Even NYC Mayor de Blasio Is Furious with Cuomo Over His New Vaccination Threat
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio criticized New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo for threatening to fine hospitals that don’t administer the remaining doses of the COVID-19 vaccine by the end of the week.
“That’s just arrogance,” de Blasio told NY1-TV’s Inside City Hall Monday night.
“Does he think that our health care professionals are uninterested in vaccinating people? How about trusting the people who have been our heroes.”
The New York City mayor said he respects the governor and has worked with him in the past few weeks during the rollout of the coronavirus vaccine.
“This is what I’d say to him: respect and trust our health care professionals. They are the people who do the work. They are the people who know best.”
“They want to get people vaccinated. No one is more motivated than them. Help them, support them. Don’t fine them, don’t threaten them. Respect them and help them.”
“That’s just arrogance,” @NYCMayor on @NYGovCuomo‘s threat to fine hospitals that don’t administer their remaining doses of the COVID-19 vaccine by the end of the week.
The mayor tells @InsideCityHall that hospitals want to vaccinate more people but are constrained. #NY1Politics pic.twitter.com/ByUgLftw7c
— Spectrum News NY1 (@NY1) January 5, 2021
De Blasio was responding to Cuomo’s threat to fine hospitals up to $100,000 if they don’t administer their first round of vaccines by the end of the week, KTLA-TV reported.
Hospitals have been receiving vaccines for the past three weeks, prioritizing frontline medical workers.
The governor said that as of Monday, only 46 percent of the vaccines had been administered.
“This is a management issue,” Cuomo said. “They have to move the vaccine and they have to move the vaccine faster.”
He also threatened to stop sending the vaccine to hospitals that don’t administer it fast enough.
De Blasio said that it wasn’t the hospitals’ fault that workers couldn’t distribute the vaccine quickly.
“In our city public hospitals, until just a couple of days ago, the state rules literally did not allow our doctors to vaccinate everyone in the hospital who wanted to be vaccinated,” he said.
“We need rules that maximize the pace that help us speed up and reach the people who are available, who are priority, and who are ready, willing and able. It’s common sense. So the state can help us here. Stop threatening people.”
The rollout of the COVID-19 vaccination has been behind schedule nationwide and only 110,241 people in New York City have received their first dose despite the city receiving 443,000 vaccines.
On Monday, de Blasio expanded eligibility for people to receive the vaccine in order to reach the city’s goal of one million doses administered by the end of the month, NY1-TV reported.
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