Ask the Mayor: Who Gets Vaccinated First in NYC?

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Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now, as we usually do on Fridays, it's a weekly Ask The Mayor segment, my questions and yours for Mayor Bill de Blasio. Our lines are open. It's 646-435-7280. For those of you who are on hold, waiting to memorialize people you knew, who died of COVID, for our time capsule, we are done with that segment for today.

We are going to do another one next week, so maybe you can get through at that time as we take more of your memorials, but we're done with that for now. Right now, if you want to call and ask the mayor a question, 646-435-7280, 646-435-7280, or you can tweet a question, just use the hashtag Ask The Mayor. Good morning, Mr. Mayor. Welcome back to WNYC.

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Good morning, Brian. How are you doing?

Brian: I'm doing all right. I told everybody that you were later than usual because you were doing a news conference, announcing vaccine protocols for the city. Now that it's being approved by the FDA, what can you tell us?

Bill: Brian, very important day for New York City, because we expect the vaccine very, very shortly to start arriving in the city. We are setting up on Monday a command center, vaccine command center that will control the distribution and the logistics, but also beyond that, the community outreach, the efforts to ensure equity and fairness in the distribution, the public information and transparency that, I think, is going to be crucial for people feeling more trust in the vaccine and in the process of distribution.

This has to be fast and intense, this distribution effort, but it also must be fair. Today, at the press conference, deputy mayor, Melanie Hartzog, who is also a Co-Chair of our Taskforce on Racial Inclusion and Equity, talked about how the command center will guarantee equitable distribution with a heavy focus on the 27 communities of color most affected by COVID in this city.

Dr. Torian Easterling, who's the First Deputy Commissioner for the Health Department and the Chief Equity Officer, talked about the kind of community outreach and trust building that will be needed in African-American, Latino and Asian communities, working with community leaders, working with faith leaders, public housing resident leaders to really convince people that this is the right thing to do.

We know there's a lot of distrust in communities of color toward government and a lot of concern about the vaccine. Leaders of color in this administration in this city government are going to be taking the lead, going out into communities, talking very personally about the fact that the vaccine is safe and that it is important to turning tide on the coronavirus. Today we laid out just how that operational work will happen, but also the work of equity and fairness.

Brian: There's that double-edged sword there that there's more distrust, presumably, in communities of color in the medical establishment for all kinds of historical and present reasons that might dissuade people from taking a vaccine. At the same time, we know the COVID case and hospitalization and death, racial disparities have been so stark, and people are wondering if there's going to be enough of a prioritization. I know you said something about that in what you just said, but tell us more, how is that accounted for in determining who gets to be vaccinated early on?

Bill: First to your first part of your point, Dr. Torian Easterling spoke as a Black man about that history of racial discrimination in American medicine. He talked about the horrible experimentation on the Black people that occurred over the years, that was another form of structural racism, that left a horrible legacy and distrust beyond any other kind of distrust that people have towards government, this trust in the medical community.

He took that head-on and he said, "Look," his job as First Deputy Health Commissioner is to show people that this vaccine is about solving a problem about serving a community that's really borne the brunt and to make it very personally, talked about he and his family would be taking the vaccine, and he would be going out into communities to testify about its effectiveness and safety and getting more and more community allies on board.

I think, Brian, it is about being blunt about that bad history and empowering leaders of color to lead the way to make sure that this distribution happens. We've been very clear, and I want to say it plainly, it doesn't matter if you're wealthy, or famous, or you're a celebrity, you're not cutting the line in New York City when it comes to the vaccine distribution.

The first level of distribution goes to front-line healthcare workers, and a lot of whom are not highly paid people. This is the people who are protecting all of us and saving our lives, and obviously, nursing home residents and nursing home workers. Then the focus is on other healthcare workers, first responders, then on folks who are over 65 and/or have those preexisting serious medical conditions. We're going to focus, as we start to go into those bigger categories, on communities of color that have borne the brunt, those 27 neighborhoods of Black and Latino and Asian that bore the brunt of the crisis, we know where they are, that's where the first attention needs to be.

Our health leadership is very, very clear that scrupulously monitor the distribution is a vaccine, our command centers to be watching constantly all the healthcare partners to make sure the priorities are being followed, and if we see any instances where they're not being followed, that can be addressed immediately and with consequence because people have to have faith that this is being done equitably.

Brian: Let's take a call. Carolyn in Manhattan. You're on WNYC with the mayor. Hello, Carolyn.

Carolyn: Yes. Hi. Can you hear me?

Bill: Yes, Carolyn.

Brian: I can hear you.

Carolyn: Hello?

Bill: Yes.

Brian: Yes. We can hear you.

Carolyn: Sorry. Thank you, Brian. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I want to ask about long-term care facilities for the disabled, adults with developmental disabilities are at increased risk of death. They're in high-risk setting, but they may be under the age of 65, and so I want to know if they will be prioritized for the vaccine. These group homes were- my sister lived in one, and these group homes were decimated by those coronavirus this past spring. It really tore through their homes and a lot of people died from it. I want to know if they will be prioritized in this first round of vaccinations.

Bill: I'm very glad you're asking the question, Carolyn, because I think you're raising a really important point that there's specific realities in those facilities that really make folks have a need for this vaccine. I'm glad you're saying it. I want to make sure we get the priorities right. I'm going to share this question with our healthcare leadership.

They're working with the state and the federal government on those priorities. I want to make sure that we account for where this isn't the priority structure, but I hear you loud and clear. It has to be accounted for quickly. Will you please give your information to WNYC so that we can get back to you with an update once we get that clear answer?

Brian: Carolyn, we'll take that contact info from you. Erica, on Staten Island, you're on WNYC with the mayor. Hello, Erica.

Erica: Hi, Mr. Mayor, my question is this, why are we mandating that the children in our schools get tested? I know firemen are mandated. They come from different boroughs, sometimes different homes, and they're quite literally living together and they don't have to get mandated. Hospital workers aren't mandated to get testing, police officers, all these people who do shift work together. They're spending 12 hours together and they aren't mandated to get testing. What are we doing to our kids here?

My three-year-old has to get tested, even though he's in a DOE program, and he said to me today, he said, "Mama, I don't ever want to get tested again." I can't understand what we're doing and what the ramification's of this, what bullet do to our kids in the future, especially going forward? What are these kids supposed to say if a doctor, or a coach, or anyone in an institution touches their body inappropriately?

My message to my children has always been, nobody ever touches your body. Nobody has the right to touch your body. This one is happening, and I understand we're in a pandemic, but given what I said about all these other people who go into all these other buildings, I don't understand how to make it work in my head.

Bill: Okay. Erica, heartfelt question. I appreciate it. I am a parent and certainly remember when my kids were young. Look, first to the point about "no one touches your body," a very important message. Obviously, in this case, we're talking about healthcare workers, and we take very, very seriously the care and sensitivity they have to bring, but I just want to say, as a parent, no one touches your body, but healthcare professionals are the exception to that, always, because every single one of us in the course of our lives needs healthcare where a professional has to work with us directly. I do appreciate very much your point, especially for a three-year-old, very young age. The testing mandate does not extend to 3-K, Pre-K, and Kindergarten, I want to make sure that that's clear. For everyone else, the reason it has been such an important until-- I'm sorry to say, one thing, Erica, please leave your information with WNYC, because I don't know if you have a three-year-old, why that is happening in the school because that's not part of the mandate, and we will fix that, obviously.

Erica, to the bigger point, the mandate of testing is one of the things that gave everybody confidence in our schools being safe. We had it from the very beginning, we expanded on it, as we've seen this uptick in the virus. One of the ways that we kept our schools going, 878 schools are open right this minute in New York City is because we added additional testing, it has allowed us to use our situation room as the clearinghouse to know that each school was safe or that some action needed to be taken based on the testing that happened quickly. Nursery schools have been the gold standard of health and safety in this country.

We're open when the vast majority of major school systems, major cities in America are closed, and testing has been a big, big part of it. I would say to you, it is a very strategic act to use the testing as a way to show that we can keep schools safe, to make sure each school community is safe, to give confidence to parents, educators staff. It's worked, but we do as I said, exempt the youngest kid, and there are also medical exemptions for anyone who gets that from a doctor. I hear you loud and clear, but I think we are striking that balance.

Brian: What about the requirements for others who come in contact with other people? She mentioned health care workers, for example.

Bill: Again, the reality in each institution is they determine what is going to keep their people safe. Healthcare institutions go through all sorts of health protocols regularly. We obviously trust our healthcare leadership to figure out what will keep their workers safe. Each place is different, but I want to emphasize again, Brian, I want to be clear, this is not an academic comparative discussion. This is about real kids, real families, real educators, and staff.

This is what has worked to make New York City public schools the safest in the nation. One can debate it all day long, but I want to go back to the facts, it worked. Our schools are safe, they've been proven safe. That's what we aspired to, and that's what we achieved.

Brian: Let me follow up on her public school question with another public school question. Of course, the schools reopened this week for students up through elementary school and for special ed students in District 75 schools. The families who came back revealed again a stark disparity as the New York Times reported it this week, "At every turn, Mr. De Blasio insisted that the city's most vulnerable children needed open schools, but there are nearly 12,000 more white children to turn into public school buildings than Black students, even though there are many more Black students than white students in the system overall."

My question is, Mr. Mayor, how surprised or disturbed are you by this, and what kind of policy response does that require?

Bill: I think that's just not the whole story. That quote does not portray the larger reality. First of all, I want to serve all kids. I think we talk a lot about race. I want to talk about class as well. I want to serve kids of all families, of all income levels. Across the racial spectrum, you have kids from families who are disadvantaged in all sorts of ways. I want to serve everyone.

Right now, in New York City public schools, about three quarters of the kids attending class are children of color, either African-American, Latino or Asian. That's the fact. The way it has been presented, I know people love to get into their particular themes, but they're not portraying the reality. 75% of the kids in our schools right now in person are children of color. That's the fact.

Brian: A follow-up, Robert in Queens, you are in WNYC with the mayor. Hi, Robert.

Robert: Hi. Can you hear me okay?

Brian: Yes, we can.

Bill: Yes, Robert, how are you doing?

Robert: Hi, how are you, Mayor?

Bill: Robert, yes. [unintelligible 00:14:47]

Robert: Personally, I want to say thank you for everything that you've been doing for the city in this crazy pandemic situation. I got to tell you, I just heard you talk about being for the school means everything, but the principals are having a horrible time with it. I know because my wife's a principal, and it's becoming increasingly more and more difficult for her to get the job done.

I'm a teacher also, and my principal's having a hard time with this, because there are certain groups of parents that want to dictate how the school should be run during this pandemic with the setback that-- The schools don't have the money, they don't have the teaching staff to doing the remote and the in-school learn. When a teacher and a parent go head-to-head, nobody wins, and you know that. The problem is, is that we can't seem to get a clear roadmap for everything.

If there is no money for teachers, and programs have been slashed and kicked back, and parents still want to have something if there's nothing there, so they need help. I'm in tears right now because I see it, and it's been going on for three months now. Principals are doing a hell of a job. They need help.

Bill: Robert, thank you. I can tell, you really are speaking from the heart, and I appreciate it. Look, I just fundamentally believe in our New York City public schools. My kids went every single minute, from Pre-K to 12th grade in New York City public schools. I spent so much last few decades in the school buildings. I totally believe in the abilities of our principals and our teachers, and they've been put through hell. Let's start at the beginning. We have been put through hell. It's been incredibly difficult having to go all remote out of nowhere-

Robert: Sure.

Bill: -back in March, and then coming back and trying to get right.

I want to tell you, Robert, look, New York City could have made a decision, which I think would have been the wrong one and the unfair one to our kids and families, we could have said "Oh, the simpler thing would be go all remote from the beginning." I think it would have been a huge mistake. That's what the vast majority of major cities in America did. Los Angeles never has gotten open for example, the whole time.

We said "No." We needed in-person education. In-person education was going to make a huge difference. Because I believe in educators, I know if you get a child, even a few days a week, you are going to be able to reach them and shape them and support them in a way you could never do on a screen.

Emotionally, children need the support of the caring, loving professionals in a school building and of each other, that they get in the school building, even in some degree, so look, just to finish the point, that's why we believe it was so fundamental to open, but we have been, from the beginning, hearing the principal said more staffing was needed. One, we've been sending it, we do have more staffing, right this minute, for principals who need it, the constantly additional staffing be applied.

Second, by going to five day a week in as many places that we can, we're going to cut out in for so many kids, we're going to be cutting out the blended remote piece, which was one of the challenging pieces. If we have more and more kids who are either in school five days a week or at home all remote all the time, it's actually going to allow us to use our staff a lot better. I think it'd be better for teachers and principals alike.

Brian: Robert, I'll give you a very brief follow-up.

Robert: Yes, thank you, Brian. I understand what you're saying, Mr. Mayor, but the problem is, is that even when you have more staffing coming, there are certain programs that were put in place at schools that no longer have funding to get those programs up and go. That's why a lot of these parents, I call them "helicopter parents," want those programs, but there's no money for it. Then [inaudible 00:18:58] teachers, then you have no teachers there, but the parents don't understand that, and they are clogging the system by their complaints and everything.

Brian: I understand.

Robert: You need to be more clear in telling them.

Brian: Robert, thank you very much. Let me follow up on that this way, unless you want to say anything about that. I think there's this--

Bill: Yes, just very quickly, Brian, very quickly. Roberts making an important point. I'd say it to all my fellow parents, you do need to show sensitivity to everything that parents- are committed to everything that principals and teachers are going through. Parents do need to understand that principals and teachers are trying their damnedest under very adverse circumstances, but they also have to understand, yes, there isn't everything that would be available in a normal school year because there's a pandemic, it will be over. We have a vaccine, it will be over.

When we come back in September, we're going to be largely back to normal. This is one very tough year. We're trying to get kids as much as we can, but Robert's right, it won't be everything people want, and people have to be understanding of each other. Let's get the best we can for the kids under this circumstance.

Brian: I want to ask you policing and crime question and bail policy question. This week, Police Commissioner Shea said gun violence is approaching the highest point it's been in 14 years, number of shootings this year, compared to any of the past 13 years. He acknowledged the pandemic has played a role in the crime rate, but he made another link between the crime rate and bail reform.

He told New York One that people caught with guns or "back on the street, committing gun violence," three or four days later. My question is, gun crimes or felonies, judges have always been able to set bail on someone accused of a violent felony, both before and after the bail reform took effect this year, and even with the tweaks that were made in July. What data do you have that people caught with guns go out and commit more gun crimes? Is there any data?

Bill: Brian, look, we've got a lot of things happening here. I want to be fair because I've seen those comments, and it absolutely centers on, I would disagree with your characterization. What I say and what the commissioner say is the same thing. The perfect storm that we went through with COVID caused all of this. It caused people not to have work, not to have school, not to have houses of worship. Everything that people depended on was gone, and gun violence surge in that context. You had the police force down, a lot of officers, because people were sick. There were all sorts of factors here. We all put this in perspective.

That's what set all of this off. Clearly, we are going to have to look at everything. The fact our court systems have been down. We do need aggressive prosecution of gun cases. That is a clear fact. There have been too many times, obviously, where people have committed gun offenses and repeated to committed offenses like that. We've got to address this holistically, but we don't get to address anything until we end this pandemic and turn the corner and get the court system back running, get all these pieces in place that until February we're allowing us to be the safest we had ever been as a city.

Brian: For the record, are you saying that because the bail reform does not apply to people who commit violent crimes with guns, that there is no data that bail reform is contributing to the gun crimes?

Bill: I am saying, Brian, that every piece of this equation has come together to create a very, very difficult reality where we do not see the kinds of norms that kept violence from happening, including a functioning court system. It's every piece coming together. It's been a perfect storm. We clearly know there's a lot more violence. Brian, I talked to people in communities affected by this violence. Let's be very clear. This city is- we have a long way to go in terms of creating a quality in the city. There are some communities that are really feeling the pain of this gun violence and others not.

When you talk to folks who live in the communities, who are affected by gun violence, they see that this is unacceptable state of affairs. It must be turned around. We would have to use a lot of tools to do it, but it's not one thing. It's all these things together that have created this reality.

Brian: I'm going to ask you one more time. Is bail reform one of those things or is there no data to back that up?

Bill: There's lots of data showing each of these pieces has had an impact.

Brian: Joe in Hamilton Heights, you're on WNYC with the mayor. Hello?

Joe: Hi, Mr. Mayor, my name is Joe and I'm a homeowner. I've been here almost 20 years. In the last year, Hamilton Heights has become Hamilton speedway. Cars are going up and down our streets at very fast measures. On top of it, a lot of these cars have been adjusted so that the muffler exhaust system is so loud. I was talking to my neighbor yesterday. We couldn't even hear each other. I can hear these cars two and three blocks away. Is there anything that could be done, like speed bumps, or cameras, or more policing, something to get these cars to slow down?

Bill: Yes, Joe, the answer is yes. I'd like you, please, to give your information to WNYC. You identify a real issue. Then this is part of what Vision Zero is been all about, which is to reduce speeding, whether it's speed cameras, or more enforcement, or speed bumps, whatever it takes. Speeding is obviously the central danger that Vision Zero seeks to address.

We're going to see what we can do with your community. I'll have folks reach out from Department of Transportation and also NYPD in terms of both, if we're going to do something structural, like a speed bump, but also the kind of enforcement, but I think you're also pointing out the noise issue, and this is, I think, one of these, it's very hard to address noise pollution, but it's a huge problem in the city in some ways, a growing problem.

We're working on some ideas about how to start to turn the tide on noise pollution too, because I think that's something that New Yorkers feel and it's disturbing to us and we got to figure a way to quiet down a little bit going forward, because we deserve a better quality of life.

Brian: We've got one minute left. Let me slip in one other policy question. You've been for a millionaire's tax for a long time. Now the New York State Senate supermajority may actually pass one to help with the COVID fiscal crisis, but they're also considering a $3 per delivery surcharge on online deliveries, other than essential like food to help save the MTA from fiscal disaster. Do you support that tax?

Bill: No. I got to tell you, that's unfortunately not a progressive tax. I sparked progressive taxation, tax on millionaires and billionaires. Remember, Brian, shockingly, during this horrible COVID crisis, Wall Street has been booming, the rich have gotten richer, it's time to ask them to pay their fair share. They haven't paid their fair share in decades. I'm thrilled that there's a supermajority in the State Senate.

I hope they get to work right away with the assembly and pass a millionaire's tax and any other form of progressive taxation, but something that hits every single person out there, including struggling, working people, low-income people, folks that lost their jobs, that still need to get packages that could mean medicine, that could mean food, it can mean all sorts of things, no, that's the wrong way to go.

Brian: Thanks as always, Mr. Mayor, and thanks for laying out the new vaccine protocols with the breaking news that the vaccine is going to be approved today by the FDA. Obviously, we'll follow up, and we always appreciate it. Talk to you next week.

Bill: Take care, Brian.

Brian: Have a great weekend, everyone. Brian Lehrer on WNYC.

 

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