Cuomo Asks Pfizer To Sell Vaccines Directly To NY

LONG ISLAND, NY — Gov. Andrew Cuomo is demanding answers from the federal government about a vaccination rollout that increased eligibility while cutting allocation, creating chaos and mistrust among the public, he said.

Fed up with what he called lies, Cuomo said he was taking matters into his own hands and reaching out to purchase vaccinations for New Yorkers directly.

On Monday, Cuomo announced that he'd sent a letter to Pfizer Chairman and CEO Albert Bourla, asking to purchase the vaccinations directly for New York State. Pfizer is an independent, New York-based company and did not enter into the "Operation Warp Speed" program with the federal government, which Moderna did.

Should Pfizer agree, it would be the first time that a state has purchased the vaccine directly from a pharmaceutical company.

"It is abundantly clear that these vaccines are the weapons that will finally win the war against COVID-19," Cuomo wrote in the letter. "But with hospitalizations and deaths increasing across the country this winter, we are in a footrace with the virus, and we will lose unless we dramatically increase the number of doses getting to New Yorkers."

Cuomo took aim at Alex Azar, secretary of Health and Human Services, who, he said, promised relief, only to widen eligibility while cutting vaccine allocation. Now, Cuomo said, 7.1 million New Yorkers are scrambling for the vaccination when, in fact, the state's weekly allocation was cut to 250,000 doses this week — 50,000 less than last week.

At 250,000 per week, it would take seven months to vaccinate 7.1 million people, Cuomo said. To the federal government, he added: "Why did you raise that expectation? Seven months is a lifetime. You're not really eligible if there is no supply. It was a fraud. You increased anxiety by lying to the American people — you made a bad situation worse." Public confidence is very important, especially now, Cuomo said.

Cuomo also wrote a letter to Azar demanding answers in regard to the "false claim" that vaccinations held in reserve by the feds would be shipped to the states, when in fact, those dosages had already been distributed.

Any vaccinations received from Pfizer, Cuomo said, will help to fill the dosage gap created by the outgoing federal administration.

So far, 1,006,878 doses have been administered statewide, including 903,131 first and 103,747 second doses, Cuomo said.

The hospital system has ramped up its vaccination rate, with a tenfold increase, he said. But, only 60 percent of doctors have been vaccinated, and 70 percent to 90 percent must be vaccinated to achieve herd immunity, he said.

Also, with hospital capacity the most critical concern, doctors and nurses must be vaccinated to avoid getting sick and leaving those hospitals short-staffed, he said. Despite the best efforts of hospitals to aggressively increase the number of vaccinations administered, there is still uneven performance across the board, Cuomo said.

The governor unveiled a new long-term care facility dashboard, where data can be tracked.

This article originally appeared on the New York City Patch