NY Dems move to expand authority with monkeypox under same mechanism used with COVID

If Democrats got even more adept at one thing during the previous two years it’s on how to control the public. On Friday New York Governor Kathy Hochul “declared a statewide disaster emergency” which then “enabled Adams to issue the local emergency declaration” this week, reported Politico.

“Former Mayor Bill de Blasio used the same mechanism to expand his mayoral authority when ovid-19 first began spreading in the city.” Monkeypox poses a “unique threat” with “most cases occurring among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men” writes Politico.

Despite its “unique threat” Adams’ order directs agencies to “take all appropriate and necessary steps to preserve public safety and the health of their employees, and to render all required and available assistance to protect the security, well-being and health of the residents of the City.”

Such preservation is “the same mechanism” former Mayor Bill de Blasio used to “expand his mayoral authority when Covid-19 first began spreading in the city.”

Allowances awarded to the city include data collection around hospitalization and vaccination. During the Covid-19 pandemic, “similar emergency declarations let officials suspend certain contract-procurement rules, require the electronic reporting of Covid-related deaths, and mandate vaccination or testing for staff in public healthcare settings.”

Politico reports:

As of Monday, New York City reported 1,472 monkeypox cases, with most cases occurring among gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men. Cases are continuing to rise in the city and across the country, and actual case counts of the virus, which can affect anyone, are likely much higher than those reported due to lack of diagnosis.

Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine, who has been critical of the city’s response to the outbreak, praised the mayor’s emergency declaration, calling it an “absolutely necessary” move.

“This does send a very powerful message that the city takes this crisis seriously, that it treats it as a crisis, and it sends a message to the public that this is something that people need to pay attention to,” Levine said.

Amid continued demand, the state will receive 110,000 additional monkeypox vaccine doses from the federal government in the coming weeks, and 80,000 of those doses will go to the city. New York City now accounts for about a quarter of cases nationwide, according to Adams.