Commenting Tuesday about the vaccine mandate unveiled earlier in the day by New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, Acting Mayor of Boston Kim Janey -- the first woman and black Bostonian to hold the office -- said “there’s a long history” in the United States of people “needing to show their papers.” de Blasio's rule requires proof of vaccination NYC to enter indoor restaurants, entertainment venues and gyms starting on Sept. 13.
The mayor of Boston said the city won’t be following New York’s lead, claiming the move is reminiscent of “slavery” and birtherism.
“During slavery, post-slavery, as recent as, you know, what the immigrant population has to go through here, we’ve heard Trump with the birth certificate nonsense,” Janey said. “Here, we want to make sure that we are not doing anything that would further create a barrier for residents of Boston or disproportionally impact BIPOC communities.”
Janey said the city instead “wants to lean in heavy” on partnering with community groups to ramp up Boston’s vaccination rate.
"As it relates to people who want to encourage their workforce to get vaccinated, we certainly support that,” Janey added.
Sixty-six percent of Bostonians had received at least one dose of the vaccine.
“That is good progress,” Janey said. “We have much more work to do to make sure that everyone can get the vaccine and we will continue to focus on that.”
The left-wing mayor took office in March when Marty Walsh resigned to become President Joe Biden’s labor secretary.
“That is good progress,” Janey said. “We have much more work to do to make sure that everyone can get the vaccine and we will continue to focus on that.”
But Janey said a mandate like New York’s would be “difficult” to enforce. Her comments drew harsh rebukes from some of her opponents in November’s upcoming mayoral election.
Janey responded to the criticism later Tuesday while at a block party, the Boston Globe reported.
“What I said was there is a long history of asking people to show their papers,” Janey explained. “What our focus here in Boston is in making sure that everyone has access to the vaccine, making sure that we are doing everything to vaccinate our workforce in the city of Boston, making sure that our residents have access to the vaccine.”
Janey said there’s no current plans for vaccine mandates at businesses despite a recent rise in the Chinese coronavirus cases in Boston due to the so-called Delta variant.