Times Square Will Require Vaccine on New Year’s Eve

CLAY: Buck, you’re in New York City, which is one of the most locked-down places in the country in terms of requiring vaccine mandates and masking and everything else. Mayor Bill de Blasio just came out and said, “Hey, we’re going to have a Times Square celebration this year,” for the first time since, I guess, 2019 turned into 2020, I guess it would have been, right, because they certainly canceled it for ’20, heading into ’21. So listen to Bill de Blasio talk about this. You’re gonna have to be vaccinated in order to stand outdoors and freeze your ass off. I’ve done this before. I don’t know if you’ve ever done it, Buck.

BUCK: You did the Times Square freeze-your-butt-off thing?

CLAY: I did Times Square ’99 to 2000.

BUCK: Good heavens, Clay.

CLAY: Yeah, ’99 to 2000, that was when everybody said — remember — the Y2K bug was gonna shut down everything?

BUCK: You would have to pay me large sums of money. I worked at the NYPD; they actually had a section you could go to if you were a city employee that was a little better. Anyway, no. I’ve never done this. But it’s interesting that you have, but let’s hear what they say.

CLAY: I did it ’99 to 2000, and to be fair, it was so crowded early that I wasn’t very close to where the ball dropped. So, I went for the 12 a.m. ball drop. I was actually able to get close enough to see it. I was in college, so I was with a bunch of college kids.

BUCK: People wear diapers — you know that, right — because once you’re penned in you cannot go anywhere?

CLAY: I was not wearing a diaper.

BUCK: I wasn’t saying you did.

CLAY: I didn’t know that people did that. Yeah, I did it. So I guess maybe there’s still a lot of people who want to be a part of this this year. I haven’t heard this audio, but Bill de Blasio letting everybody know, “Hey, the ball’s dropping, baby. We’re back!”

DE BLASIO: We love New Year’s Eve in Times Square. We want it to be big. We want it to be full of life. We want it to be a great New York celebration. Guess what, everyone? A big, strong, full-strength celebration. It’s coming back. This New Year’s Eve, Times Square, everyone come on down. We’re celebrating! Hundreds of thousands of people will be there to celebrate.

We can finally get back together again. It’s gonna be amazing. It’s gonna be a joy for this city. Now, let’s do it the right way. Let’s do it the safe way. So here’s how we’re gonna do it. We want to welcome those hundreds of thousands of, folks, but everyone needs to be vaccinated. All you need to do is have proof of vaccination and a valid photo ID and you’re in.

CLAY: How are they gonna test this?

BUCK: Outside? It’s outside! You’re not gonna get covid from people outside. I mean, maybe I guess, if you’re so penned in, this might be that rare time when somebody right next to you breathing in your face outside. I don’t know. But even then, it’s pretty unlikely. With free-flowing air, it’s unlikely. Yeah, Clay, they’re gonna check the way they check IDs at a bar. This is what they do all over New York City now.

CLAY: But doesn’t that seem like it’s gonna be a massive, onrushing crush of humanity?

BUCK: Of course.

CLAY: If you have security guards trying to check… Because people will all cluster close together in order to get into the ball-drop area, right? So you’re gonna have a huge mass of humanity no matter what.

BUCK: They don’t care. They don’t care how frustrating and annoying and the slow process will be. De Blasio doesn’t care if instead of 300,000 people gather, it’s 30,000. He’s gonna just… This is just another opportunity to show what a big proponent of the vax mandate in New York City he is and Bill de Blasio could make handing out freshly baked cookies and $100 bills seem unappealing.

This guy is the worst, the most awful mayor in America. He cannot leave my home city soon enough — and I know everybody listening on 710 WOR here in New York, in the New York area, knows this guy’s the absolute worst, Clay. It’s almost impressive how bad he is at being mayor.

CLAY: In many ways, though, Buck, this is a little bit of a mess, right? Because if you can have hundreds of thousands of people in the streets, covid can still spread even if they’re vaccinated. Effectively what you’re arguing. Is — I’m gonna take the positive here — things have to get back to normal.

BUCK: One day. One day. It’s what we’re fighting for here.