EDITORIAL
THE KEY TO
SUCCESS
HOW TO REACH US
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.12 COM | SEPT. 17 - SEPT. 23, 2021
PROTECTING OUR POWER GRID
PROUD MEMBER OF NEW YORK PRESS ASSOCIATION
PUBLISHER
Brian Rice
EDITOR
Zach Gewelb
V.P. OF ADVERTISING
Ralph D’onofrio
CIRCULATION
Robert Palacios
CLASSIFIED
Classified Director:
Celeste Alamin
Classified Sales
Manager:
Eugena Pechenaya
EDITORIAL STAFF
Reporters: Bill Parry, Angelica
Acevedo, Carlotta Mohamed,
Jenna Bagcal, Julia Moro
Copy Editor: Katrina Medoff
Contributing Writers/Columnists:
Tammy Scileppi
ART & PRODUCTION
Production Manager:
Deborah Cusick
Art Director: Nirmal Singh
Layout: Zach Gewelb
ADVERTISING
Senior Account Executive:
Kathy Wenk
Account Executives:
David Strauss
Sherri Rossi
MAIL: 38-15 Bell Boulevard, Bayside, NY 11361
PHONE: Display Advertising: (718) 260-4537
Editorial: (718) 260-4549
WEBSITE: Visit www.qns.com
E-MAIL: Editorial: timesledgernews@schnepsmedia.com
Display Advertising: brice@schnepsmedia.com
Classified: classified@schnepsmedia.com
TO SUBSCRIBE: Call (718) 260-2515
Copyright©2019 Queens CNG LLC.
New York City government began enforcing the “Key to NYC” vaccine mandate for indoor businesses on Sept. 13,
2021. Photo by Dean Moses
The “Key to NYC” vaccine mandate for various
businesses — including restaurants, gyms and
arenas — has been in place for nearly a month,
but Monday, Sept. 13, marked the first day the city
began enforcing the mandate.
Up until now, business owners have been allowed to
operate on a sort of honors system, checking their customers
to ensure that they’ve received the COVID-19
vaccine. But as of Sept. 13, they’ll face serious financial
penalties from the city if they don’t properly enforce the
mandate.
Not long after Mayor Bill de Blasio announced the
Key to NYC program, some disgruntled business owners
protested a decision; some went as far as to pursue legal
action. They charged the mandate was “capricious and
arbitrary,” that it didn’t equally impact businesses and
placed an undue burden on them to control the behavior
of others. And there’s a point to these arguments, but
they willfully ignore the reality of the situation.
We’re nine months into the vaccination effort in
New York, and still only 61% of the city’s nearly 9 million
residents are fully vaccinated. COVID-19 cases
have increased over the last couple of months, even
with the vaccine, due to the proliferation of the delta
variant among unvaccinated New Yorkers.
After the vaccination effort peaked in April and
May, the numbers started dropping — so the city began
offering all kinds of lucrative incentives, even cash payments,
to get people vaccinated. Still, many unvaccinated
New Yorkers remained stubborn, having made their
judgment against the vaccine based on the mountain of
misinformation heaped upon them on social media and
ignorant loudmouths on cable news.
Then in July and August, the state and city began
mandating the vaccine for certain employees and
places of business. It was the last resort, as efforts to
get New Yorkers vaccinated voluntarily weren’t keeping
up with the spread of this highly infectious, often
deadly virus.
Businesses in New York City must understand that
continuing to let people play the honors system with
their health is going to make overcoming the pandemic
damn near impossible.
The longer COVID-19 festers and mutates, the greater
the chances that the virus becomes vaccine resistant.
That would potentially throw society back to square one
— to business restrictions and closures, to public lockdowns,
to prolonged mask mandates. Do we want to beat
COVID-19, or do we want to suffer with it forever?
We must do more to strengthen our power
grid against an electromagnetic pulse
(EMP) event.
Such an event can result from an attack
by terrorists or by another country (e.g. China
may already have the capability), or it can occur
naturally. It could result in devastating loss of
life. There is disagreement on this, but why take
chances?
We should also have a ground-based GPS backup
system (like Russia has), or we could lose the internet,
at the least, in an anti-satellite attack.
Alvin Blake,
Bayside