The carrot: Because free Shake Shack fries apparently didn’t change enough minds, the city is trying cold hard cash as a way to convince people to get vaccinated. They’ll be paying New Yorkers $100 to get the Covid-19 shot, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday. Residents and city workers who get their first jab at a city-run vaccine site can get the payment on a prepaid debit card starting Friday.
The stick: Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced a new vaccine mandate for state workers, who will be required to get the shot or submit to weekly testing for the coronavirus. The state rules follow a similar decree by the city earlier this week. “I think we need dramatic action to get control of this situation,” Cuomo said, amid a surge in cases driven by the more contagious Delta variant. A rule covering health care workers who deal with patients at state-run hospitals goes further, requiring vaccination outright with no option to get tested instead.
While Cuomo’s mandate doesn’t apply to the Legislature, both the state Senate and the Assembly say they’ll follow suit and require shots or testing for both lawmakers and staff. So will the state court system, its chief judge said. Some private employers are adopting a harder line: the Durst Organization says employees not vaccinated by Labor Day will be fired.
Neither de Blasio nor Cuomo, however, have immediate plans to reimpose mask mandates after the CDC said vaccinated people should again wear them in higher-risk…
