The Boston Mayor has refused to follow New York’s mandated proof of vaccination in many indoor businesses, including restaurants, gyms and entertainment venues. Kim Janey claims it is reminiscent of “slavery” and birtherism.

She said, “there’s a long history” in the United States of people “needing to show their papers”. “During slavery, post-slavery, as recent as, you know, what the immigrant population has to go through here, we’ve heard Trump with the birth certificate nonsense,” Janey told WCVB. “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 communities,” she added. 

Kim Janey expressed that the city rather wants to lean heavily on collaborating with community groups to increase the vaccination rate and give access to the “lifesaving” vaccine to as many as possible. 

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“As it relates to people who want to encourage their workforce to get vaccinated, we certainly support that,” Janey continued.

Kim Janey took office in March when Marty Walsh joined President Joe Biden as his Labor Secretary. 

“That is good progress,” Janey said. “We have much more work to do to make sure that everyone can get the vaccine and we will continue to focus on that.” However, she said it would be difficult to enforce such a mandate, garnering harsh criticism from her opponents. 

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City Councilor Andrea Campbell took to Twitter and said, “When we are combating a deadly virus & vaccine hesitancy in some communities, this kind of rhetoric is dangerous. Showing proof of vaccination is not slavery or birtherism. We are too close to give ground to COVID. Science is science. It’s pretty simple – Vax up and mask up.”

Janey responded to the criticism at a block party and said “What I said was there is a long history of asking people to show their papers, what our focus here in Boston is in making sure that everyone has access to the vaccine, making sure that we are doing everything to vaccinate our workforce in the city of Boston, making sure that our residents have access to the vaccine.”

Her office released an official statement later to clarify her stance. The statement read, “Earlier today, I pointed out several hurdles facing communities of color with lower vaccination rates,” the statement read. “These hurdles should not be excuses, but we must consider our shared history as we work to ensure an equitable public health and economic recovery.”