The teachers union that represents more than 60,000 current and retired educators across New York reiterated its opposition Monday to COVID-19vaccine mandates after Gov. Andrew Cuomo encouraged school districts to require the doses.
The New York State United Teachers released a statement following Cuomo’s COVID-19 briefing in which he said teachers in the state should be required to get the vaccine or submit to weekly testing if they are in an area defined as high-risk by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“I think they should say that today to the teachers in this current situation,” he said.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo discusses the wearing of masks as he speaks at a news conference, in New York, in this May 27, 2021 file photo. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, Pool, File)
The union said it has advocated easy access to vaccines for teachers but stopped short of endorsing a mandatory vaccine requirement.
“We would support local efforts to encourage more vaccinations, such as through programs that require that those who are not vaccinated get tested on a regular basis,” the union said. “But it’s critical that districts come up with plans to make testing available on-site and at no cost. What we have not supported is a vaccine mandate.”
Fox News has reached out to the union and Cuomo’s office.
Last week, Cuomo announced that state employees will be required to get vaccinated by Labor Day or get weekly COVID-19 tests. The mandate comes amid a spike in COVID-19 cases in New York and other states.
On Monday, he also repeated calls for private businesses to require vaccinations
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Kate Coyne-McCoy, the chief strategist of the Rhode Island Democratic Party, faced swift criticism late Monday over a tweet about Sen. Lindsey Graham’s COVID-19 diagnosis.
The Republican from South Carolina—who had been fully vaccinated—announced earlier in the day that he came down with flu-like symptoms on Sunday. He said he was diagnosed with the virus on Monday by the House physician. His symptoms are mild and he said he will be quarantining for 10 days.
Coyne-McCoy took to Twitter and posted, “It’s wrong to hope he dies from Covid right? Asking for a friend. #COVIDISNOTOVER #LINDSEYGRAHAM,” she posted.
Even at a time when the political divide in the country seems like it could not get any deeper, posts hinting at the death of a political opponent seem to cross an imaginary line of civility. But individuals who tweet out these posts have often weighed the risks and have determined that they play to their base.
The Rhode Island Democrats and Coyne-McCoy did not immediately respond to after-hours emails from Fox News. The tweet was initially screengrabbed by a reporter from the Free Beacon.
In March, Rhode Island Public Radio called the hiring of Coyne-McCoy, a registered lobbyist, a “clear signal” that the state’s Democratic Party was intent on moving to the left. The report said that while she is not the party’s executive director, she “will be the person responsible for leading the party’s political efforts.”
When former President Trump was diagnosed with COVID-19 last year, many Democrats seemed to put politics aside and sent the president well wishes. But some of his notable detractors seemed to view the infection as a political vulnerability during the 2020 election and used it to describe him as reckless.
Graham has been an advocate for the vaccines and received his jabs in December. He said during a visit this spring to the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston that “the sooner we get everybody vaccinated, the quicker we can get back to normal.”
Gene Sperling, who leads the oversight for distributing funds from President Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus rescue package, speaks during the daily White House press briefing Monday, as White House press secretary Jen Psaki looks on.
Susan Walsh/AP
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Gene Sperling, who leads the oversight for distributing funds from President Biden’s $1.9 trillion coronavirus rescue package, speaks during the daily White House press briefing Monday, as White House press secretary Jen Psaki looks on.
Susan Walsh/AP
The White House on Monday urged state and local governments to step up to prevent evictions, after a federal moratorium expired over the weekend.
Democratic allies have called on the Biden administration to extend the federal pause on evictions, but the White House maintains that its hands are tied by a June Supreme Court ruling.
Gene Sperling, a White House adviser, told reporters Monday that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — which initially established the moratorium as a result of the coronavirus pandemic — had not found the legal authority to further extend the eviction measure.
“Given the rising urgency of the spread of the delta variant, the president has asked all of us, including the CDC, to do everything in our power, to look for every potential legal authority we can have to prevent evictions,” Sperling said.
But, he added: “To date, the CDC director and her team have been unable to find the legal authority, even for a more targeted eviction moratorium, that would focus just on counties with higher rates of COVID spread.”
His comments came after Congress failed to pass a last-minute extension of the federal eviction moratorium beyond Saturday’s expiration date. Democratic congressional leaders have called on Biden to extend the moratorium through Oct. 18, but the White House said it was unable to do so, citing a Supreme Court ruling that said Congress needed to act on any further eviction bans.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who has pressed the White House to extend the eviction ban, reservedly cheered the administration’s messaging Monday.
“The Administration’s statement that they will be taking action to find legal authority by the CDC or other authorities to extend the moratorium is welcome,” she said in a statement. “For the good of families on the verge of eviction, my Democratic House colleagues and I are hopeful that this initiative to extend the moratorium will be successful as soon as possible.”
Billions in aid hasn’t been disbursed
Sperling on Monday said President Biden had requested that state and local governments extend or pass eviction moratoriums to cover until the end of summer.
Sperling said that already some state and local governments had enacted their own legislation to prevent evictions, protecting a third of the nation’s renters beyond the federal halt.
He said the White House had implored other states and localities to follow suit.
The administration has also reiterated that billions of dollars in aid that was funded by Congress is available for rental assistance.
“There is no excuse for any State or locality not to promptly deploy the resources that Congress appropriated to meet the critical need of so many Americans,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement.
She added: “This assistance provides the funding to pay landlords current and back rent so tenants can remain in their homes or apartments, not be evicted. No one in America should be evicted when Federal funds are available, in the hands of State and local government, to pay back rent due.”
Psaki particularly focused on the rise of the delta variant, which has caused a national spike in COVID-related hospitalizations, but said that the Supreme Court had crippled the CDC’s ability to aid those suffering from housing insecurity in the virus’s wake.
Sperling said that on Monday, Biden had asked government agencies, including the Agriculture and Treasury departments, to see to it that those who benefit from government-backed mortgages should not seek evictions without first seeking rental assistance, which can fund up to 18 months of rent and utilities.
At least 70% of adults in the US have now received at least one Covid-19 vaccination shot, the White House announced on Monday, reaching a target Joe Biden originally said he had hoped to achieve by 4 July.
The administration reported the news in a tweet hailing “Milestone Monday” by Cyrus Shahpar, the government’s Covid-19 data director, who said the seven-day average of people receiving their first dose – 320,000 – was the highest since the Independence Day holiday.
Health and government officials have in recent days painted the resurgence of coronavirus as a “pandemic of the unvaccinated”, highlighting that areas of the country with the most spread were those with lower than average vaccination rates, and almost all hospitalizations and deaths are now among those declining to be vaccinated.
“Communities that are fully vaccinated are generally faring well,” Dr Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said, noting that “breakthrough” infections in vaccinated people were rare.
But with unvaccinated people increasingly at risk, Walensky said at the White House coronavirus team briefing on Monday: “While we desperately want to be done with this pandemic, Covid-19 is clearly not done with us, and so our battle must last a little longer.”
The US is seeing an average of 72,000 new cases of Covid-19 per day, higher than last summer’s surge, when vaccines were still in development and new daily cases reached 68,700, according to the CDC. Cases remain a lot lower than the pandemic peak of early January 2021, which saw more than 250,000 new cases a day as vaccines were starting to become more widely available.
On Monday, a state-by-state study published by the Kaiser Family Foundation revealed that less than 1% of fully vaccinated people experienced a breakthrough infection, ranging from 0.01% in Connecticut to 0.9% in Oklahoma.
Additionally, more than 90% of all cases, and more than 95% that resulted in hospitalizations or deaths, were among unvaccinated people, the study found.
Figures published by the CDC on Monday added that 49.7% of the US population who were eligible were now fully vaccinated, and that demand for the shots had increased by 28% from a week ago to reach a new daily average of 673,185 vaccinations administered.
A senior Biden administration official said on Friday that the White House was frustrated by what it saw as “alarmist” reporting by some media outlets over the Delta variant, and was worried that coverage of rare breakthrough cases could lead to more vaccine hesitancy.
The president had said he wanted the country to reach 70% at least partially vaccinated by the early July holiday, but the White House coronavirus response coordinator, Jeff Zients, admitted in June that the country would need “a few extra weeks” because of reluctance by those aged 18 to 26 to get a shot.
The pandemic, meanwhile, continued to bite around the US on Monday.
In Florida, the nation’s current Covid-19 hotspot, which accounts for one on five new cases, hospitals are experiencing what one official described as a “horrifying” surge in younger patients. That included many under 12, too young to be eligible for the vaccine, and teenagers who are eligible but have chosen not to take it.
The rise in pediatric hospitalizations came as the state continues to lead the nation in new infections, having set records over the weekend for both the highest number of daily cases and hospital admissions since the pandemic hit the US in January 2020.
It was also alarming education chiefs, including the superintendent of the country’s fourth largest school district, Miami-Dade, who is considering defying a ban on mask mandates imposed by Florida’s governor, Ron DeSantis, last week.
Schools in the county return from the summer break on 23 August and Alberto Carvalho said his district would “follow the science” in determining whether to require staff and students to wear masks.
“We have been a district that’s well informed by science, by medical experts and public health experts and that will not change,” the superintendent told the Miami Herald’s editorial board. The district’s advisers include Vivek Murthy, the US surgeon general, who graduated high school in Miami.
Pediatric hospitals are reporting higher numbers of admissions as the highly contagious Delta variant of Covid-19 spreads, according to the Florida Hospital Association (FHA).
“What you heard last spring about this virus mostly targeting seniors and those with pre-existing conditions is not true today,” said Mary Mayhew, the group’s president and chief executive.
“The virus has a new target, the unvaccinated and younger people. Previously healthy people from their teens to their 40s are now finding themselves in the hospital and on a ventilator.”
The mayor of Broward county, Steve Geller, said on Monday that the sharp rise in cases and hospital admissions was worrying.
“Unfortunately, Dade and Broward counties lead the nation in hospitalizations. The numbers are doubling every 10 or 11 days, this is horrifying,” he told Miami’s ABC News affiliate.
At least 33 hospitals in Florida reported “critical staffing shortages” on Monday, the Associated Press reported, with Miami’s Jackson Memorial hospital adding 58 intensive care beds to cope with the Covid-19 surge.
The US Department of Health and Human Services said 10,389 patients were hospitalized with Covid-19 in Florida on Monday. Several counties said they were adding testing sites.
Other states, especially Mississippi and Louisiana, were also reporting upswings in cases and hospital admissions.
White House officials on Monday described a behind-the-scenes scramble over the weekend to locate any legal avenue for the administration to continue barring evictions.
The effort ultimately came up short, the officials said, leaving millions of renters in the lurch and exposing a rare divide with Democratic members of Congress.
“I don’t think this means this President is going to give up,” said Gene Sperling, the White House official responsible for managing coronavirus relief efforts, during an afternoon briefing. “I think he’s going to keep looking, keep pushing.”
Still, Sperling and other White House officials made clear that even after renewed examination, the President’s authority to continue banning evictions was limited. Instead, the White House said it was working to prevent a major housing crisis by calling on states to accelerate rental assistance payments and pass their own laws banning evictions.
But a disconnect with Congress was still evident, as Democratic leaders continued to call on Biden to extend the moratorium even though his administration made clear he lacks the legal authority to do it.
The back-and-forth exposed a rare divide between President Joe Biden and members of his party and led to veiled accusations of who was to blame. An estimated 11.4 million adult renters are behind on rent, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Legal aid groups have said the ban’s expiration caused a flood of calls from tenants fearing imminent eviction.
Progressive Democrats, some of whom camped out of the steps of the Capitol to bring attention to the issue, said it was Biden’s fault for throwing the matter on Congress 60 hours before the moratorium expired. They have questioned why he is unwilling to extend the ban in the face of an unfavorable Supreme Court ruling.
The White House, while not explicitly blaming congressional leaders, insisted the parameters of the situation have been evident to everyone since late June, when the court ruled further extensions of the freeze would require Congress’ backing. And they accused the Trump administration of leaving them unworkable guidelines for distributing rental assistance that has bottle-necked at the state level without reaching those who need it.
Underpinning everything, administration officials said, is the recent spike in Covid-19 cases caused by the highly contagious Delta variant, which lent fresh urgency to keeping people in their homes and not in settings where the outbreak could be exacerbated, like shelters or on the street.
Biden himself did not respond to shouted questions about the eviction issue when he returned midday Monday to the White House from Camp David. Vice President Kamala Harris, visiting the Senate Monday afternoon, sidestepped a question about why the administration won’t extend the eviction moratorium administratively.
“It’s an important issue. Very important issue,” she said.
The episode, which has yet to be resolved, underscored the ways the recent spike in Covid-19 cases upended Democrats’ agenda after the pandemic appeared to be waning just a month ago.
Originally conceived as an emergency health measure to prevent the spread of coronavirus, the eviction moratorium was not a major public priority until last Thursday, when the White House said Biden would be forced to allow it to expire rather than challenging the Supreme Court’s ruling.
That left almost no time for Democratic lawmakers to pass legislation to extend the eviction ban and caused many to accuse the White House of blindsiding them with the responsibility.
“We thought the White House was in charge,” Rep. Maxine Waters, who sponsored a measure to extend the moratorium, said over the weekend.
Even after the moratorium expired at midnight Sunday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi continued to publicly press the administration to extend it, despite clear indications from the White House it wasn’t legally feasible. She called it a “moral imperative.”
At the White House, officials spent the weekend debating the scope of Biden’s ability to extend the moratorium, despite an earlier determination by the White House counsel’s office that doing so could risk a more harmful ruling down the line limiting the administration’s ability to enact other emergency public health rules.
Some on Biden’s team pressed internally for a reexamination of the legal determination over the past week, but White House lawyers said there was no gray area in the decision.
“We spent a lot of time looking at it. The Supreme Court ruling is very clear,” one official told CNN.
On Sunday, Biden asked the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to explore their own legal options for a narrower eviction ban only in areas with high rates of Covid-19 transmission. But the agency came back a day later to say they did not believe such authority existed.
By Monday afternoon, Sperling insisted Biden was still “kicking the tires” on his authorities for extending the freeze on evictions, even as the White House called on state governments to pass their own moratoria. Sperling also downplayed the likelihood that the President could convince administration lawyers to change their determination on his legal options.
“He has double, triple, quadruple checked,” said Sperling, underscoring that while Biden continues to explore his own authorities, state governments should work harder to distribute billions in unused housing relief dollars.
So far only a small percentage of the $47 billion program has been disbursed, a shortfall the White House has pinned on states it says have been too slow to act.
“If some states and localities can get this out efficiently and effectively, there’s no reason every state and locality can’t,” Sperling said. “There’s simply no excuse, no place to hide for any state or locality that is failing to accelerate the emergency rental assistance fund.”
Of course, you could bring the COVID-19 vaccine card verifying those details with you, which brings not only the annoyance of carrying it everywhere (try fitting that into a wallet), but the fear you wind up losing it.
Thank goodness we have something else in our pockets that can assist: our smartphones. Here are a few ways you can keep your vaccine card handy:
Seriously, that’s it. If you go this route, consider placing it in a hidden album so it can’t be viewed from your library. This also avoids the awkward scenario of having to scroll through the abyss of your camera roll to pull up your vaccine card.
On an iPhone, after you take a picture of your card, go to the Share button on Photos, then select Hide. The image will be placed in a Hidden album you can find by tapping Albums, then scrolling to Utilities.
If you use a Google Pixel or Samsung Galaxy smartphone, you can create locked folders to store your COVID vaccine card.
Scan it to your smartphone
If you’re using an iPhone, scanning your COVID card using the Notes app adds a little more security. To do this, start a new note, then tap on the camera. Go down to Scan Document and add your card with the built-in scanner. You can then choose to lock it with a passcode. Any time you tap on the note, it will ask you to type a passcode to view.
There’s the app option
Some state governments have launched apps where users can access their vaccine card information. For those who live in New Jersey, for example, the state has the Docket app where residents can view their vaccination status. And for New Yorkers the Excelsior pass provides residents quick access.
There are other digital options, too. In June, Walmart announced it would provide access to digital COVID records through Walmart and Sam’s Club accounts.
Meanwhile, the service VaxYes allows users to add their vaccine card information and have it transformed into a digital passport which can be added to wallets on Google Pay or Apple Wallet. The company says all data is encrypted and its service is compliant with HIPAA, which governs how health care professionals must store and protect your data.
As of Monday, the language hasn’t been finalized, and there’s still time to fix it before it is, or even through a later bill, according to Kristin Smith, executive director of the Blockchain Association, a crypto trade association that works to change public policy at the federal level.
Bitcoin fell more than 5% Monday, and ether lost 1.8%, according to Coin Metrics, with some of the uncertainty around the bill weighing on sentiment.
The biggest worry is that the language would “detract people from wanting to invest or participate in crypto networks in the United States,” Smith told CNBC.
Jake Chervinsky, a lawyer experienced in crypto-related securities litigation and government enforcement defense matters who is now general counsel at the decentralized finance (DeFi) firm Compound Labs, said it would also be detrimental to existing businesses that would be unable to comply.
“In practice, your only options would be to shut down or move offshore,” Chervinsky said. “That’s what this bill threatens to do to U.S. crypto companies by forcing them to report information to the IRS that they don’t have and can’t get.”
What does crypto have to do with infrastructure?
Because the infrastructure bill is so expensive, it has to include a huge number of “pay-fors” – or provisions in a bill that generate revenue for the government to offset new spending in other parts of the bill – to keep it revenue neutral and ultimately get support of Republicans in the Senate, Chervinsky explained.
“Crypto is less a target of the bill and more an innocent bystander caught in the crossfire of the broader politics surrounding it,” he said.
Lau said Congress is being “very smart” about it.
“If they want more money, they just opened the net to include more companies so their tax revenue can increase to more than the $28 billion they are looking for,” he said.
The language wouldn’t affect centralized exchanges like Coinbase, or other public companies where consumers can buy cryptocurrencies like Robinhood, Square and PayPal. As public companies they have clearly identified customers and work with them on reporting requirements due to the IRS.
Still, “they’re strongly opposed to the crypto pay-for provision because they know it could wreak havoc on the broader crypto markets, which would damage their business as well,” Chervinsky said.
Coinbase, for example, spent $80 million earlier this year to acquire Bison Trails to power its staking service. Much of the company’s revenue is based on trading fees but CEO Brian Armstrong has said he expects to diversify those revenue streams, which includes beefing up its staking offerings.
Smith said the goal of having reporting for centralized exchanges is a worthy one the Blockchain Association supports so long as it’s limited to the appropriate companies.
Bitcoin miners, who also don’t have customers whose information they can report, could get hurt too if the bill passes with the existing language deeming them brokers. That’d be a blow to the sector, which has been keen to take more market share after the Chinese crackdown on mining that moved more than half of bitcoin’s mining operations out of China, much of it to the U.S.
“We haven’t given up hope that this can get fixed yet,” Smith said Monday afternoon. “There’s definitely a pretty intense advocacy effort going on to get that changed.”
Instead, critics questioned why the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the Cuomo-controlled agency that owns the bridges, would spend money on optics while complaints about extensive, nearly daily subway delays and shoddy service escalated in 2017 during what became known as the “Summer of Hell” for public transit riders.
Explanations from Cuomo’s administration about how the project would be paid for shifted repeatedly and the endeavor was quietly halted, with no signs of movement half a decade after its inception.
Now, newly released documents reviewed by POLITICO show for the first time that taxpayers spent $106 million on the project, including about $37 million for LED lights. Those 4-year-old lights are still sitting in a warehouse, with no immediate practical use in mind after the project appeared to be left for dead.
“It’s terrible that we blew $106 million of taxpayer money on a project that never should’ve gotten off the drawing board,” said state Sen. Liz Krueger, the chair of the Senate Finance Committee and a leading Democratic lawmaker. “I’m still happy the project did not go forward.”
But after POLITICO asked about the plans and the money that had been spent, Cuomo spokesperson Rich Azzopardi said on Friday the endeavor would still happen — and cited tourism dollars from bridge lightings in San Francisco as evidence of the potential benefits, as well as attractions in London, Montreal, Paris and Philadelphia.
“This project will drive tourism — helping to rebuild an incredibly important part of New York’s economy that was destroyed by this pandemic — and make New York an even more dynamic place to live and open a business,” Azzopardi said in a statement. He said it was “no secret” that Covid-19 and other infrastructure plans “took precedence, but we continue to be excited about the Harbor of Lights project and intend to see it through.”
Krueger, told of the governor’s desire to resurrect the project, said she doesn’t believe “it’s a very good use of the public’s money” and doesn’t “believe the process was kosher.” She worries, if the project actually happens, the lights will be disruptive to New York City residents.
“They didn’t remember that stupid idea until you came along,” Krueger said in an interview Friday.
Cuomo has a penchant for focusing on aesthetics and getting involved in the minute details of the New York mega projects he takes up as his own. The three-term governor has likened himself to a latter-day Robert Moses — boasting of his track record on building big things, like the Mario M. Cuomo bridge over the Hudson River and the Moynihan Train Hall in Manhattan.
But as Cuomo faces multiple investigations related to misconduct allegations and other scandals tied to his administration, including one that could lead to his impeachment, a growing number of his legacy-boosting infrastructure projects seem to be ending in embarrassment — or bigger trouble.
This isn’t the first time taxpayers have been on the hook for problematic projects ostensibly intended to boost New York’s tourism profile. The state spent millions of dollars installing “I LOVE NEW YORK” tourism signs along highways only to be informed by federal officials that they were illegal and had to be removed. Cuomo was also reportedly involved in changing the tile color on MTA tunnels mid-stream at a multimillion-dollar cost.
And then there’s the Mario Cuomo Bridge. Cuomo’s inaugural ride across the new span, which replaced the Tappan Zee bridge and is named for his father, took place with much fanfare but no acknowledgement of an ongoing investigation into alleged structural issues
For the bridge lighting project, the effects went beyond the cost of the equipment that was never used. The effort took so long to reach a conclusion that a key agency involved in the undertaking — the New York Power Authority — had to carry the project’s costs for years, leaving it without the ability to sell long-term public bonds, according to a former official.
The agency, known as NYPA, says the bridge project was well within its mandate.
“This economic development and energy-efficiency project is part of a larger, transformational plan to reimagine New York’s bridges and tunnels for the 21st century, and it was put on hold as other projects took priority and the pandemic caused further disruptions,” NYPA spokesperson Sue Craig said in a statement on the project, which was put on hold long before the pandemic.
“We remain committed to working with our partners in government to invest strategically to modernize our infrastructure, improve transportation, and advance cutting-edge technology and innovation that benefits all New Yorkers and our economy,” Craig said.
The lack of transparency and approval from either the NYPA or MTA boards raises serious concerns, said John Kaehny, the executive director of watchdog group Reinvent Albany. He said the Legislature should investigate the “secret expenditure” and the issue should be part of the Assembly’s ongoing impeachment investigation.
“This is something that popped out of the governor’s forehead,” Kaehny said. “So do you have a functioning democracy if you have a governor that can just call up an agency and order them to spend $37 million off budget?… That’s authoritarian.”
The free spending on a project with no practical purpose stands in sharp contrast to Cuomo’s recent grousing over the Gateway Program, which includes a plan to rebuild the Hudson River rail tunnel that he and others have said is a critical necessity for the regional economy.
The project was delayed for years while President Donald Trump was in the White House. But now that it’s time to move forward with a friendlier federal government, Cuomo seems to have some qualms on New York’s share of the bill for the $13 billion new tunnel.
“If the federal government wants to do stupid, they can do stupid with their money,” Cuomo said recently, after years of pressing the Trump administration for action on Gateway. “But we’re not going to do stupid with our money.”
Shifting explanations
The Power Authority, which runs the state’s hydropower dams and has a strong cash flow, oversaw Cuomo’s bridge lighting project thanks to the energy solutions it provides customers.
The Power Authority offers energy efficiency services to government entities it supplies power to — including design, construction and installation of LED lighting to lower energy bills. The MTA was and is a NYPA customer, getting low-cost electricity and employing the agency as it tries to cut energy usage with more efficient lights.
NYPA relies on contractors to get the work done, pays the up-front costs and then charges its customers a fee and a low interest rate to pay off the capital cost over several years. The usual goal is to have the investments lower monthly energy bills enough to provide a net savings.
But the flashy bridge lights wouldn’t save any money for the MTA, which already worked with NYPA to install more efficient LEDs on its bridges. NYPA has also helped finance other big Cuomo projects without a strong efficiency payback — including some funding for lights and screen displays at the Moynihan Train Hall, a former post office turned into an extension of Penn Station.
“I suspect when the governor was looking for a project that was never budgeted, he found extra money in NYPA, it’s often been a bank for special projects,” Krueger said. “Do I think that’s how any state funds should be spent? No, I think there should be a more transparent and participatory process.”
As questions about the lighting project’s costs and wisdom were raised, the governor’s administration offered changing explanations about how NYPA would be repaid for the Harbor Lights.
The governor first announced the light show plan in October 2016. The president of MTA Bridges and Tunnels signed off on $6 million to design the project in December.
No subsequent agreements to cover repayment were signed by MTA officials. NYPA moved forward under “a standing energy efficiency master service agreement, established in the early 1990s,” Craig said.
In January 2017, NYPA trustees were told at a board meeting that MTA would ultimately pay for the project.
The lack of a concrete repayment agreement did not stop NYPA from having its contractor, construction firm LiRo, move forward with work on the light display. Invoices show subcontractors performed electrical work on the bridges in 2017. Lights were ordered from Phillips in March.
The MTA, beleaguered by service problems and other pressing capital demands, said in July 2017 the project was “definitively NOT being paid for by the MTA,” according to a spokesperson at the time.
Then the story shifted again: Empire State Development, the state’s umbrella economic development corporation, would provide the funds because the flashing lights would be a major tourist attraction. In December 2017, a NYPA spokesman said funding would come from “state infrastructure and economic development funds.”
The bridge lights were linked to other work being done on MTA’s bridges, including cashless tolling and security towers that drew scrutiny and outcry from board members because of the lack of information provided to them. A NYPA spokesperson said at the time the authority was also doing work on a conduit system for security purposes.
The state Authorities Budget Office reviewed the matter following complaints and provided fiduciary training to MTA board members.
Repayment issues
The lack of clarity on how NYPA would be reimbursed for the $100 million spent on the unfinished project had consequences, according to one former NYPA official. The burden effectively froze the agency’s long-term financing.
Former NYPA Treasurer Genevieve Fabela said employees were prohibited from discussing the magnitude of the bridge light costs externally.
From 2017 to 2019, the agency could not issue any public bonds because it could not meet the disclosure requirements, Fabela wrote in an email. She discussed the issue with POLITICO prior to settling an employment lawsuit against the authority.
“It was a known issue to our banking counterparties who constantly asked us when we were planning to come to market for a new debt issuance,” Fabela said. “We had expensive, callable debt on our books that were up for refinancing. For my entire time as treasurer I had to tell a story for why we weren’t coming to market.”
NYPA finally issued $1 billion in bonds in 2020. Before that, the last time it offered long-term bonds was in 2015. NYPA has plans for more major capital investments.
Craig said the authority disclosed the project in financial reports and other securities transactions, noting the authority did issue some debt during the preceding years. But NYPA only used shorter-term notes with lower disclosure requirements during that time, according to documents.
The authority used a portion of the 2020 bond revenues to pay off older, higher interest debt and recently issued short-term borrowings, according to financial statements.
“There’s much less due diligence and discovery” for short-term commercial paper, Kaehny said. “With the regular bond rating, they have much, much more stringent disclosure requirements.”
Kaehny said short-term borrowing also comes in much smaller amounts. He said the spending on the lighting projects raises questions about the independence and internal controls of NYPA. If it prevented NYPA from moving forward with capital investments, that’s also a major issue, he said.
“It’s about jamming up the Power Authority, which is one of the most important agencies to fight global warming,” he said.
NYPA continued to make capital investments in its hydropower plants and transmission system over the last few years, and increased funding for its energy efficiency programs as well. NYPA was fully repaid for the Harbor Lights project from state infrastructure and capital funds, with the last transfer made in early 2021, Craig said. State Division of Budget spokesperson Freeman Klopott confirmed the repayment.
Cuomo’s cost escalation
Cuomo’s engagement in the bridge lighting project is evident from the early days of its conception. His office pushed to accelerate completion of the project and keep it on a strict timeline — at one point even moving the deadline up four months from June 2018 to February 2018.
LiRo, NYPA and the MTA presented design and cost options for the bridges to the governor’s office in January 2017. Less than a week later, NYPA received approval from the governor’s office to move ahead with a more expensive design for three of the bridges, according to the documents.
The decision increased the estimated cost by roughly $80 million — from $138 million to $216 million. That number was expected to increase even more to meet the accelerated timeline.
Cuomo officials sought to downplay the $216 million estimate confirmed in the newly released documents at the time. An internal estimate reported by POLITICO at the time was even higher — more than $350 million.
Thousands of pages of invoices, purchase orders and work orders show that LiRo and its contractors performed many hours of design, engineering and ultimately construction work on the MTA’s bridges before the project was put on hold.
With mounting questions and criticism of the bridge lighting project, NYPA ordered its lead contractor LirRo to cancel the lighting order from Phillips in July 2017.
This led to a dispute the parties — NYPA, LiRo and Phillips — ultimately settled by having some of the equipment repurposed and the rest, now owned by NYPA, transferred to a warehouse, according to a December 2017 letter. NYPA, through LiRo, ultimately paid Phillips about $37 million for several thousand lights and related equipment.
NYPA has since paid $770,000 to store the material, Craig said in an email response to questions.
The fate of these thousands of LED bridge lights remains uncertain.
“The materials are in storage,” Craig wrote. “As they are in working order, many additional uses for the lights are being evaluated.”
In media news today, Chris Cuomo gets ripped for accusing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis of holding the U.S. ‘hostage’ to COVID, critics slam DC Mayor Muriel Bowser for violating her own mask mandate, and ABC’s political director calls out the Biden admin’s ‘confusing’ COVID messaging
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis‘s team hit media outlets who partly blamed him for the rise in COVID-19 cases in the state and accused him of being anti-vax, calling the reports “misinformation” that could lead to “vaccine hesitancy.”
The Miami Herald, which has long had a tense relationship with the Republican governor, published an opinion piece suggesting DeSantis “groomed and enabled” the increase in cases.
“New in Opinion from @fabiolasantiago: It’s no joke: Florida leads the nation in COVID-19 cases, and hospitalizations are surging to a horribly familiar crisis point. This is the no-mask, anti-vaccine Florida that Gov. Ron DeSantis groomed and enabled.”
In the middle of the piece in big, bold letters are the words “BLAME DESANTIS.”
“This is the red Florida he has indulged with political gobbledygook about personal freedoms in the middle of a public-health emergency — and here are the consequences: a dubious No. 1 national ranking in cases of COVID-19, ” Fabiiola Santiago wrote.
Santiago also accused DeSantis of caring more about his merchandise sales than the victims of COVID.
The Orlando Sentinel published a similar assertion about DeSantis’ relationship to the COVID vaccine with a recent headline: “DeSantis stops pushing shots.”
DeSantis’ press secretary Christina Pushaw responded on Twitter, asking him to correct his “disinformation,” arguing that such reports could contribute to “vaccine hesitancy.”
“I feel like headlines such as @orlandosentinel’s contribute to vaccine hesitancy by turning it into a political issue. What if people read this lie and are misled into believing the Governor isn’t supporting vaccines anymore? That will not encourage them to get vaccinated,” she wrote.
“It is completely unfair and baseless to claim that Governor DeSantis is no longer promoting vaccination,” Pushaw said in a statement to Fox News. “Reports to that effect are both inaccurate and irresponsible. The Governor has consistently stated that vaccines are safe and effective in preventing serious illness in most people.”
Pushaw quoted DeSantis as having said that the vaccines “are saving lives, and reducing the mortality of COVID-19.”
While the governor has consistently opposed lockdowns because they have had “serious consequences for public health as well as the economy,” Pushaw said that “the Governor and Florida Department of Health have always encouraged Floridians to protect themselves and their communities.”
“The best way to do that is to get vaccinated,” she said. “The vaccines are safe and effective for most people and are freely available everywhere in Florida. Governor DeSantis has mentioned the vaccines positively almost 100 times in public remarks since November 2020.”
New York Post columnist Karol Markowicz also tried to debunk the media narrative DeSantis is opposed to vaccines, tweeting her observations from when she lived in Florida.
“I was living in Florida when vaccines were introduced and I was vaccinated in Florida,” she wrote. “The idea that DeSantis was ever even lukewarm on vaccines is ridiculous. So from left or right, if you only now realized DeSantis openly and often told people to get vaccinated, welcome.”
“Last winter, DeSantis was more pro-vaccine than Harris or Cuomo,” writer Pradheep J. Shanker tweeted. “This is an unassailable fact.”
Last year, both New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, D., and then-vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris said they didn’t trust the vaccines that had been developed under the Trump administration. The same went for liberal media personalities like MSNBC’s Joy Reid, who last year tweeted, “Just speaking for myself, I wouldn’t go near anything that Trump or his politicized FDA had anything to do with.”
It’s not the first time DeSantis has found himself squared off against the Miami Herald. The outlet previously published a report in May claiming the Florida Department of Health received a “reprimand” from the Public Health Accreditation Board for not releasing accurate information on COVID-19 in schools. The governor’s office pushed back, noting that “no official representative of PHAB gave any indication that DOH was ever in any danger of losing accreditation.”
DeSantis has had other media clashes outside Florida. CBS’ “60 Minutes” aired an widely panned segment accusing DeSantis of giving the Publix grocery store preferable treatment to offer the coronavirus vaccine based on donations to his PAC. Publix, along with bipartisan voices in Florida, pushed back on the notion DeSantis’ selection of the store, which has hundreds of locations in the state, was swayed by a corporate PAC donation.
“They’ve issued a lot of mealy mouthed statements since the episode aired, they knew what they were putting on the air was false,” DeSantis said as he reacted to the report on “Fox & Friends.”
More recently, CNN’s Chris Cuomo, the New York governor’s younger brother, accused DeSantis of holding the country “hostage” because of how he’s handled the pandemic
“There’s no parties. Basically there’s gatherings we have — almost seven now … Trying to get Democrats, Republicans together so we know each other and talk to each other,” he said. “We were outside, ok, and everybody’s been vaccinated. So, you know, I talked to Lindsey today. He’s fine. He sounds good.”
Dr. Natasha Bhuyan, a family physician with One Medical in Phoenix, said that while the 70% nationwide mark is noteworthy, local communities with lower vaccination rates are still worrisome.
“Even if America reaches 70% or 75%, if we continue to have ZIP codes and neighborhoods at 40 or 50%, they will continue to be at risk of having outbreaks and being hot spots,” she said. “Even if we hit the 70% milestone, we can celebrate but we should celebrate it with caution.”
While the delta variant hits unvaccinated people the hardest, some inoculated people could be carrying higher levels of the virus than previously understood and could transmit it to others, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said last week. She added that the variant behaves “uniquely differently from past strains of the virus.”
U.S. health officials maintain that the Covid vaccines manufactured by Pfizer–BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson are highly protective against the variant, especially against severe disease and death. Still, the pace of vaccinations in the U.S. has slowed in recent months.
The nation is reporting an average of about 660,000 vaccinations per day as of Sunday, according to the CDC, far from peak levels of the more than 3 million daily shots in mid-April but up 14% from one week earlier.
The number of first vaccine doses has climbed more sharply than the overall rate in recent days, representing new people getting their first shots. An average of about 432,000 first doses were reported administered every day over the past seven days as of Sunday, according to the CDC, up 24% from a week earlier. The states with the lowest vaccination rates and worst outbreaks are seeing the biggest increases in first doses, a CNBC analysis found.
Vaccination rates vary widely across the country. Twenty states and the District of Columbia have surpassed the 70% milestone of adults with one shot as of Sunday, CDC data shows, with Vermont, Hawaii, Massachusetts, and Connecticut each across the 80% mark.
Other states lag, and 12 have fewer than 60% of adults with at least one shot. Mississippi, at 50% of adults, has the lowest rate, followed by Wyoming at 52.2% and Louisiana at 53.6%.
In an attempt to boost the number of shots administered, some state and local officials have either offered incentives to getting vaccinated or enforced mandates.
Biden called on state and local officials last week to offer residents $100 cash payments as an incentive to receive a shot, his administration’s latest attempt to get more Americans vaccinated.
Biden also called on school districts across the country to host pop-up vaccination clinics in coming weeks, while directing federal pharmacy program partners to work with schools. He also announced that a Covid reimbursement program, which paid back small- and medium-size businesses that offered paid leave for their employees to get vaccinated, would be expanded to include workers’ family members and kids, as well.
—CNBC’s Kevin Breuninger contributed to this report.
Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market value, extended its rally into the weekend. It surpassed $42,000 on Sunday, which was its highest since May. But its price since leveled, and as of Monday morning, is trading at around $39,800.
Bitcoin’s moves aren’t the only things happening in crypto right now. From the Senate’s infrastructure bill proposal to a record trading volume for NFTs, or nonfungible tokens, here are five key things that happened in crypto this past week.
1. Amazon denies report that it plans to accept bitcoin as payment
2. Sen. Elizabeth Warren continues to push for more crypto regulation
This past week, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., doubled down on her calls for more crypto regulation.
On July 26, Warren sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen pressing the Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) to coordinate a “cohesive regulatory strategy” surrounding cryptocurrency. “I urge FSOC to act with urgency and use its statutory authority to address cryptocurrencies’ risks and ensure the safety and stability of our financial system.”
Warren also spoke during the Senate Banking Committee hearing on Tuesday titled “Cryptocurrencies: What are they good for?” There, she continued her critique of the space. “Crypto puts the [financial] system at the whims of some shadowy, faceless group of super-coders and miners,” Warren said.
On Wednesday, Warren told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that she’s skeptical bitcoin will prove to be a reliable hedge against inflation over time.
3. Tesla and Square record millions in bitcoin-related impairments
4. Crypto industry critiques infrastructure bill
Last week, the Senate’s bipartisan infrastructure bill proposal sparked concern within the crypto community after a provision of the package detailed plans to impose stricter rules regarding tax collection on “digital assets.”
Initially, the bill defined a cryptocurrency “broker” very broadly, andmany worried that the provision would include people like miners who wouldn’t have access to the information needed to comply.
On Sunday, however, the Senate released its latest version of the bill, which clarified its definition. If passed, the provision would define a “broker” as “any person who (for consideration) is responsible for regularly providing any service effectuating transfers of digital assets on behalf of another person.”
Still, the Blockchain Association urges for more changes. “While some minor improvements have been made, the latest language still poses fundamental concerns and questions about certain terms and definitions used in the provision,” Kristin Smith, executive director of the Blockchain Association, said in a statement. “[T]his provision is written in a way that could be interpreted to apply to persons in the crypto ecosystem who don’t have access to the information required for information reporting.”
The latest draft of the infrastructure bill includes raising nearly $30 billion from cracking down on crypto tax evasion.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday he is asking private businesses such as bars and restaurants to require proof of vaccination against Covid-19 as a condition for admission.
The number of daily Covid cases in New York has increased “four-fold” to more than 2,000 cases over the past month as the highly contagious delta variant spreads, Cuomo said during a news conference. Data shows fully vaccinated individuals are less likely to catch, get infected with the virus or suffer from severe disease, he said.
“I am asking them, and suggesting to them, go to vaccine-only admission,” he told reporters, referring to private businesses. “I believe it is in your best interest.”
Infectious disease experts and public health officials fear Covid cases — fueled by the delta variant — could continue to surge into the fall season, when Americans head back indoors and employers begin to bring workers back to the office.
In an attempt to slow the spread of the virus, some businesses are asking customers and their employees to show proof of vaccination. On Friday, Disney said it is requiring all salaried and non-union hourly employees in the U.S. to be fully vaccinated against Covid by the end of September.
Radio City Music Hall “did this months ago,” Cuomo said Monday. “Reopened. Vaccine only. Sold out all of the shows.”
Cuomo’s comments came the same day he announced a vaccine mandate for employees of the state’s MTA and Port Authority, giving transportation workers the option to get vaccinated by Labor Day or face weekly coronavirus testing. The mandate is similar to an order Cuomo issued for state hospital employees last week in response to the surging delta variant.
CNBC Health & Science
Read CNBC’s latest global coverage of the Covid pandemic:
“Numerous candidates in the Great State of Ohio, running in Congressional District 15, are saying that I am supporting them, when in actuality, I don’t know them, and don’t even know who they are,” Trump said in a statement last week. “But I do know who Mike Carey is — I know a lot about him, and it is all good. Mike Carey is the only one who has my Endorsement and he’s the one I feel will do the best job for Ohio, and for the United States. Please vote for Mike Carey next Tuesday, and let there be no further doubt who I have Endorsed!”
LOS ANGELES — In Anaheim, California, Disneyland worker Judy Hart, 62, says she’ll never get the COVID-19 vaccine because it’s “experimental.”
What about masks? Hart wears one while working retail sales at the most magical place on Earth, but nowhere else. “It’s against our freedoms,” she says. “And I’m not some religious weirdo who thinks it’s the mark of the beast.”
After more than 18 months of a pandemic, with 1 of every 545 Americans killed by COVID-19, a substantial chunk of the population continues to assert their own individual liberties over the common good.
This great divide – spilling into workplaces, schools, supermarkets and voting booths – has split the nation at a historic juncture when partisan factionalism and social media already are achieving similar ends.
It is a phenomenon that perplexes sociologists, legal scholars, public health experts and philosophers, causing them to wonder:
At what point should individual rights yield to the public interest? If coronavirus kills 1 in 100, will that be enough to change some minds? Or 1 in 10?
Today, millions of U.S. residents shun vaccines that have proven highly effective, and resist masks that ward off infection, fiercely opposing government restrictions.
Others clamor for regulation, arguing that those who take no precautions are violating their rights – threatening the freedom to live of everyone they expose.
In an online dialogue about the friction between liberty and the greater good, Clare Palmer, a philosophy professor at Texas A&M University, agreed that exercising a freedom to go maskless creates “catastrophic threats to the well-being of others.”
“How much should government constrain citizens’ otherwise rightful activities to lower the risk?” she asked. “We may be entering a period… when countries will need to reassess their willingness to use the law to protect the most vulnerable and to advance the common good.”
No matter where one stands, it puts a new spin on the famous line delivered at America’s founding by Patrick Henry: “Give me liberty or give me death.”
‘An act of defiance’
Seldom in the nation’s past has a culture boundary been so clear-cut, or the clash between personal rights and public welfare been so polarized.
COVID-19 is now killing more than 2,000 Americans each week, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, with new infections topping 60,000 a day for the first time in more than three months. Nearly two-thirds of the nation’s counties are reeling from substantial or high transmission rates as defined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.
Against that backdrop, a striking paradox has evolved: About 99% of America’s COVID-19 deaths today are people who did not get shots. Yet, the unvaccinated – who are more susceptible to infection and more likely to spread the disease – also appear to be most resistant to wearing masks.
While the scientific research is evolving and medical messaging has been muddled, the vaccine has worked beyond expectations – “a huge celebration of effectiveness,” as Johns Hopkins notes – with limited side effects recorded so far.
That means getting shots saves lives.
It also means vaccines could prevent the mutation of more virulent coronavirus strains while hastening a return to economic and social normalcy. So, why do so many turn down the shots and shun masks? Is it a social syndrome that puts self-interest above the common good? Is it a stand for principle? Is it something else?
Michael Sandel, a Harvard professor of government who teaches a course on “ethics in an age of pandemics,” noted in the university’s gazette that mask wearing has emerged as “a new front in the culture wars.”
While covering one’s face is not difficult, mask opponents are driven by another concern: They don’t want government dictating their behavior. Put simply, Sandel said, the resistance is not about public health: “It’s about politics.”
“Even as the pandemic highlights our mutual dependence, it is striking how little solidarity and shared sacrifice it has called forth,” he noted. “The pandemic caught us unprepared – logistically and medically, but also morally. … (It) arrived at just the wrong moment – amid toxic politics, incompetent leadership and fraying social bonds.”
“It’s an act of defiance,” said Steven Tipton, a professor of sociology and religion at Emory University. “‘You can’t make me.’ And I will enact my own freedom even if it kills me and others around me who I love.’”
Tipton co-wrote the book “The Good Society,” describing how America’s institutions have fallen from grace. He is among many who trace this viral distrust a half-century back to President Ronald Reagan’s quote: “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’”
As economic inequities mushroomed and social isolation festered, Tipton said, average Americans came to feel betrayed by government, the marketplace and so-called elites. For them, rejecting science and spurning authorities is a statement of moral outrage rather than an act of selfishness. And that sentiment is encouraged in a social media echo chamber that bonds the disconnected.
In the end, however, COVID-19 has no politics or ethical code. The virus, acting on a principle of proliferation, has killed more than 4.2 million people worldwide – especially now those who didn’t get shots.
The moral, Tipton suggested: “Being a good citizen is being mutually responsible. If you believe in the gospels, wear your mask.”
Mixed messages, lies and confusion
During World War II, the Greatest Generation forged unity with common goals. Americans tended victory gardens to overcome food shortages, volunteered for national defense and made personal sacrifices for the good of the country.
Today, in the face of a pandemic that already has killed more U.S. citizens than the big war, we block one another’s Facebook pages, stage anti-vax protests and in some cases attack one another for requiring or wearing masks.
To be sure, public confusion and discord have been abetted by muddled messages from government and science, compounded by lies and disinformation spewed via social media.
The miscues are legend:
Early in the pandemic, President Donald Trump declared a premature victory over COVID-19 as his chief medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, warned against opening the country too soon. Fauci and the CDC have issued guidance in favor of masks, then against them, and then for them again – in part because the virus itself has morphed.
President Joe Biden last week applied a carrot-and-stick approach, urging local authorities to pay $100 to unvaccinated people who get the shots while announcing that federal employees will face strict testing requirements if they are not vaccinated.
But in the absence of authority or fortitude to impose public health policies, federal leaders have largely deferred to state and local government. The result: a bewildering and inconsistent panoply of policies that vary from one jurisdiction to the next, and may change overnight.
“There’s just been such tremendous inconsistency in communications about this,” said Corey Basch, chair of the public health department at William Paterson University in New Jersey. “I can understand why there are pockets of the population who really don’t want this mandated, and (they) feel distrust.”
A tale of two counties
Consider Los Angeles and Orange counties in California, sibling hotbeds of COVID-19 that form the nation’s largest metro area.
In May, after the Orange County Board of Supervisors announced plans to offer a digital record for residents who have been vaccinated, hundreds of enraged people — leery of a new vaccine —jammed a meeting and denounced what they mistakenly believed was a mandatory COVID-19 passport system.
Jeanine Robbins, 60, of Anaheim, who attended that event, noticed that nearly all the people opposed to vaccination were also maskless. “I think they’re just taking advantage, and they’re putting other people at risk,” Robbins said. “It’s selfishness.”
By contrast, Michael Thomas, a 62-year-old accountant in San Clemente, said he doesn’t believe masks work and he won’t be getting shots because “a person’s immune system will either fight off COVID or it won’t.”
Asked whether his decisions endanger others, Thomas shook his head. “It’s a personal right to do what you want,” he said. “A God-given right.”
Thomas volunteered that he sees COVID-19 as a “war crime,” adding, “The guy who made it – the people who developed the virus – should be brought to justice.”
Asked who he believes created and spread the disease, Thomas said, “I understand Dr. Fauci was intimately involved …” He would not identify his source for that allegation.
According to The Associated Press, a picture circulating on right-wing social media sites, which purportedly shows Fauci with then-President Barack Obama at the Wuhan, China, lab in 2015, was actually taken at the National Institutes of Health in Washington, D.C., during 2014.
In conservative Orange County, plans for digital vaccine recordkeeping were canceled, and there are no generalized mask requirements. But late last month, Disneyland reinstated a mask mandate and announced mandatory coronavirus shots for most employees.
City of the Angels
Barely one month after Gov. Gavin Newsom ended most COVID-19 restrictions in California, declaring that the state was “turning the page on this pandemic,” viral caseloads in Los Angeles County had increased sevenfold.
On July 16, in a push for public safety, the Board of Supervisors reinstated indoor mask requirements. Sheriff Alex Villanueva promptly announced that his deputies would not enforce the measure because it is “not backed by science.”
In the shadow of downtown skyscrapers, Steven Nuñez, 35, mulled the question and allowed that public leaders had no choice but to impose mandates. “We’ve already seen what happens when it’s voluntary,” he noted.
Nuñez, a minister with the International Buddhist Meditation Center, said his theology calls for a balancing of compassion and wisdom, with action based not on personal interests but the welfare of others. “I don’t wear a mask in public because I’m afraid,” he stressed, “but because doing that might keep someone safe.”
‘Typhoid Mary’
In the early 1900s, a domestic cook for wealthy families named Mary Mallon unwittingly infected hundreds of people in New York with the Salmonella typhi bacteria before medical investigators identified her as a superspreader.
Mallon, nicknamed “Typhoid Mary,” refused to be tested and fled from authorities, only to be captured and quarantined. During two years of confinement, she sued the health department. Upon release, she violated an agreement not to resume cooking and worked at a maternity hospital in Manhattan where more people were infected and died.
COVID-19 may be caused by a novel coronavirus, but the legal-ethical issues are not new. And just what constitutes the common good has always been a matter of disagreement.
Plato advocated conduct that promotes social harmony. His student, Aristotle, promoted action allowing individuals to fulfill their human purpose. Thus, the debate proceeded.
When the United States was founded, a Bill of Rights got locked into the Constitution to ensure that personal liberties were protected from a coercive government.
But those freedoms are not limitless. One person’s right to throw a punch stops at another’s nose. If you scream “Fire!” in a crowded theater, it could be a ticket to jail.
“Keep in mind we have seat belt laws,” noted Jessica Berg, law school dean and a professor of bioethics at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio. “We have speed limits.”
When inoculations for smallpox and polio were first mandated in the past century, backlashes erupted, eventually dying as shots eradicated two of the world’s worst scourges. Yet, Berg noted, some batches of the early polio vaccine had devastating side effects.
The question is not whether government should constrain personal liberties in the public interest, she concluded, but when and how. With face masks and vaccinations, Berg allows that constraints should result in the least possible loss of choices and the most respect for liberty.
For example, rather than threats of jail or fines, those who refuse to take precautions might be banned from crowded venues or required to undergo regular testing. The point, Berg said, is to allow for a stand on personal rights by letting people make choices.
“I think if we want to accept the benefits of living in a society,” Berg added, “we also have to accept there are some constraints on individual liberty.”
Pamela Hieronymi, a UCLA professor who specializes in moral philosophy, said COVID-19 has revealed the “trickiness of freedoms.” She described various schools of ethical thought, noting that if someone asked four philosophy professors whether vaccines and masks should be mandated, there likely would be four different answers.
Then she mentioned a book – “Assholes: A Theory” – by colleague Aaron James, which argues that American culture is producing a swarm of annoying, self-righteous people who behave as if they are so special that normal rules do not apply.
More than a lack of civility, Hieronymi said, “we’ve lost sight of the common good.”
Near downtown Los Angeles, social worker Alexandra Sheehy, 37, said she gave birth during the pandemic. As a combat veteran who served in Iraq, she understands that fighting a contagious disease requires a “collective and collaborative effort.”
But she also worries about how conflict, anger and stress are wounding society and individuals. “I’ve learned you can’t control everybody,” Sheehy said. “You can only control how you react.”
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