Democratic President Joe Biden has ignited a war of words with Republican Govs. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Greg Abbott of Texas about COVID-19 policies.
Yet somehow it’s doubtful Biden will similarly tangle with the mayor of Boston who also rejects policies such as vaccine passports.
That’s because the mayor holds a lofty perch on the intersectional hierarchy.
In addition to being a Democrat, the mayor is black and a woman.
And she’s used that standing to denounce vaccine passports with the same language Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and other Democrats use for election-integrity laws.
In a recent interview with Boston media, Mayor Kim Janey was asked for her reaction to the mandated vaccine passports New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has imposed. De Blasio has said people who don’t show proof of vaccination should be denied entry into restaurants, theaters, gyms, and other public places.
With a verve usually found on the right when COVID mandates are raised, Janey dismissed the idea outright.
“We want to make sure that we are giving every opportunity for folks to get vaccinated. When it comes to what businesses may choose to do, we know that those types of things are difficult to enforce when it comes to vaccine,” she said.
She then went on to compare vaccine passports to Jm Crow-era laws, and the “birtherism” comments Donald Trump used to question Barack Obama’s citizenship.
“There’s a long history in this country of people needing to show their papers,” Janey told the Boston media. “During slavery, post-slavery, as recent as you know what immigrant population has to go through here. We heard Trump with the birth certificate nonsense. Here we want to make sure that we are not doing anything that would further create a barrier for residents of Boston or disproportionally impact BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) communities.”
The mayor added, “Instead, you want to lean in heavily with partnering with community organizations, making sure that everyone has access to the lifesaving vaccine. As it relates to people who want to encourage their workforce to get vaccinated. We certainly support that.”
Some of the harshest criticism Janey received was from fellow Democrats.
Afterward, her office released a statement reiterating that there were no plans for vaccination mandates, although Janey added that “we must consider our shared history as we work to ensure an equitable public health and economic recovery.”
Then, sounding positively Republican, Janey concluded, “COVID-19 cases have increased in Boston with the emergence of the Delta variant, but we are still well below threshold levels that have guided policy decisions throughout the pandemic. Work with our business community will continue, as we learn to live with COVID-19.”
Janey obviously recognizes what Biden, de Blasio and other Democrats who advocate for such policies do not: that the most significant amount of vaccine “hesitancy” is in the BIPOC community.
WBUR.org reported a month ago that 50 percent of blacks and Hispanics in Boston were vaccinated, compared to 64 percent of whites, and those ratios had risen from 37 percent and 33 percent, respectively, in May.
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