28 THE QUEENS COURIER • MAY 20, 2021 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
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Story: St. John’s University applies for new nursing
program
Summary: In celebration of National Nurses Week, St.
John’s University announced that it recently applied to
the New York State Education Department for approval
to off er a Bachelor of Science (BSN) degree in nursing.
Pending state approval, the university anticipates the
program could begin as early as fall 2022.
Reach: 3,795 (as of 05/17/2021)
Masks down, sleeves up
Back on May 13, the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention
issued new guidance which indicated
that people who are fully vaccinated
against COVID-19 no longer have
to worry about wearing masks in most
public places.
It apparently took Governor Andrew
Cuomo the weekend to process this
before fi nally announcing on May 17
that New York would adopt the mandate
two days later.
If you’re a New Yorker, and you’ve
been fully vaccinated for COVID-19,
you can go about life without a mask
except if you’re riding public transportation
or in congregate settings like
hospitals or doctor’s offi ces.
But if you haven’t been vaccinated
yet, you’ll still need to wear the mask
indefi nitely. So many of the people
who protested the mask mandate in
the fi rst place and didn’t bother complying
with it probably don’t care too
much about the change.
For more than a year, New York state
mandated that everyone wear masks
when out in public, following the science
which showed that COVID-19
was at its most communicable through
coughing, sneezing and spittle.
A small yet boisterous minority of
people protested this mandate as a
violation of one’s freedom. Th ey had,
in fact, abandoned personal responsibility
at a time of a worldwide health
emergency — foregoing a sense of the
common good in favor of indulging
themselves.
Th e mask mandate was never tyranny.
It was a temporary solution
to a dangerous problem in society.
And with COVID-19 rates plummeting,
the vaccine getting into millions
of arms and the science showing
just how protected vaccinated people
are, the time had come to make
the change.
Now, as the city reopens, so do large
venues with large numbers of seats for
fully vaccinated New Yorkers. Life is
returning to something close to a prepandemic
normal. We’re fi nally in a
position to get beyond this pandemic,
but only if we all share the responsibility
together of protecting ourselves
and each other from this virus.
So if you haven’t already done so, we
remind you again: Get the COVID-
19 vaccine. It’s safe, and it works. It
has gotten us to the point of fully
reopening, and it will keep us from
ever taking a step backward into the
deadly abyss.
We owe it to ourselves to do everything
we can to stop COVID-19 in its
tracks for good. Th is vaccine is the
way to do it.
Photo courtesy of Cuomo’s offi ce via Flickr
Fully vaccinated New Yorkers are able to do almost anything in New York state without wearing a mask as
of Wednesday, May 19.
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