A frustrated New York City mayor, Bill de Blasio, repeated on Friday his calls to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to allow the Big Apple to vaccinate those over 75, noting that they are at greater risk and warning that it is “very dangerous” to delay this eligibility.
“We literally have twice as many New Yorkers over 75 years old as the amount of vaccine we have in stock this minute and yet we are not allowed by state law to give a single injection to a single New Yorker over 75 years old, “he said.
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Although people over 75 are significantly more likely to die from COVID-19 than any other age group, the Cuomo state government has prioritized health professionals, saying that vaccinating them is crucial to keeping hospitals open.
“The rules for distributing the COVID vaccine have been clear for many weeks and accepted by virtually all trusted federal and state leaders,” the governor’s office said in a statement on Thursday. “The first priority is ‘1A’, health professionals who are on the front lines.”
Although de Blasio agrees that frontline workers are important, he says the uptake of those in this group has been limited. He said that out of a total pool of 100,000 with 54,000 doses available, only 16,000 were administered.
New York health care workers are listed in the “1A” group, which will receive vaccines first, before those in “1B”, or essential workers over 75, can start getting vaccinated. Essential workers include rescuers, teachers and public transport workers, totaling about 6 million people.
De Blasio argued that if those in 1A are choosing not to receive the vaccine, then eligibility should be expanded to 1B – which would allow the city to administer vaccines for those over 75. He also tried to start vaccinating NYPD officers, but that was also ended by Albany.
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“There is no reason to stop us, there is no reason to interrupt the right to vaccinate,” said de Blasio,
De Blasio said the city has 270,000 doses that can begin to be given to more than half a million New Yorkers over the age of 75.
“This is really dangerous if we don’t vaccinate people who are most at risk, we will lose lives that we don’t need to lose,” he said.
Hizzoner said his frustration was shared by other New Yorkers.
“I am hearing tremendous frustration and anger from people who want to be vaccinated and are being informed by the state of New York that they cannot be vaccinated,” he said.
Cuomo resisted de Blasio’s criticism, suggesting that New York City is not making sense with its numbers.
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“New York City, you vaccinated 14%. How can you say you have reached the refusal rate that you say is 30%?” he said this week. “It’s a long way from 14 to 70 and, again, we don’t have enough vaccine. We are only at 900,000 doses against 2 million health professionals, so anyone who reaches the refusal rate will tell us and we will relocate.”
Meanwhile, he attacked individual hospitals and threatened to fine them if they did not distribute the vaccine quickly enough.
“Hospitals are doing the administration and that was purposeful,” said Cuomo. “This is a question of hospital management. They have to move the vaccine and they have to move the vaccine faster ”.
He said the only excuses he heard from hospitals were “bureaucracy and his own administration”.
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On Friday, de Blasio said the city will continue to try, despite Cuomo’s resistance.
“We will still hope that they will do the right thing here, but what will not work is if they keep telling us that we cannot vaccinate people who are ready, willing and able,” he said.
Brittany De Lea, Audrey Conklin and Tyler Olson of Fox News contributed to this report.