January 1, New Yorkers consider leaving as vaccine mandates take effect

Thousands of unvaccinated New Yorkers are considering leaving the city in light of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s vaccine mandate.

“I feel like my dream is being shattered by the government,” said Deysia Padilla, a resident of the Bronx. “I’m being taken out of my home.”

Padilla is thinking of joining the 33,500 New Yorkers who’ve permanently relocated to Florida since the start of the pandemic. The population shift inspired a new nickname for Florida — NYC’s sixth borough.

Experts say Bronx residents were hit especially hard by the pandemic, with the highest hospitalization, death, and unemployment rates in New York City. There are also economic impacts, as the median income per capita in the borough in 2019 was $21,778.

“We can’t expect that medical systems who have earned the mistrust of many marginalized groups will now be trusted because of Covid,” said Tiffany Green, a population health scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “It doesn’t work that way.”

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Vaccine hesitant New Yorkers consider leaving the city as mandates take effect