18 THE QUEENS COURIER • DECEMBER 2, 2021 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
editorial
Title: Oldest gay bar in Queens to remain in Jackson
Heights after purchase of its Roosevelt Avenue building
Summary: The oldest gay bar in Queens, Friend’s
Tavern, will remain a cornerstone in the Jackson Heights
community after the owner purchased the building in
which it has operated for more than three decades.
Reach: 13,075 (as of 11/24/2021)
Cause for concern, not alarm
Th ey call it omicron, a variant
fi ght against this global pandemic.
However, these same fears were
expressed with the emergence
of the delta variant — and as it
turned out, the vaccine proved
eff ective at curbing the spread and
reducing the severity of infections.
No question, the emergence
of any new COVID-19 variant is
going to spark alarm. And governments
need to take measures
to ensure that we’re prepared to
handle any possible surge in cases
appropriately.
Talk of potential shutdowns,
however, is way premature and
alarmist. We lost so much as a
society during the height of
COVID-19, and it would be catastrophic
to go back to those dark
days of the spring of 2020.
All the more reason for all of
us to ensure that we are vaccinated
— that we get booster shots six
months aft er the second dose —
and that we keep up our guard in
public to ensure that we keep ourselves
and our friends, families
and neighbors safe.
We have every confi dence that if
all of us stand together in protecting
ourselves and ending this pandemic,
we can prevent omicron
from causing further tragedy and
heartbreak in New York.
THE QUEENS
of COVID-19 fi rst detected in
South Africa that is considered at
this stage to be an even more virulent
form of the virus than the
delta variant.
Since South African authorities
reported the omicron variant last
week, many other cases have been
detected around the globe. News
of the variant prompted a massive
selloff in global stock markets on
Black Friday.
It also led Governor Kathy
Hochul to preemptively declare a
state of emergency to ensure hospitals
are prepared for any anticipated
surge in COVID-19 cases.
Th en on Sunday, Dr. Anthony
Fauci said on the morning news
programs that a new round of
mandates and lockdowns couldn’t
be ruled out at the present time.
But so much about the omicron
variant remains unknown — specifi
cally if it impacts vaccine effi -
cacy. Health offi cials across the
globe have said there isn’t enough
data yet to determine whether this
variant is vaccine resistant.
In the unlikely event that omicron
is vaccine resistant, then
we have a major problem on our
hands, and it would threaten to
undo the progress made in the
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Alexandros Avramidis/REUTERS
BioNTech has started work on a vaccine tailored to omicron, the new COVID-19 variant.
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