NEW YORK LETTER
The mood was cheerful. This Saturday, August 21, New York youth rushed to the great lawn of Central Park to attend the big summer concert, which was to mark the end of the Covid-19 pandemic. The free tickets had been torn off and those who had none tried in vain, in a game of hide and seek, to find an observation post in the bushes of the park. It was the New York feast of love found.
The concert was in full swing in front of 60,000 vaccinated people, with a performance by singer Barry Manilow when the elements interrupted him. “Please note, due to the approach of extreme weather elements, you are asked to go quickly and calmly to the nearest exit and find shelter”the police suddenly announced, covering the singer’s voice.
The mayor of the city, Bill de Blasio, who hoped this summer to celebrate the end of Covid-19 and the return to normalcy of New York, took the stage and shouted, announcing that he hoped the show could resume. In vain it was canceled, and the tropical storm Henri unleashed a few minutes later in Central Park.
This interrupted concert is a bit of an allegory of a New York which does not manage to turn the page. It was to be the carefree end of the pandemic party, but the Delta variant came to stop the infamous return to normal.
A dreaded UN general assembly
For months, the mayor of the city and the governor of the resigning state, Andrew Cuomo, have struggled to force this return to the world before, as the city has lost more than half a million jobs : in a city where 68% of adults are fully vaccinated, the mandatory wearing of a mask has not been reimposed, unlike decisions taken, for example, in Oregon or Washington State.
The mayor is fighting to impose the compulsory vaccine: it will be for the 148,000 members of the teaching staff from the start of the school year. Gone are the weekly test alternatives. The objective is to prevent the reluctance of parents of unvaccinated children, while New York is undoubtedly the city in the United States which stands out the most for maintaining education as normal as possible for its million students. But we confusedly feel that everything is muddled up: a back-to-school cocktail requires vaccine plus presentation of a PCR test.
Not the United Nations General Assembly, which is supposed to open on the same day, with delegations from all over the world disembarking. “On September 14, thousands of diplomats from nearly 200 countries will arrive in Manhattan for the United Nations General Assembly. The UN does not require vaccination for participants. This will put them and New York City at serious risk. The UN must now announce that vaccination will be compulsory ”, railed Manhattan city councilor Mark Levine on Twitter in mid-August.
You have 47.52% of this article to read. The rest is for subscribers only.
–
