12 MAY 20, 2021 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
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
EDITORIAL
THE HOT TOPIC
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.
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Fully vaccinated New Yorkers are able to do most anything in New York state without wearing a mask as of
Wednesday, May 19, according to Governor Andrew Cuomo. Photo courtesy of Cuomo’s offi ce via Flickr
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. They 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.
The 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. This vaccine is the
way to do it.
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