How Comfortable Are NYers With COVID-19 Vaccine? Take This Survey

New York City NY

13 May, 2021

11:13 AM

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NEW YORK CITY ­— As New York City steadily inches toward a full reopening after more than a year of coronavirus restrictions, city health officials report that more than half of the city's residents have received at least one dose of the vaccines. More than 40 percent of New Yorkers (7.9 million) are fully vaccinated at a time when the city's positivity rate dropped under 1 percent on Wednesday for the first time since last fall. Mayor Bill de Blasio is continuing to encourage residents to get their shots, including those under the age of 16 after both the Federal Drug Administration and Centers For Disease Control and Prevention authorized kids the emergency use of the Pfizer vaccine for kids ages 12-15 this week. The mayor said this week that he has not yet made a determination of whether the city's school children will be required to be fully vaccinated to return to the classroom this fall. Both the State University of New York and the City University of New York systems have announced that they will require students to be fully vaccinated before returning back to campus in September. Yet, de Blasio sees younger students in a different light. "We are seeing extraordinary success right now in our schools. And this is before we've been able to vaccinate our kids. We're really excited that now we'll be able to start doing that," de Blasio said at a news conference this week. "But no, the schools have been incredibly safe because of all the health and safety measures, that gold standard of health and safety measures we put together. "I'm really excited about the fall. I think we're going to be in much, much better shape then, than we even are now in terms of the overall COVID situation. So, we look forward to welcoming back every single student. There'll be lots of health and safety measures in place. I think you'll see a lot of students and a lot of staff vaccinated by then. But I think that's the right way to go about it." The CDC followed up the FDA's authorization of use of the Pfizer vaccine this week, which was news that de Blasio was encouraged by. In a news conference Wednesday, the mayor encouraged young New Yorkers who are eligible for the vaccine to get their shots "for the good of everyone." New York City health commissioner Dave Chokski said Wednesday that the city has already allocated vaccines to local health providers to begin getting shots into the arms of 12-to-15-year-olds and that appointments will be made available as soon as possible. Yet, as nearly 9.9 million New York residents have received at least one dose of the vaccines, Patch is seeking reader input about their attitudes about the vaccines in general as well as whether how appropriate the vaccines are for younger residents in light of this week's CDC announcement. Loading…