Nothing to sneeze at
Businesses fear city, state COV clampdowns
Big Brother is watching. Everything from an employee’s sneeze to a tourist’s vaccination papers are now under the watchful eye of the government thanks to two COVID-19 mandates, one from City Hall and the other from Albany.
New York City’s small businesses, struggling to stay alive in the pandemic, fear they’ll buckle under the added burdens.
“We are finished,” one longtime Manhattan business operator said, lamenting both mandates and the “army of morons” enforcing the city’s vaccination protocols.
“They just want to crush the hell out of small businesses. These are sick people.”
The city’s vaccine mandate, which went into effect Monday, has deputized “thousands” of public employees to roam the city as COVID cops and issue fines of up to $5,000 .
Meanwhile, the Health and Essential, or HERO, Act, which Gov. Hochul quietly implemented earlier this month, places page after page of onerous new demands on businesses statewide — while exempting government agencies.
The act was signed into law in May but took effect only on Sept. 6, when Hochul designated COVID-19 as an airborne infectious disease.
The law micromanages the smallest details of business hygiene, including “sneezing etiquette” and “shaking out soiled laundry,” and empowers workers to sue employers for up to $20,000 for infractions.
“This is another feel-good business mandate with little impact on COVID that some will follow, some will ignore, but all will be subject to a fresh round of violations and lawsuits,” said Councilman Joe Borelli (R-SI).
The state Department of Labor confirmed that the law applies only to private business, and that government agencies are exempt.
The city’s vaccine mandate, meanwhile, faced a backlash from publicemployee unions whose members are now charged with barging into businesses to demand compliance.
The city’s enforcement plan enlists agents from 13 departments.
“Who’ll be watching the parks?” said Joe Puleo, president of District Council 37 Local 983, whose 4,000 members include 350 Parks Enforcement Patrol officers pressed into duty as enforcement agents.
“We already get so many complaints from communities who already don’t feel safe, so the last thing we need to do is get pulled away from parks to inspect private businesses.”
These COVID cops are charged with observing “the business interaction with the customer,” including whether they ask for “proof of identity to match proof of vaccine.”
The inspectors would issue warnings and violations for lack of compliance, according to the city’s 18page enforcement training presentation obtained by The Post.
City Hall brushed aside concerns that COVID inspections will inhibit public safety elsewhere.
“Staying flexible is part of the job of being a public servant, and these agencies are ready for that,” a mayoral spokesperson said.
“It’s not that hard, and it doesn’t require any kind of specialized background to do it right. We’re 100 percent confident in everyone’s ability to do this effectively.”
We are finished. They just want to crush the hell out of small businesses. These are sick people.
— A Manhattan business operator, on two new COVID-19 mandates implemented by City Hall and Gov. Hochul (left)