New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) said on Thursday morning that he doesn’t “believe in shut downs,” despite the fact that he shut down the city in March of last year.

“Given that New York is yet again the epicenter, given that some local officials are calling for you to cancel the in-person event altogether, why not scale back that event even further?” de Blasio was asked in an interview with NBC News.

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“Look, I don’t believe in shut downs,” de Blasio replied. “We have to fight out way through Covid. And the way to do it is vaccination. We have the strongest vaccine mandates in the country, and now 91 percent of all New York City adults have had at least one dose of the vaccine, so shut downs are not the answer. The answer is get people vaccinated.”

“Mayor de Blasio, just to put a fine point on it, are there any discussions about scaling back the in-person event further or canceling it outright?” he was then asked.

“No,” the liberal mayor responded. “This is the decision we made with our health care team. And all of those layers of protection – I mean, we said from the very beginning, it would be vaccinated folks only and outdoors. And now, we added the masks, the distancing. Our health care leadership believes this is the right way to do it. And our colleagues at the Times Square Alliance, they believe adamantly, and I agree with them, we’ve got to send a message to the world – New York City’s open, our schools are coming back Monday, full strength. And the way to deal with COVID is not shut downs, it’s even more in terms of vaccination – doubling down on vaccination.”

De Blasio is preparing to leave office in 2022, and he was asked if the city is “better now after eight years of your leadership?”

“Look, New York’s better, because of New Yorkers,” he responded. “New Yorkers were heroic in fighting COVID these last two years, but I came here to fight inequality. We’ve proven it. Independent studies have shown we were able to put a lot more money back in the pockets of working people. Wages have gone up. We’ve been able to give things like pre-K and 3-K to all families for free, universally.”

“We have, after a really tough two years, we’re, once again, turning the corner – this is the safest big city in America,” he continued. “That is a fact. And look, I’m convinced, New Yorkers have shown us just a heroism and a beautiful passion to move forward in this crisis. And I’m convinced this place is better off than it was eight years ago.”

This piece was written by James Samson on December 30, 2021. It originally appeared in RedVoiceMedia.com and is used by permission.

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