By Eric Schoen
I want to start out by asking you a question. How would you feel if in the middle of a pandemic, an unvaccinated candidate for public office knocked on your 80 year old parents door asking them to support him/her for office? The candidate did not tell them he was unvaccinated. Ringing the downstairs doorbell if it was an apartment building to get in, walking the halls, wringing doorbells and meeting your parents face to face.
If you are like me you would be pretty upset. This, my friends is what is going on in Westchester County Legislative District 15, the race between Incumbent Democrat Ruth Walter and newcomer Republican James Nolan. Mr. Nolan has chosen not to receive a Covid vaccine. He must stop campaigning door to door immediately.
I believe everyone should receive a the Covid vaccine unless they have a medical reason authenticated by a doctor who is knowledgeable about the virus, the vaccine and its side affects or a religious reason for not doing it. The Journal News did an excellent piece over the weekend regarding religions opposed to vaccination. There aren’t many of them.
If you don’t want to take the vaccine it’s your choice. No one likes injecting a foreign substance in their body, particularly something so new. It’s all we have at this point to stop people from getting very ill and potentially dying. Dying like 2330 Westchester residents as of September 26. 2522 fatalities in Westchester as of September 26. This according to the Westchester County Dashboard.
If you don’t want to take the vaccine, I really do not want you in my company. Particularly not in the close quarters of a radio station studio. I have family and friends and don’t care to get ill and pass anything on to them. Yes, some who have taken the vaccine have come down with Covid. But the vast majority of people who are getting very sick and dying have not been vaccinated.
What upset me most about the Dolan case is how I found out that he was not vaccinated. I think I was the last person in Westchester to know. I had messaged him on September 20 at 9:06 a.m. that I would like him and his opponent, incumbent Ruth Walter to appear on the Westchester Rising Radio Show on WVOX on October 7 to discuss issues affecting the district he was running for. At 9:59 he messaged me back that he would appear.
On September 23, the date of our first very successful discussion with Lakisha Collins Bellamy and Ron Matten, Candidates for City Council President, at I got a message from Nolan asking ‘Do we have to show a negative Covid test to get into the WVOX studio. I messaged him back that you have to be fully vaccinated. He responded, ‘and if we aren’t?’ Now I would have much more respect for him If he came out and said he wasn’t vaccinated, is that a problem, and how can we deal with the problem in terms of the radio show. He didn’t. While it is preferable and better for the show and our audience if both candidates are in studio, we would make accommodation.
He then asked if there was any way he could show a negative Covid test the day of or before the program. I told him station policy is you must be fully vaccinated. In fact that is my policy, even if it wasn’t the station policy.
The forum will go on. October 7, 10 a.m.-11:00 a.m. on WVOX 1460 AM, WVOX.com and click on listen live or via the fine WVOX app for download free from the App Store. We hold our elected officials to a high standard. Who would have thought there was a problem with the vaccination status of a candidate when most elected officials are out there beating the drums for people to get vaccinated.
Speaking of beating the drums, I asked the Mayor of Yonkers, Mike Spano and Bronxville Mayor Mary Marvin to comment on an unvaccinated individual going door to door campaigning in their respective city/village. As of press time, I have heard from neither Spano nor Marvin. This worries me, but if they want to allow this activity to go on it’s on their shoulders god forbid someone gets sick or something worse happens.
I also asked the New York State Department of Health, yes the outgoing Dr. Harold Zucker’s office for comment on whether they thought an unvaccinated candidate should be campaigning door to door. Did I expect a response? If you think I did I have a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. His office is probably to busy defending the many lawsuits brought by his order to return Covid positive patients to nursing homes. What a shanda (disgrace in Yiddish).
There are many ways for candidates to campaign other than going door to door. To be honest, I probably would ask a candidate who comes to my door to show in the window of the door to my apartment or house or through the peep hole or under the door their vaccination card before I opened the door for my safety. Candidates can call on the phone, send mail, lawn signs on their supporters lawns, posters in the window of businesses that support them, bumper stickers, sound trucks with local jurisdiction permit, the list does on and on. Skip the flyers on car windows. People get annoyed with them and if they get wet while on the windshield can lead to a major scraping job.
Two questions came up from the many people who answered the door when Nolan knocked. Should you just to be sure have a Covid test. I spoke to a doctor friend of mine who said that is a decision between the patient and his/her doctor. Lots of stories about people getting price gouged for Covid tests. Make sure you know the price before the place you go to administers the test.
The other question that came up is if Nolan is unvaccinated, how can he be working as a custodian in the Yonkers Public Schools. New York City is making all school employees be vaccinated. At press time New York City has set a 5:00 pm Friday, October 1 deadline for employees to receive their first shot. Yonkers is not. The Yonkers policy according to the districts website is:
Yonkers Board of Education employees and students must continue to wear masks at all times regardless of vaccination status while at school. On or before September 1, 2021, all employees of the Board of Education must be vaccinated or tested on a regular basis. All employees must provide proof of vaccination or proof of a negative COVID-19 test result based on a COVID-19 test administered within the prior seven-day period on a regular basis in accordance with the procedures and protocols implemented by the Superintendent of Schools and/or his designee.
If you are a parent of a Yonkers Public Schools student or a citizen of Yonkers and you have any questions regarding this policy, email the Trustees of the Yonkers Board of Education at trustees@yonkerspublicschools.org or call the district at 914-376-8000. To contact the Superintendent of the Yonkers Public Schools either use that phone number or follow the directions on this page from the districts website: https://www.yonkerspublicschools.org/Page/1487
Some good news. A report came out at press time that as Vaccine rates rise Covid cases fall 8% statewide. Keep up the good work New Yorkers.
And please James Nolan, Stop Campaigning Door to Door in Yonkers and Bronxville!
Reach Eric Schoen at thistooisyonkers@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter @ericyonkers. Listen to Eric Schoen and Dan Murphy on the Westchester Rising Radio Show Thursday’s from 10-11 a.m. On WVOX 1460 AM, go to WVOX.com and click the arrow to listen to the live stream or download the WVOX app from the App Store free of charge.
