Mayor Urges Jewish Community to get First Shot by Monday to be Fully Vaccinated by Rosh Hashana

      Mayor Bill de Blasio, who is pushing to get every New Yorker vaccinated, today urged the members of the city’s Jewish community to get their first Pfizer shot by Aug. 2, so that they will by fully vaccinated by Rosh Hashana, which starts on Sept. 6.

     The mayor referred to the Pfizer shot because it requires three weeks between the first and second shot, while the Moderna shot requires four weeks between the two shots, which would prepare Jews, who comprise 13% of the city’s population, to be vaccinated by Yom Kippur.

     With the Delta variant now causing COVID positivity rates to once again surge among the unvaccinated, the mayor said, “Now is the time to supercharge our vaccination effort.”

     “If you want to be fully vaccinated by Rosh Hashana, if you get the first one Monday you will be fully vaccinated by Rosh Hashana for gatherings,” said the mayor.  “We also want to protect our kids any child 12 and older [who are not eligible], so vaccination is great thing looking forward to the holiday.”

    The mayor has been saying for days that “No one wants to back to restrictions, which are ‘of the past.’

     “Vaccination is the most important public health effort to stop the COVID-19 pandemic and save the most lives,” said Dave Chokshi, MD, the city’s health commissioner.

     “Vaccination is the future, vaccination is the key, vaccination is the way,” the mayor said.