Cuomo to Delay COVID Vaccine in NY; Claims Poor Don’t Have Access to Healthcare

By: Sandy Fitzgerald & Jared Evan

Pfizer’s announcement that its two-shot COVID-19 vaccine is more than 90% effective in clinical trials and could be released in the next two months is “bad news” because of the way the Trump administration is making plans for its distribution two months before the presidential inauguration, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday.

“The bad news is that it’s about two months before Joe Biden takes over and that means this administration is going to be implementing a vaccine plan,” Cuomo told ABC News’ “Good Morning America” anchor George Stephanopoulos.

He added that he’s been speaking with other governors to either fix President Donald Trump’s plans for private providers to distribute the vaccine or to “stop it before it does damage.”

“They’re basically going to have the private providers do it and that’s going to leave out all sorts of communities that were left out the first time when COVID ravaged them,” said the governor.

Cuomo said the news about the vaccine is also good because the tests are promising and a vaccine will be out shortly.

However, Trump’s plan for private businesses like Walgreens and CVS to administer the vaccine to seniors or employees of long-term healthcare centers could bring “trouble” for communities that don’t have those businesses, said Cuomo. “That’s what happened the first time with COVID … some communities don’t have the same access to healthcare.”

This is a bizarre claim, considering the vast reach of Walgreens and CVS.

Walgreens has an unmatched national footprint, with nearly 70% of the U.S. population residing within 5 miles of one of Walgreens nearly 8,000 community pharmacies, according to Walgreens Official stockholder company profile, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc

With over 1000 locations, 8 out of 10 Americans have access to a CVS location. Those stores put it within 5-mile proximity of 227 million people in the US—71% of the country’s population, according to investment researcher QZ.

In other words, even though the vast majority of Americans have access to these stores, often in the poorest communities. Cuomo with no statistics to his baseless claim there are “healthcare deserts” in America with no access to even basic healthcare like a CVS pharmacy.

Cuomo said he does feel good about the COVID-19 numbers in his state while cases and deaths continue to climb nationwide.

“New York is third lowest in the nation,” he said. “We learned over the past seven months. We’re not in denial. We get it. Our infection rate is very, very low nationwide. Only Vermont and Maine, I think, have a lower infection rate, and they’re more rural states.”

Cuomo also called for a national mask mandate and for clamping down on microclusters when they are seen in particular neighborhoods.

“I understand that politically it’s difficult, but that’s what you have to do,” he said. “You see a little flame, you sta