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Hey, do you remember the kids? We used to say things about them like ‘They are the future’, or ‘They should be exposed to the culture’, or even ‘They absolutely should go to school. But over the past 17 months, our society has put children last time and time again. Now New York City is apparently looking to ban them from public spaces altogether.
Announcing a “new approach,” called the “Key-to-NYC Pass,” the mayor ruled that unvaccinated people will not be able to participate in most indoor activities in Gotham.
Hizzoner put it this way: “The key to New York City. When you hear these words I want you to imagine the idea that because someone is vaccinated they can do all of the amazing things that are available in this city. It is a miraculous place, literally full of wonders. And if you are vaccinated, this will all open up to you. You have the key. You can open the door.
The unsaid: children will wait outside the door of this miraculous place of wonders. The mayor’s announcement included no exceptions for children, leaving city parents, as well as potential tourists to New York City, in limbo once again.
When asked about the announcement, Dr Dave A. Chokshi, the city’s health commissioner, gave the impression that children were simply being overlooked in policy making – neglect perfectly in keeping with the way children have been treated throughout the pandemic.
“A lot of them are places where there will be no children involved,” Chokshi said. “For those who may involve children, this is something we need to take into consideration.” Children will be considered after the announcement of a policy whose wording did not take them into account. Understood.
Even before the mayor’s announcement, New York City was starting to close its doors to children. Last week, the Met Opera banned all children under the age of 12 from its performances.
And some restaurants have preventively stopped allowing children to enter. When asked if children could dine indoors after advertising indoor meals for vaccinated people only, Restaurant Frenchette replied to a parent, “Unfortunately, the interior is only vaxxed.”
There is no vaccine for children under 12, it is true. But many studies show that unvaccinated children have the same COVID risks as vaccinated adults. When will it finally be time to follow the science when it comes to kids? (In Europe, where the approach is healthier than ours to begin with, there are expressions of regret about the cruelty of the COVID policy to children: bear witness to the widely viewed video apology from the Bild newspaper to German children for what the COVID hype has done to their lives.)
The problem isn’t limited to restaurants or cultural institutions, although closing them to children should be enough to alert adults that things are horribly wrong. Schools Chancellor Meisha Porter on Tuesday echoed the mayor’s language in a tweet: “Vaccines are our passport out of this pandemic, and each person vaccinated is another person protected from COVID-19. As a parent, I encourage all families who are preparing to return @NYCSchools this fall so that your student aged 12 and over can be vaxxed by August 9.
Parents, even those who have been vaccinated themselves, are understandably reluctant to give the vaccine to children, who probably don’t need it. Again: Children are at minimal risk of contracting the virus and they transmit at a much lower rate than adults. If schooling becomes contingent on immunization status, New York City children will experience another year of educational chaos.
If a city wanted to evict its families, it wouldn’t do things differently than New York has done. We used to understand that families were the key to a successful Big Apple. Now we kick children out of public life as if they were lepers and treat them after the fact.
Parents in New York have a lot going on to raise their kids in the city, but it’s worth it when exposed to unique cultural events or unusual cuisines. Close these opportunities to the little ones and more families will flee the city. Their leaders are already telegraphing them that this is the choice they must make.
Twitter: @Karol
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