Include Salon Workers In Next Round Of Vaccines, Brooklyn BP Says

BROOKLYN, NY — A group of elected officials and Brooklyn salons are urging health officials to open up the coronavirus vaccine to the salon industry, whose workers have not yet been named eligible despite being deemed a high-risk industry during the pandemic.

The salons joined a letter last week sent by Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams asking the city and state's health commissioners to include barber shop, beauty salon, nail salon workers and hair braiders in the next round of vaccine eligibility.

"These barbershop and salon workers continue to be at high-risk for infection because they cannot work from home and cannot socially distance from their clients while they are providing services," Adams wrote, noting that workers are often from Black, brown or immigrant communities.

"Most importantly, these workers and their families can be some of the most financially vulnerable among our constituents and are some of the hardest-hit by the economic devastation inflicted by the pandemic."

The state's vaccine roll-out has so far opened up eligibility to several groups of frontline workers,including healthcare workers, restaurant staff, teachers, hotel workers, grocery store staff and others. As of Monday, salon workers were not included on this list.

Adams noted that nearly half of the country's salon industry workforce are people of color. About 60 percent of salon businesses are owned by women, studies show.

Workers from New York City's 4,000 or so nail salons in particular also live in areas of the city that were epicenters of the pandemic at the height of the coronavirus crisis last year, Adams said. About 5 percent of the country's nail salons are in Brooklyn and Queens, he added.

"As we work to rebuild New York and rebuild these industries, workers must feel safe returning to work, and customers must feel safe going to barbershops and salons," Adams wrote. "Workers having access to the vaccine is an essential part of both workers and clients feeling safe and will be integral to the economic health of these industries moving forward."

The vaccine eligibility is not the first time salon workers have pointed out the challenges the industry has faced during the coronavirus crisis. In the early days of New York City's reopening, salon workers banded together to ask for more help reopening their businesses.

Adams' letter included about a dozen City Council members, seven state lawmakers and several work safety or union organizations.