Cuomo: COVID-19 vaccines need plan
Govenor says federal government should come up with nationwide strategy
BY MARK HALLUM
Governor Andrew Cuomo
said on Sunday that if the
federal government does
not come up with a nationwide
strategy for deploying
a COVID-19 vaccine before
the anticipated December
release, states could again
be competing against each
other for resources.
This would coincide with
fl u season and a winter of
expected spikes in the virus
due to colder weather, according
to Cuomo, and as a
result, the state along with
other governors will be issuing
a 36-point questionnaire
to the Trump administration
looking for guidance.
The federal government
will be in a better position
to help with deployment
than that state, with
New York feeling the effects
of a $50 billion defi -
cit. Despite this, Cuomo is
formulating the Vaccine
Administration Plan.
“We are coming up with
a plan on many presumptions.
We don’t know how
many doses we’re going to
get, we don’t know what
vaccine we’re going to get,
we don’t know when we’re
going to get it. So this is
all preliminary,” Cuomo
said. “Prioritization would
be based on risk; essential
workers and people at risk
would be prioritized… This
is going to be a massive
undertaking.”
The governor said that
not only will New York
have healthcare leaders assembled
on a task force to
inform the public, independent
of the federal government,
of whether or not a
vaccine is safe and effective,
but he plans to levy medical
facilities of all stripes to
administer it.
“But, states cannot do
this on their own, okay?
Period. This is the largest
operational undertaking, I
would argue, than anything
we have done during COVID
to date. This is a more complicated
undertaking and
we need the federal government
to be a competent partner
BRONX TIMES REPORTER,42 OCTOBER 23-29, 2020 BTR
in this state and with every
state,” Cuomo said.
To put this in perspective,
Governor Cuomo
stated that with 20 million
New Yorkers and most of the
vaccines in development requiring
two doses, the state
will need 40 million doses.
To date, the state under
the Cuomo administration
has only administered up to
12.9 million tests since the
start of the pandemic.
Storage of the vaccine
would pose another challenge
with vaccines expected
to need to be kept at -80 degrees
Celsius. Whether one
large storage facility will
be needed or many is still a
question in the mind of state
leaders working on the coronavirus
pandemic.
The details of the Vaccine
Administration Plan
will be dependent on a federal
plan, according to the
governor, again prompting
the 36 questions issued
by the National Governor’s
Association, which Cuomo
leads as chairman. Mark Hallum
Good people who live in
The Bronx and Queens...
I live in CA but my roots are in the Bronx.
My maternal grandparents lived there in the
fi rst half of the twentieth century. My mother
was born there in 1905 and lived there till
1925 when she married my dad. She and
my Immigrant grandparents were protected
by the wonderful cops of the Bronx. One of
those cops might have been John Cummings
dad. That’s why, from close to three thousand
miles away, I’m hoping you vote for John
Cummings who, if elected, will make sure that
everyone in the fourteenth district can lead
peaceful, productive, pleasurable lives...no
riots, no fi res, no looting...just friendly police
protection day and night.
God bless you all,
P.J. Springer
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