New York City Mayor Lifting Vax Mandates For Athletes

Just a week ago, the news broke that the COVID mandate that bans Kyrie Irving from playing home games in Brooklyn will also effect the Yankees and the Mets. No offense to the Nets, but the Yankees and the Mets carry a bit more political weight in the Big Apple. Now, it looks like the Brooklyn Nets will get their star for the rest of their games, home and away.

According to a BREAKING NEWS report on newsday.com by Matthew Chayes, "Unvaccinated home athletes with be allowed to play in New York City under an exception to the city’s worker vaccination mandate that will be announced Thursday by Mayor Eric Adams, according to a source with knowledge of the plan."

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Chayes said that the new policy, involving athletes and performers in New York City, will take effect on Thursday. This is huge news for the Nets as they have 10 games remaining in the regular season and still have long shot of playing their way out of the NBA Play-In Series.

This is big news for the Mets and the Yankees, as well. The Mets were one of the few Major League Baseball teams that did not reach the 85% of the team vaccinated mark and therefore had more MLB COVID restrictions. The Yankees met that mark but had high profile unvaccinated players.

Newsday.com said that the new policy "was criticized by the top pandemic adviser to previous mayor Bill de Blasio, Dr. Jay Varma, who has opposed previous rollbacks under Adams.“#VaccinesWork … unless you’re rich and powerful, in which case, #LobbyingWorks," Varma tweeted early Wednesday evening."

Every policy will find an opposition. This was a tough law for NYC Mayor Eric Adams to repeal. In February, he fired 1500 New York City workers for not complying with the law. Again, he inherited the law from former Mayor Bill deBlasio. At the same time, New York City residents were dying from the spread of COVID-19. It was not an easy road to get to this decision.