On December 6, 2021, in his last major act as mayor of New York City, Democrat Bill de Blasio announced that, to stop the spread of the omicron variant of COVID-19, all 184,000 private businesses in the city would henceforth be commanded to enforce vaccine mandates on their employees, and all children ages 5 and up (including tourists from countries that hadn't yet approved pediatric vaccines) would need to show proof of full immunization before entering most indoor venues.
"Look at a country like Germany right now—shutdowns, restrictions," de Blasio explained in a follow-up interview. "We cannot let that happen. So we had to take decisive action."
