Minority Leader Carr Q&A: Chokshi on vaccine mandate justification

of the pandemic, bringing them food and groceries, to the way that the vaccination campaign ultimately saved tens of thousands of lives.

But you asked if there was anything that might be done differently in retrospect.

And I think one thing that comes to mind for me is the way in which the virus changed so quickly.

We encountered different variants of the virus that causes COVID-19, and that shifted the way that we had to respond to it.

And so looking back, I think I would have paid even more attention to the ways in which variants can arise, communicated that to the public.

And made sure that we were as nimble as possible because from Alpha to Delta to Omicron, it required slightly different responses of our city.

Thank you for that answer.

I join you in remembering the weight of the loss of those tens of thousands of New Yorkers.

And I think what I hear from mostly from folks looking back now is also the financial pain that that

period brought the lockdowns as well as the mandates and in particular folks who worked in service to the city who no longer do so because of a vaccine mandate

a vaccine mandate that after your tenure as commissioner the CDC published reports saying that it did not actually do anything to stop the spread it certainly contains symptoms I got vaccinated

vaccinated myself, I was happy to make that choice.

But that choice was stripped away from many, many, many city workers who still are fighting to get their jobs back.

So in light of what the CDC said after your tenure as commissioner, is that mandate a decision that you regret being supportive of?

What I can tell you is that the vaccination campaign unequivocally saved lives and prevented suffering.

I'm proud of the fact that we were able to vaccinate over 6 million New Yorkers in a little bit over a year.

And I would say that that required an all hands on deck approach.

You know, I'm proud that New York City was the first major municipality to lower barriers to accessing the vaccine as far as possible.

We were the first place that brought vaccines in people's homes, you know, to ensure that everyone who wanted a vaccine could get one.

We invested tens of millions of dollars in community health workers.

It was the largest city community health worker program to ensure that people could get their questions answered about the COVID-19 vaccine, which all of the science indicates was safe and effective.

And I do believe that the judicious use of vaccine requirements is something that has to stay in the remit of public health, whether it's

vaccine requirements that help our children stay safe in schools or the vaccine requirements that were associated with a once-in-a-generation pandemic?

I think that the issue isn't whether the government should have this power.

The question is whether or not it was used judiciously and correctly in the moment that you were talking about right now.

I think reducing barriers to the vaccine, promoting accessibility, promoting education and information, those are all great things.

I think for the most part, most people should have taken the vaccine.

But ultimately, given that what we know about what was said at the time, which is that this is going to stop the spread, which turned out to not be true.

So it was clearly just a question of a person's individual public, individual health, excuse me.

There was no reason for there to have been a mandate.

And many of those people who chose to be severed from city service and were wrongfully terminated, in my view, are still with us.

They did not succumb to the future variants of the illness.

So they made the correct health bet, but it's cost them in terms of their career and their livelihood.

And so I'm asking you, do you really feel like that that was worth it?

Do you feel like that was the correct decision?

In spite of the fact that the city did not have to surrender its policymaking ability to impose such a mandate in the future.

Yes, and I do understand your perspective.

I will clarify that the best scientific evidence indicates that

Although the vaccine may not completely stop the spread of the virus, it does reduce the risk of transmission.

And that was true even for subsequent variants of the virus.

And perhaps even more importantly, with respect to being able to prevent hospitalizations and deaths, that is absolutely well-founded and supported by evidence as well.

Do you believe that the folks who are looking to return to their jobs at their previous pay and seniority should be allowed to do so at this point?

I believe that that's a matter for the current administration and for the current decision makers.

All I can say is for the decisions that were made during that extraordinarily difficult time, I do stand by them.

I think unfortunately in retrospect it turned out to not be the right call and I think a lot of these folks deserve to be able to return to their jobs.

They were great city workers before and we need good city workers on the city payroll and the workforce.

So we just disagree on this one, but thank you for your candor and thank you chair.

Thank you.