After a string of businesses sued the state over its arbitrary application of a zone system created last fall to dictate business closures in response to rising COVID-19 cases, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo relented Wednesday, lifting all the orange zone designations and most of the yellow ones.
He also intends to decide this week whether to allow indoor dining to resume in New York City. Since Dec. 14, this is the only locality where the activity is verboten, despite the fact Manhattan has the sixth-lowest virus positivity rate of the state’s 62 counties.
Whatever Cuomo decides on indoor dining, he must apply rules consistently, based on facts that he can clearly explain, not feelings or suspicions. A widely cited study in the journal Nature recommends limiting capacity to 20% to slow the spread, not shuttering dining altogether. That’s more logical than a system where every restaurant in the five boroughs is shuttered, but those in Nassau, Suffolk and Westchester welcome diners at 50% capacity, despite similar density and higher COVID positivity rates.
Meanwhile, New York, like many other states, is struggling with frighteningly low vaccination rates among nursing home employees, despite the enormous risk that poses to residents. We understand their hesitation — America has a terrible legacy of scientific experimentation on Black and Brown people, one that’s left a deep legacy of distrust — but cannot abide the results.
Here’s what should happen: The feds should crank the volume to 11 on ad campaigns promoting the vaccine’s safety and efficacy, tailoring ads to skeptics. And, while we wait for more doses, send more highly effective antibody treatments to hospitals and nursing homes to protect high-risk patients.
And after five or six months of that education campaign, the state should make vaccination mandatory for nursing home and hospital staff, allowing only medically necessary exceptions. Let’s make science great again.
