In a move initiated by Councilor Mark Laredo, all twenty-four members of the City Council have just sent a memorandum urging the mayor to require all city workers to get vaccinated for Covid-19. Here is the text:
City Council
2020-21 City of Newton
Memorandum
To: Mayor Ruthanne Fuller
From: Councilors Marc Laredo, Emily Norton, John Oliver, David Kalis, Pamela Wright, Julia Malakie, Joshua Krintzman, R. Lisle Baker, Tarik Lucas, Maria Greenberg, Deborah Crossley, Susan Albright, Andreae Downs, Richard Lipof, Leonard Gentile, Christopher Markiewicz, Alicia Bowman, Brenda Noel, Victoria Danberg, Alison Leary, Holly Ryan, Andrea Kelley, Rebecca Grossman, and Bill Humphrey
Cc: City Council; Acting City Clerk Nadia Khan
Re: Vaccinations for City and School Employees
Date: August 23, 2021
In light of the growing number of cases of COVID-19, both here in Newton and across the Commonwealth, we thank you for mandating that masks be worn in all municipal buildings. We are writing to urge you to take two additional steps: (1) expand the mask mandate to include indoor spaces in all school buildings and all private businesses that are open to the public; and (2) require all city and school employees to be vaccinated against COVID-19 (with exceptions for employees with demonstrated medical conditions or sincerely held religious beliefs that cannot be reasonably accommodated).
While we have a relatively high rate of vaccinations in Massachusetts, and especially in Newton, it is not enough. Recently, Governor Baker issued an order requiring tens of thousands of state workers to be vaccinated. In the August 23, 2021 edition of The Boston Globe, the president of the Museum of Science explained why it had issued a vaccine mandate for all employees: “Leaders of institutions, cities, states, and nations cannot wait for complete agreement when the consequence of inaction is death or serious risk. They must follow the evidence if it tips strongly in favor of taking action.” We believe that Newton should be a leader at the municipal level and be similarly bold.
We are cognizant of the legal and collective bargaining issues involved in this decision. But our collective lives and economic well-being are at stake. Now is the time to follow the evidence. We must beat COVID-19 and the only way to do so is if we are all vaccinated.
Thank you for all you are doing to keep our residents, workers, and visitors safe.
This is a personal choice, it should not be up to a Mayor, City Council etc….. This City has really gotten wacky!!!
It just seems like Fuller is continually behind on COVID, needing to be prodded to do the obvious thing. We’re a city of CDC leaders, vaccine company leaders and public health uber-experts- our municipal leadership should be similarly excellent. Fuller, pretty meh on COVID, again and again. We deserve true leadership.
We are one of the only communities in the vicinity without a current mask mandate. Maybe she’s under pressure from local businesses or the Chamber of Commerce and doesn’t want to give in. Her canned email to constituents requesting a new mask mandate doesn’t make sense.
I disagree that in this instance getting vaccinated is a personal choice. Were I still teaching and unvaccinated, I’d be a danger to my students, my colleagues, and myself. During the Revolutionary War General Washington ordered his troops to be inoculated to prevent the spread of smallpox. Sometimes, the common good must prevail.
Was just at a gym in Watertown for a PT appointment, and an indoor mask mandate town-wide went into effect just this morning. I noticed the difference walking through the gym today (and felt great to see 100% compliance).
There’s no reason Newton should not have been leading in something like this, and I feel the same about vaccine requirements for public employees.
It is about the common good and public safety, not “personal choice.”
Left out of the mask mandate by City Councilors: School Bus drivers! I applaud the Legislative Branch on City government — the people’s Check and Balance on the Executive Branch — for uniting and collectively acting to save lives by garnering headwind to ensure safety protocols remain NUMBER ONE and continues unabated through a near-zero infectious rate.
Of course. Everyone, regardless of employment status, should be properly masked in public places unless there is some compelling medical reason for them not to be. Echoing Doug, I felt a great sense of relief when I walked into the Newton Y yesterday and saw that everyone was wearing a mask. I’m upgrading to the N 95 version this time simply because this variation is so highly contagious and because I want to have as normal a routine as possible without endangering anyone else. I just pray they can keep the Y open.
The coronavirus vaccine should be mandated. This is not a personal issue, it is a public health issue. Newton schools already require a long list of vaccinations including mumps, measles, polio, chicken pox etc. Now we have a new, contagious and deadly disease and we have a vaccine – of course this should be on the list! There are many times people are required to be vaccinated, this is nothing new. I can’t imagine being in a gym, an environment where people tend to breathe heavy, without a mask.
Usually not a fan of mandates. However, the pandemic is if nothing else highly fluid. My employer has pushed back its reopening date due to the rise of the Delta variant, and will require proof of vaccination. Other sectors that had started to recover (e.g. restaurants/retail/schools) are in danger again. If we ever hope to return to normal, vaccinations are the best way to do that. Thanks to the City Council for their action.
I am with Jamie with regard to the City going wacko. I am vaxxed, my family is vaxxed, but I also believe it is a personal choice. Our political leaders at all levels need to stop telling people how to live their lives….masks, power sources, transport options, housing options, what items they can and cannot purchase, what to think, how to think, follow this science, no that science, whoops, we meant this science, oh no, now you should stay in your house, wait you can come out, nope stay six feet part and so forth. I find it very disingenuous that the rules and moral options regarding each person’s body are selective to the whims of general consensus. The constant drum of the pandemic press conferences, rules, stats, we will pay you to get vaxxed, here is a lotto…is doing far more mental health harm than our politicians will admit. I lost two close family members to Covid, but I also realize we cannot mask up, self-isolate and live in fear of the world and have a good outcome. I totally respect the person who wants to grind through the pandemic listening to every CDC press conference or morning show that Fauci is on and stay locked in their home devoid of human contact, but personally I quit the pandemic in January. I am just not good at that isolation and follow all these highly subjective rules.
V14 loves to quote a good news article so here is your reading links for the day all from properly approved news outlets:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-08-21/science-can-t-keep-up-with-virus-creating-worry-for-vaccinated?
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-58270098
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/rush-covid-19-vaccine-booster-shot-turn/story?id=79526299
https://www.thedailybeast.com/ultra-vaccinated-israels-debacle-is-a-dire-warning-to-america
Bill Koss
It’s not the “whims of the general consensus,” it’s making adjustments based off current data as the virus is both novel and mutating.
And I had to LOL about how you “quit the pandemic.” That’s one of the most asinine things I’ve ever heard on V14 which is saying a lot. An individual can’t just quit the pandemic, the pandemic will go on regardless. But your disregard could make people sick or kill them, so congratulations for proudly being a fool.
Whatever happened to, ‘my body my choice’?
Guess that doesn’t apply.
SMH
The “choice” for the COVID laissez fairs is an overburdened hospital, or perhaps the morgue. Lots of luck.
@FedUp Following your logic, you have the right to get drunk and drive, and, if you hit and kill someone, it’s their fault for not staying out of your way.
Comedy!!
Thanks for the laugh, Alex.
What I think will happen is that the unvaxxed are just going to all end up with coronavirus eventually. The luckiest will be asymptomatic, the luckier will just get the sniffles, some will end up gravely ill, and some will die. The 5-11 vaccine can’t come soon enough. We need to protect kids from these monsters. (And yes, kids do get sick and die of COVID)
@MMQC
1. I stated I was vaxxed. It is your choice and it is my choice as to what I put into my body and do to my body. You do not have a right to mandate health directives to me or anyone if a person chooses to abstain.
2. I am not hiding behind an anonymous name.
3. Ad hominem attacks are the weakest form of attack. I may be a fool, but I do not call people names in a public forum and I attribute my name to my words. I do not hide behind false pretenses. If you believe what you write and say, you will proudly attribute your name to comments.
4. Yes, you can quit the pandemic. You stop listening to the ever changing directives from governments, media, etc. You go back outside and live your life.
I’m sure the families of the 215 Newton residents who’ve died from COVID are laughing indeed.
I never said covid was a laughing matter. You completely twisted my words….typical.
I believe that it’s my body so it’s my choice. I’m smart enough to weigh the risks and make that choice for myself.
FedUp, you seem to be quite capable of twisting words yourself when it suits your purposes, so don’t play the victim. Lots of people have gotten sick and/or died who also thought they were making the right decisions. I hope neither you or anyone else gets sick. But the virus doesn’t listen to us.
Ted,
Not that it’s any of your business but I am vaccinated. My issue is with the mandates and I would hope a logically person would understand that.
Logical*
Fair enough, although I didn’t ask. But even vaccinated folks are getting breakthrough infections of the virus. And, for better or worse, most employers will be requiring vaccines along with negative COVID tests for the non-vaccinated, with limited legal recourse for those who refuse. And BTW, there are plenty of logical folks in Newton, even ones who disagree with you (or me). No shortage of them. Have a nice evening.
No truth to that. Many Newton businesses would welcome a mask mandate so as to remove them from the uncomfortable position of imposing one of their own. It’s much easier to tell a customer “it’s city policy” and leave it at that.
Watertown’s new indoor mask mandate explicitly says if a customer refuses to wear a mask or cloth face covering for non-medical reasons, a business may decline entry to the individual. Businesses in Newton do not have that authority.
@WRK. You ridicule decision makers who shift gears, (“try this science, no this science, whoops that science”) when trying to adhere to the latest scientific findings on Covid19; You seem to feel that there is something intrinsically wrong when scientists and public officials changing course based on new information they receive on the Virus because it means that what they were telling us earlier wasn’t true. They must have screwed things up. Quite the contrary. They knew from the beginning that the virus could mutate into many complex variable, but they were simply not in a position to determine in advance what these changes were, or what they would entail. I’m not a scientist or researcher, but I learned early in my career that the best scientists and the best researchers were those that didn’t try to hold onto their old ideas or old findings as conditions turned.
Quite different from many who can’t acknowledge evolution or the number of years this planet has been in existence. This has them creating Kentucky Theme Parks where dinosaurs romp with cavemen or the crazy belief that they have a god given right as an American not to take the jab or wear a mask regardless of the sickness and suffering it causes others. It’s simply contempt prior to investigation.
Greg, glad to hear that. But to be honest I know a lot of folks, myself included, that have questioned the Chamber’s commitment to COVID safety after the way they pushed indoor dining saying it was safe during the winter surge, in direct contrast with what public health experts said. So that’s why the idea crossed my mind.
Well Mary that’s also not true. You will not find any instance where we supported anything that was not supported but the scientific evidence/data at that time.
The science supported being maskless indoors this past winter? Really?
Really. The contact tracing data showed that spread was not happening in restaurants that adhered to a wide array of specific distancing and other protocols. It just didn’t.
Have a good night.
MMQC’s comment about the Mayor’s interest with the Newton Needham Chamber rang a bell. Then I remembered this…
A couple of weeks ago, I noticed some new spray paint markings on our street, so I decided to contact DPW to see what work is planed. Looking on the City of Newton’s website, I found the staff directory for the DPW and ended up sending an email thru the Site. When a response email was received, I noticed it was “From: [email protected] ” and had this in the footer:
“This email was sent on behalf of Newton Needham Chamber of Commerce P.O. Box 590132 Newton Centre, MA 02459.To unsubscribe click here. If you have questions or comments concerning this email or services in general, please contact us by email at [email protected].
When responding, please be aware that the Massachusetts Secretary of State has determined that most email is public record and therefore cannot be kept confidential.”
Was the Newton Needham Chamber brought on by the Mayor to redesign the City’s web site or minimally manage incoming emails sent thru the site? Does this bear weight to the claims mentioned by some that the Mayor is priortizing business in regards to taking action on a mask mandate?
Greg, I don’t know if you’re being dishonest or attempting to save face, but I just did a little digging and found lots of stuff from last fall and winter that maintained that indoor dining was unsafe.
And as for proper distancing and other protocols, I think we all know that these were not consistently enforced.
It was beyond irresponsible for the NN Chamber to push this.
@Greg and MMQC, IMO, you’re both correct in this argument. There was data suggesting that indoor dining back then was not safe, and there was data that suggested with proper risk mitigation, that it could be done. We were all drinking through a fire hose back then. We were working from varying opinions, reports, statistics, and guidelines that often contradicted one another, and they all changed so frequently that by the time you acted on anything, the information and guidelines had updated and changed. I also think it’s important to consider that businesses, especially restaurants, were all doing their best to adhere to ever-changing information, while serving people to the left and right of the pandemic issues, while short-staffed, fighting crippling supply chain issues, while also trying to keep their heads above water and their bills paid. Not every business owner goes home and counts their millions. Many of them live a modest life with a narrow profit margin, and many were watching as their life’s work was teetering on the edge of failure. It was survival-mode for most of these businesses. I for one will try not to be too harsh on them, or anyone else as we were all working with incomplete, conflicting, and ever-changing data, guidelines, and recommendations from countless sources.
Thanks Randy.
Absolutely true that there was a lot of confusion at that time. And yes our small business survive on the narrowest of edges.
But the fact remains, there is no time that the chamber said “indoor dining is safe.” We just didn’t and you won’t find a comment from me anywhere saying there was no risk. We did argue against a full second shut down last winter, backed by contact tracing data that showed that private gatherings were the primary source of spread. But our businesses and the chamber always acknowledged the risks and the tradeoffs. We still do.
@Matt: I have no idea how what you described could be even technically possible.
@Randy – Well said
@greg… I thought it was weird too. Will forward the email to you.
I would love a mandate for vaccinations from the City of Newton. When I signed my kids up for NPS, I had to show NPS proof of past vaccinations; and every year, I send the physician’s letter to the school nurse.
We are a community in Newton. We live in the same city. We shop here. We use the playgrounds, the library, and etc. While it is nice that so many residents have been vaccinated, we need the community to get the vaccine against COVID 19. It is time to act as a community.
I am not taking away your right to bear arms. I am not taking away your right to vote. I am asking you (or if the City steps up) to get a shot or two to keep all of us safe.
While we are all individuals. We are all part of a community. Get the shot. This is how we move past this.
@Randy
Everything you say is true.
It was incomplete data and business could point to some data that enabled them to advocate for not shutting down, and other data suggested that it wasn’t a good idea.
One side was protecting money, the other side people’s lives.
At the end of the day, we’re at more than 600K dead because people were focused on their selfish needs rather than community. That’s a fact. I could not look at myself in the the mirror knowing that I pushed to stop lockdowns that would have saved lives. It was ridiculous that restaurants were open last winter. The US’s disgraceful COVID numbers are directly related to people like Greg putting their needs ahead of the well-being of the society. Harsh
but true.
PS Anti-maskers have data too folks, it’s the totality that matters. The Chamber cherry picked data to push their needs over our well-being. We shouldn’t accept that.
@Alex: We’re not in the situation we’re in today because business behaved selfishly, we’re in this position because many of our nation’s political leaders behaved (and continue to behave) selfishly.
@Alex makes good points. So does @Randy. And @Greg is also correct, in that Newton “business” is primarily a collection of small businesses, working on slim margins, just trying to survive. Hindsight is always 20/20. So what about the present and going forward?
Mayor Fuller failed to take a leadership position during the school year; staying silent while kids attended most of last year remote; to the detriment of emotional health and learning; while suppporting business and sending weekly emails that provided more stats than leadership. Her current online posts are a constant barrage of carefully curated photos, and her accompishments – either directly or via Mr. Morse – rather than addressing the growing concern of the delta variant.
And her inaction resulted in a notoriously divided City Council all signing the memorandum above. Silver lining?
Every leading epidemiologist has stated that being indoors at a restaurant is a high-risk activity. When you’re dining at a restaurant you’re eating and you’re drinking. Thus, you have no mask on. There’s a lot of other people whose vaccine status you don’t know and who are also unmasked. You’re there for prolonged periods of time which is one of the things you are supposed to avoid with unknown people.
There are degrees of risk. If you, personally, feel it is too risky to go to a restaurant, don’t go. However, we are not at the point where indoor dining should be banned. Covid-19 is and will be endemic.
Our numbers are a lot lower now than they were when the Chamber was pushing the irresponsible narrative that indoor dining is perfectly safe. Plus there are vaccines available now. I still don’t feel totally comfortable indoor dining even as a fully vaxed individual, but I do think there’s a difference between now and Dec. 2020.
Jeepers! That sure is giving our chamber a lot more power in this global health crisis than I’m sure we deserve!
But, one last time, Mary: You keep accusing the chamber of saying something we never said. Please show me where and when we said “indoor dining is perfectly safe”… because we didn’t and it isn’t.