
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 12:36pm
That sounds like a nightmare to enforce
Why not just Masks?
By StillFromDorchester
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 11:08am
Seems a bit draconian
when the issue du jour was a mask mandate
By berkleealum
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 11:28am
the cynical folk among us complained that it made no sense for restaurants and bars in particular because you still had to take your mask off to eat and drink.
saying that to say that there’s a certain set of people who are opposed to any form of virus mitigation.
Not any form
By SamWack
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 12:47pm
Just whatever is most successful at the moment. As you point out, when masks were the only defense we had, they were against masks, but now we have vaccines, they don't care about masks, it's vaccination they can't stand.
In reality, they don't care about any of these things at all. It's not masks or vaccination that they hate, it's the people that favor them.
I don't think it should be
By slowman4130
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 1:06pm
I don't think it should be out of line to merely ask a question, as the original commenter did
If masks work so well, and we have a mask mandate, what's the point of the vax mandate other than to act as a punishment? You're just as able to spread it vax or not. Where 80% of the pop is now vaccinated, I'd say you're more likely to get it from a vaccinated person.
I realize I'm arguing against the tide with the people who seem to be foaming at the mouth to get more mandates placed on all of us, but I don't think its out of line to question things.
rhetorical sleight of hand
By berkleealum
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 1:50pm
vaccinated people are not “just as likely to spread” covid 19. im not going to link to anything because that information is readily available.
Once infected, vaccinated
By slowman4130
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 1:55pm
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-ris...
this was a good read
By berkleealum
Tue, 12/21/2021 - 11:16am
for the record, i wasn’t saying that vaccinated people *could not* spread covid. but this is good new (to me) analysis.
let’s also quote from the final few paragraphs of this piece though:
"foaming at the mouth to get more mandates placed on all of us"
By spin_o_rama
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 2:06pm
You kinda gave away the game with that wording.
good point, SamWack
By berkleealum
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 6:40pm
funny enough, the orange man voiced his support for vaccines a few hours ago so i expect the tide to change within the next few weeks anyway
Already changing
By SwirlyGrrl
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 7:14pm
In "purple" zones the unvaccinated are feeling the heat of reality on their necks and lining up for their shots. Maybe some friends have died, maybe their employers are done with their shit, or maybe light is dawning on the darkest stupidity.
He got booed, too
By lbb
Tue, 12/21/2021 - 10:03am
If it's the same event I'm thinking of, apparently he said he'd gotten boosted to a bunch of MAGAts and they booed him. His fee-fees were hurt!
hilarious
By berkleealum
Tue, 12/21/2021 - 11:26am
it may have been the same event - i didn’t actually watch the video, i just read the accompanying [url=https://twitter.com/NoSpinNews/status/147298312060.... but the idea that Trump is now nominally closer to sanity than his followers is … well it’s a lot of things.
Sanity?
By lbb
Tue, 12/21/2021 - 4:43pm
Sanity? Maybe. He's always had a healthy sense of self-interest, and getting boosted definitely goes along with that.
Just masks?
By brianjdamico
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 11:19am
For what exactly? Last time I checked, there was already an indoor mask mandate in the city and had been since late August...
Are those 80%/70%
By geep9
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 11:23am
Numbers a percentage of all residents regardless of age? Did they have a boosted percentage?
Instead of fake IDs showing
By Refugee
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 11:27am
Instead of fake IDs showing they're 21, people will get fake IDs showing they're 12.
Reportedly
By brianjdamico
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 11:31am
it has already been an issue in NYC for those sub-21 year old's using fraudulent identification to obtain alcoholic beverages when the date of birth on their fake ID doesn't match the DOB on their vaccination card that they also have to show at the door.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/young-drinkers-are-p...
Not MA ones!
By eeka
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 12:03pm
Massachusetts RMV stopped issuing state ID cards to anyone under 14 a few years back. I do some work in the gifted and talented community, and have run into this with kids who are 12-13 and must have a photo ID for standardized testing, music competitions, leadership things on university campuses, etc. that are expecting mostly high schoolers who didn't skip grades. They end up having to get a passport and carry that around, upload pictures of it to websites that get confused that it isn't a state ID card, etc.
Also my kids have had friends who look like they might be young adults at 12-13, they go to an event with parents that requires photo ID (not including kids accompanied by parents), and the place won't believe they're 12.
I don't know why the RMV wouldn't just issue IDs to anyone who wants to go there and pay the fee.
Easy
By Will LaTulippe
Tue, 12/21/2021 - 12:27am
Because they're the government, and they don't have to try or care, they can just suck and abuse you at will.
Let's pick this apart
By Will LaTulippe
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 11:30am
Michelle Wu: "THIS IS A HORRIBLE DISEASE AND WE MUST STOP IT NOW"
Also Michelle Wu: "You have 58 days to get 15 days' worth of shots that were offered en masse eight months ago."
I'll drag Michelle Wu every chance I get, but I'll never call her wholly stupid, because she has a cunning streak. This is self-congratulatory window-dressing enforcement. She, like every other Democrat, doesn't care about you. This is a chance for her to pretend that she's actionable. Pat her on the head and move on.
There's a finite number of people who have the balls to enter burning buildings. Maybe we don't pick fights with them. This ain't an overstaffed, do-little police department whom I'm happy to kick to the curb for their vaccine recalcitrance, this is an actual civil service.
Well yeah, we were smart people before she got elected (and yes, I've gotten shots), and we'll be smart people long after she's run off to the private sector for her self-aggrandizement and enrichment.
Whatever happened to "We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone?" Surely, a Democrat didn't factor this into her decision, because again, that would entail the premise that Democrats care about people.
Jesus Christ, what a stupid-ass thing to jeer. Good on Boston for improving access to testing.
It wasn't difficult. She relished the chance to assert dominion over whom she deems her inferiors. You know, folks who work for a living. This is the (expletive) Super Bowl for her.
Says who?
Is that an access problem, or a distrust problem?
i’ve been trying to wrap my head around this “compliance” angle
By berkleealum
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 11:51am
1) what about Wu’s ascendence suggests that she’s angling for the private sector?
2) if she is indeed interested in running off to the private sector, what exactly is her motivation in putting up all this so-called window dressing?
She's not angling
By Will LaTulippe
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 12:22pm
But she'll lose an election at some point.
As for motivation for the window dressing, it's the desire to bully and harass people without provocation. See also the thread from yesterday where Eeka encountered people who supported civil forfeiture.
??
By berkleealum
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 12:33pm
is this like a “actually, the nazis were socialists” thing?
for the record: i supported you in that thread, i just don’t see the relevance here
Democrats don't care about
By anon
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 12:46pm
Democrats don't care about people? Who's the former republican President that killed over 500k Americans for not caring? Who's the former republican president that ignored HIV/AIDS?
Who are ignoring the vax and mask mandates because "my body my choice?"
Who is spreading falsities about the disease and science?
Who gives huge tax boons to the rich and then cuts food stamps, housing, education?
I didn't bring up Republicans
By Will LaTulippe
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 4:30pm
You did.
I'm not a doctor but
By JayF
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 12:24pm
my guess is that misogyny drives people into dark corners and there's no getting them out of there once the pathways have been fused shut. If you have the time to care, you'll notice a pattern of outrage over anything that Mayor Wu promotes versus "okay it kinda makes sense" whenever it's attributed to someone else.
There's no rationale to it, beyond the usual displays of social inadequacy, contempt for women in positions of authority, the need to assert constant superiority, etc. The press conference could've been about enforcing leash ordinances at Medal of Honor Park and the response would've been the same.
I am also not a doctor but I
By Carty
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 6:58pm
I am also not a doctor but I wonder about the mayor being Chinese American as well, she does seem to trigger some deep pathology in the post.
I voted for Pressley
By Will LaTulippe
Tue, 12/21/2021 - 12:29am
And I endorse Yang's UBI above, so the two of you can go play Freud elsewhere.
Every time communities try to
By Anon
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 12:10pm
Every time communities try to claw back services fire fighters respond to the union and their allies fight. It is by choice that they actively get involved in non fire related matters and those matters often bring them right into the lives of vulnerable and ill people. Many are seniors.
If fire fighters are going to be pushy about public health mechanisms like this maybe we should find ways to divorce the service from those non fire related items. Between police activities like flag duty on the street around potholes and fire activities like responding to cats in trees maybe large communities should have a civil engagement corps that drains out those sorts of jobs from the departments.
That way you are only dealing with fire fighters when your life is already in danger so it does not matter if he is not vaccinated and refuses to wear a mask. Can we also address how insane this is. That we have guys who will wear 200 pounds of sealed clothing in a fire but then freak out over a cloth mask over their face while dressed down? How about chemicals these guys come across daily, and the vaccine is the issue?
Finally, life is not perfect but the fire and police union know they have strong benefits. That if they get Covid they will be taken care of. That even if they die of Covid their families are taken care of. Sadly many of those they might infect do not have these lifelines.
I am all for treating these workers like heroes but they have to do the part and be all around heroes. Not just when they pick and choose.
Simple Will
By Kaz
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 12:19pm
Will, how long has Wu been mayor? And how long do you think every business should have to design its process in order to meet whatever requirements are in the rules that get invoked here? And how long do you think ISD will need to put processes in place to enforce these rules? Something like this can't be turned on like a light switch tomorrow.
Also, if the firefighters are such life savers...then how about they get vaccinated to save the community's lives?
Want hospitals to not treat the unvaccinated? You'll have to go back to 1986 and kick Congress and Reagan's ass for putting in place EMTALA. While it is mostly intended to force hospitals to treat people who can't afford treatment, it also forces them to serve anyone with an emergent condition even if that person precipitated their problem. That and the moral obligation of not just letting someone die due to stupid decisions.
Fuck "folks who work for a living". The people choosing not to get vaccinated aren't "folks working for a living" any more than the rest of us. They've just chosen to bastardize public health into identity politics and if eschewing public health is their decision, then they can go without public access or public jobs too.
And for those who are minority and/or low-income who haven't gotten vaccinated, it's both an access and a distrust problem. We can vastly solve the access problem a lot faster than the distrust problem, but you're not going to reduce the distrust unless there's also easy access too.
Kick Reagan's ass?
By Will LaTulippe
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 12:23pm
Don't threaten me with a good time.
Kaz, don't bother
By Parkwayne
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 5:31pm
My cat has a better grasp on politics than Will and the cat spends 80% of his time sleeping and 5% licking his own behind.
I just hope some kindly stranger saves Will when he inevitably gets stuck trying to walk up a down escalator.
My grasp on politics is fine
By Will LaTulippe
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 7:22pm
Members of both the Republican and the Democratic parties are both cancers.
So dumb
By Parkwayne
Mon, 12/20/2021 - 8:31pm
Yes, both the exactly the same. You're a real tough minded free thinker. We. Get. It.
I got free covid tests for my family at the BPS branch near my house today. I assume in your ideal Ron Paul fever dream world, I'd have to pay Epipen prices for them instead? Because freedoms and no government = the best outcome every time? And my 10 year old would be working in a mill somewhere if we couldn't afford to keep him in school? But sure, the boot of the man weighs heavy on the incel triva host...
Incel?
By Will LaTulippe
Tue, 12/21/2021 - 12:35am
I got laid this calendar year. Strike one.
And I'm glad that you get it. Now go tell the rest of the dumb (expletive) national electorate who rewarded the Cheeto with 73 million votes and a failed candidate from 1988 a primary victory in 2020 and then the presidency.
Finally a victory for the free market
By Parkwayne
Tue, 12/21/2021 - 11:53am
You were able to pay someone to have sex with you. Congrats.
Nope
By Will LaTulippe
Tue, 12/21/2021 - 3:58pm
In fact, she was vehement about splitting the check at dinner instead of letting me pay for it.
Oh wow
By lbb
Tue, 12/21/2021 - 4:45pm
High point of the evening, huh?
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