Editorial: Mask up again: Inching toward re-masking and stiffer vaccination mandates

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio had a week to consider the CDC recommendation that “fully vaccinated people wear a mask in public indoor settings in areas of substantial or high transmission” of COVID-19, as the quickly spreading delta variant has necessitated a change. Despite plenty of time, the mayor and his health commissioner are only recommending the recommendation. The formal legal term is “ducking.”

It’s our recommendation, too, but unlike the Health Department, we don’t have the ability to issue a mandate, which is the best way to boost compliance. New Yorkers have plenty of experience with COVID-19, and those wise enough to get vaccinated (de Blasio just marked 10 million doses) are already putting their masks back on inside. City Hall’s decree would only help.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo says he agrees with the CDC, but he can’t impose a new mask rule can’t unless the Legislature gives him that power, which they’re not going to do. For a year, de Blasio wanted authority returned to local control from Albany. He has it. Now use it; requiring masking now will increase the chances that this COVID-19 wave passes more quickly, and we can go back to bare faces indoors again soon.

On vaccines, both the mayor and governor have urged private employers require the shot (as has President Biden), but they’ve only taken small steps towards that goal with their own workforces, settling for a weaker vax-or-weekly-test option, about which some unions still balked. Cuomo did go the whole way of mandatory vax with the limited number of people working with patients in state-run health hospitals.

De Blasio was correct to issue an executive order requiring that every new employee get vaccinated or provide legitimate evidence of medical or religious exemption. If it’s good enough for new cops and new firefighters and new teachers, it’s good enough for those who started working last week or last year or decades ago. It’s an easy slogan, especially for employees interacting with the public and unvaccinated kids: No jab, no job.