Chuck Todd Demands Answer from NYC Mayor About Vaccine Mandate: ‘Are You Not At All Empathetic of Parents?’

NBC and MSNBC anchor Chuck Todd pressed New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday over the city’s vaccine mandate for children ages 5 to 11.

At the moment, those 5 to 11 years old can only get the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid vaccine, which has been authorized for emergency use for that age group and fully authorized for those age 16 and older.

On Monday, the city enacted vaccine mandates for kids at least five years old and for private-sector workers.

During Thursday’s MTP Daily, Todd, who is a parent to two children, asked De Blasio, who also has two children, “Why are you comfortable mandating a vaccine for 5- to 11-year-olds right now that is only for emergency use?”

De Blasio answered:

Chuck, I’m thinking as a parent myself. When my kids were younger, all I thought about, the first thing I thought about was their health and well-being. And we are seeing now the Omicron variant, it’s having a particularly big impact on younger people. We also are seeing that it is spreading very, very quickly. This variant is fast. We need to be faster. So this is about protecting kids and protecting our city.

This, remember, this particular mandate is for things like indoor dining and entertainment. It’s not whether you can go to school or any other thing. It’s a choice if a family wants to partake in those things, we’re saying help keep your own child safe but also everyone around you safe.

Part of why the restaurants in New York City are full again is because we have a vaccine mandate in place and the customers know they’re safe and the employees know they’re safe. And we’ve got to keep building on it because Omicron’s bring down on us, winter’s bearing down on us. We got to go farther now.

Todd followed and up and said, when looking at “the issue of the emergency authorization,” parents may want to wait until the vaccine gets full authorization.

“Are you at all empathetic here of parents that want to just take a pause? They’re vaccinated,” said Todd. “You know they’re keeping their children within a certain set of parameters if they themselves care enough to be vaccinated. Why not trust the parents on this for a bit?”

De Blasio replied:

I trust parents entirely, Chuck, and I think it’s every parent’s choice, obviously, to make for their own child. But I got to tell you, in the end, we’re thinking about what’s going to stop a pandemic from once again causing our city to shut down. We’ve been through that before. The restrictions, the shutdown. This is about something bigger. So listen, I hear you loud and clear. For example, if a child has a physical condition that makes a vaccination impossible, we do leave space absolutely for medical accommodations, that kind of a situation.

But for the vast majority of kids, we know that vaccination will keep them safe. We know, we’ve seen a pattern now, with the vaccine for months and months and months that we know it works and the greater danger is the young person getting Covid and then bringing it home, including to older family members who really could be in danger.

So I do have empathy. And I think there’s been a lot of struggles in families, thinking these issues through. There’s also been a lot of misinformation.

Watch above, via MSNBC.