Mayor Bill de Blasio’s latest vaccine mandate announced earlier this week is being met with harsh criticism from small business owners throughout the city.

On Monday, De Blasio announced a sweeping measure that would require all workers in the city to get fully vaccinated before December 27. The measure would apply to all employees of private businesses and also expand vaccine requirements to children as well. Children 5 to 11 only need to show proof of one dose of the vaccine by December 11, seeing as approval for this age group was just recently approved.

The measure is expected to impact workers in roughly 184,000 businesses around the city. Businesses and employees who do not adhere to the mandate could face penalties. De Blasio explained that there would be medical or religious exemptions for certain individuals.

De Blasio went on MSNBC Monday morning and explained, "We've got omicron as a new factor, we've got the colder weather, which is really going to create additional challenges with the delta variant, we've got holiday gatherings.” He adds, ‘We in New York City have decided to use a preemptive strike to really do something bold to stop the further growth of Covid and the dangers it's causing to all of us."

While some business owners agree with the vaccine mandate as an effort to slow the spread of the virus, especially the new Omicron variant which is believed to be more contagious, many are pushing back against it.

Joe Schwartz, manager of Satmar Meat Market in Brooklyn, an area with the lowest vaccination rates in the city, shared with the New York Times that the mandate was an overreach.

“He doesn’t have any right,” said Mr. Schwartz, who said he was vaccinated. “That’s not his job. He should be busy with the city to make sure crime is down.”

Randy Peers, chief executive of the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, also described that the vaccine requirement was “virtually unenforceable” and detailed that such a mandate would only bring more pain to the city’s economy. He explains, “It sets up problematic confrontations between employers and staff, which could result in layoffs around the holidays that would be incredibly unfortunate.”

While many national financial operations in Queens including Bank of America and Citi have already implemented a vaccine requirement, boroughs including Brooklyn and Staten Island have some of the city’s lowest vaccination rates. In Kings County, rates of those fully vaccinated hovers at roughly 42%. Additionally, some worry about a rise in unemployment rates throughout the city, especially in areas like Brooklyn which has one of the city’s highest unemployment rates at just under 9% compared to the state’s 6.9%. A vaccine mandate that may push some workers out could potentially lead to a rise in unemployment. This is an issue that many small businesses throughout the city and the nation have been struggling with.

Some business owners are looking to the New York City mayor-elect, Eric Adams, to reverse the mandate. While Adams has supported vaccine mandates in the past, in November he said that he would give the mandates a second look once in office. A spokesman for Adams shared that​​the mayor-elect would “evaluate this mandate and other Covid strategies when he is in office and make determinations based on science, efficacy and the advice of health professionals.”