New York City Mayor Eric Adams on Thursday announced that certain athletes and performers will be exempted from the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. Adams announced the change at Citi Field, where the Mets play. The exemption was effective immediately and will benefit the likes of Brooklyn Nets star Kyrie Irving, who is unvaccinated. 

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Adams contended that making the athletes and performers exempt was important for the city’s economic recovery, saying “players attract people to the stadium.”

“I’m going to make some tough choices. People are not going to agree with some of them.” Adams said. “I must move this city forward.”

His predecessor Mayor Bill de Blasio had made vaccination mandatory as a workplace safety rule last year, before leaving office.

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However, the mandate still applies to private workers and government employees. 

Adams further added that the vaccine rule was unfair as it did not apply to visiting players and performers who don’t work in New York. 

“We are doing it because the city has to function. New York City is at a low risk environment so today we take a another step in the city’s economic recovery,” he said. 

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In the case of Irving, the seven-time All-Star is among the most high-profile people to not have taken the COVID vaccine. He was able to re-join the team in January but only when they played out of town games. When New York lifted rules several weeks ago requiring a vaccine to dine in a restaurant, work out at a gym or attend a performance, Irving was allowed to watch the Nets’ home games but not play or enter the locker room.

The Nets need him as they push for a playoff spot with nine games left in their regular season.

New York Yankees star Aaron Judge refused to directly answer a question about his vaccine status earlier this month, leading to speculation that another New York team would be hobbled by a player’s refusal to get inoculated.

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However, Adams was slammed for the annoucement. The city’s largest police union, which has sued the city over the mandate, said its officers “don’t deserve to be treated like second-class citizens.”

“We have been suing the city for months over its arbitrary and capricious vaccine mandate — this is exactly what we are talking about. If the mandate isn’t necessary for famous people, then it’s not necessary for the cops who are protecting our city in the middle of a crime crisis,” said its president, Pat Lynch.

The Municipal Labor Committee, an umbrella group of unions that together represent about 350,000 city workers, said the city should offer a way for fired workers to get their jobs back.

The city last month fired more than 1,400 workers who failed to comply with the vaccine mandate. The uneven application could likely invite more legal challenges over the mandate.