NYC mayor's race: Candidates disagree on vaccine mandates
NEW YORK (WABC) -- It became obvious Monday that the two nominees for mayor of New York City disagree when it comes to the topic of vaccine mandates.
Democrat Eric Adams has mostly said he's in favor. And on a Zoom call with ethnic and community media, he said he might force all children to get vaccinated if he becomes mayors.
"I'm going to have all my medical experts give me the recommendation on what we should do to protect our children," Adams said. "If they say we should mandate it like we have mandated polio, measles and others then we will mandate it."
However, Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa disagreed and said children should not be punished if their parents say no.
"At this point there should not be a mandated vaccine on the children," Sliwa said. "They should not be kicked out of school."
Sliwa also said it's unfair to require that teachers and health care workers get vaccinated. He said they should have the option of weekly testing.
"And now all of a sudden for whatever reason they're not vaccinated say 'unlike the cops and the firefighters you will be fired,'" Sliwa said. "You think that's fair? Of course it's not fair."
Meanwhile, Adams said there's been way too much focus on Mayor Bill de Blasio's plan to phase out gifted and talented programs.
He said why not focus more on children with learning problems.
"But I also believe this is the wrong conversation we're having," Adams said. "We're talking about gifted and talented students. They're going to be all right. We need to be leaning into those students who have barriers to learning."
We are now in the final two weeks of the campaign and the focus now is on the only two debates in the general election-the first one on Wednesday night. And ours on the 26th-exactly one week before election day on November 2nd.
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