Mayor of New York City Bill DeBlasio is implementing new vaccine mandates. These mandates will affect private companies and members of the public from the age of 5 and up.  Employees will not have the option of refusing the vaccine and submit to regular testing. DeBlasio announced these massive mandates affecting across New York city on Monday as a “preemptive strike” against COVID and the new Omicron strain.

The vaccine mandate becomes effective on December 27 and will affect close to 200,000 businesses. LCA students, who are used to having more freedom with how they protect against COVID, have mixed reactions to the mandates in New York. Junior Brad Davidson said “they’re a bad idea.” Both Mony, 11, said “I don’t care.” Fellow classmate Evan Morgan said “I think it is a good idea, after all everyone else has to be vaccinated for other diseases.”

This new variant could cause a few problems for people. The Omicron variant has already spread in many places around the world, such as like south Africa and Wales. Although not much is known about this variant, scientists say that it could be milder than the current variants of the coronavirus. Because the strain is so new, there has not been much time to research it and it could be a while before scientist have reliable answers. Concerns about Omicron come at a time when the country is just starting to recover from the first two years of the pandemic and its corresponding mandates. A mandate like the one in New York could upset some Americans who have recently been very conflicted about the coronavirus vaccine.