We hope that hometown Pfizer has retained a real-life Don Draper Madison Ave. ad genius to promote Comirnaty, the new brand name for the COVID vaccine that yesterday received final legal approval from the FDA. Getting this life-saving product (or another anti-COVID shot) to the hesitant holdouts is critical for all of us.
The 200 million Pfizer doses that have already been administered in this country, starting with that very first shot for LIJ nurse Sandra Lindsay on Dec. 14, came under a special, emergency use authorization. But from here on out, it’s a fully-vetted vaccine, which means that not only can Pfizer market and advertise — and we really want them to do a fantastically convincing sales job — but government and schools and employers can, and must, require the vaccine for their workers and students (no, it’s not approved at all for kids under 12, and for 12-to-15-year-olds, it’s still at emergency authorization).
So high-five for Mayor Bill de Blasio for imposing a no-exception rule that all 148,000 employees of the city’s schools be vaccinated by Sept. 27. He must now extend that to all other positions on the public workforce. Private employers should follow suit. The state Health Department, prodded by the city, must also add the COVID vaccine to the current schedule of shots for all students 16 and older.
Once the FDA okays the younger kids, then the city and state should add them to the mandates.
These teens and unvaccinated cops and cashiers and cousins are among the 82 million Americans who’ve had every chance to get a vaccine, but haven’t. Their inaction, whether born out of political fear and loathing or awful misinformation or more personal medical worries, is causing 1,000 deaths a day from the highly contagious delta variant, a national calamity that is almost entirely avoidable.
If you want to be part of society, get your vaccine. You’ll be better off and so will everyone else. You’ll get $100, and more importantly, you’ll live to spend it.
