Bronx Independent Living Services × Brooklyn Center for Independence of the Disabled (BCID) × Center for Independence of the Disabled, New York × Disabled In Action of Metropolitan NY (DIA) × Harlem Independent Living Center × Hearing Loss Association of America – NYC Chapter × Independence Care System × Long COVID Justice Center × Long Island Center for Independent Living, Inc. × Network for Long COVID Justice × Rise and Resist Elevator Group × Staten Island Center for Independent Living × Strategies for High Impact
December 13, 2022
Hon. Kathy Hochul Governor, State of New York Executive Chamber
Albany, New York 12224
Dear Gov. Hochul:
We urge you to immediately respond to the “triple threat” public health emergency we face in the New York City region with a new mask mandate in indoor spaces in New York City and on the region’s subways, buses, commuter rails and paratransit. Our groups represent hundreds of thousands of disabled New Yorkers, including people who are immunocompromised or at high risk of complications from viral infections. Our numbers include people who are disabled by long COVID.
Last Wednesday, you convincingly laid out the dangers New Yorkers face from COVID-19, the flu and RSV. The facts are stark: High community transmission levels of COVID in all five New York City boroughs, both Long Island counties, Rockland County, and Westchester County. A total of 19,627 flu cases in the NY metro region in late November. RSV spreading rapidly, especially among children. Intensive care hospital beds becoming scarcer.
Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control recommends indoor masking, especially in high transmission areas.
There is no time to waste. Merely encouraging people to wear masks to prevent the spread of these airborne diseases is an ineffective strategy. It undermines the public health message, since it makes it sound as if masking is optional. And it underestimates the interest of New Yorkers in getting solid public health advice in an emergency.
Not everyone will wear a mask if there is a mandate. But significantly more people will, making indoor spaces and transit safer for all of us, including the disability community.
As governor, you can take other steps to mitigate the effects of these airborne diseases, including ensuring a massive distribution of N95 masks to residents across the state through multiple channels; working to improve air filtration in schools and other public spaces; and continuing to encourage vaccination.
But now is the time to move quickly on a mask mandate. We urge you to immediately impose mask mandates in the region’s indoor spaces and public transit facilities. It’s a matter of life and death.
Yours truly,
Joseph G. Rappaport
Executive Director
Brooklyn Center for Independence of the Disabled (BCID)
Brett L. Eisenberg
Executive Director
Bronx Independent Living Services
Sharon McLennon-Wier, Ph.D., MSEd., CRC, LMHC
Executive Director
Center for Independence of the Disabled, New York
Jean Ryan
President
Disabled In Action of Metropolitan NY (DIA)
Yonette Lewis
Acting Executive Director
Harlem Independent Living Center
Katherine Bouton
President
Hearing Loss Association of America – NYC Chapter
Cc: Mary L. Bassett
Regina Estela
President and CEO Independence Care System
Myra Batchelder Collaborator
Long COVID Justice Center
Susan R McCormack
Executive Director
Long Island Center for Independent Living, Inc.
Gabriel San Emeterio Co-Founder
Network for Long COVID Justice
Jessica Murray
Organizer
Rise and Resist Elevator Group
Michelle Sabatino, MSW
Executive Director
Staten Island Center for Independent Living
JD Davids
Co-Founder
Strategies for High Impact
Respond to: Joseph G. Rappaport, BCID, 25 Elm Place, 5th floor, Brooklyn, NY 11201 / jrappaport@bcid.org.