Low supplies amid high demand for COVID-19 vaccines apparently pushed Andrew Cuomo, the current governor of New York to go straight to the source. In order to speed up the vaccination process which has been languishing in recent weeks, Cuomo recently asked Pfizer to sell the doses of vaccine it needs directly to New York State.
For clarity, this request is considered an act bypassing the US federal government, as it would oblige Pfizer to circumvent directives of the federal operation “Warp Speed” aimed at producing and distributing approximately 300 million doses to the Americans.
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To support his request, Cuomo said in a letter to Albert Bourla, the CEO of Pfizer headquartered in New York, that unlike Moderna, Pfizer is a private company, and is free from any engagement with the federal government.
He also assured that the administration of any dose obtained directly from Pfizer will comply with the strict guidelines established by the state, while allowing to fill the dose gap created by the outgoing federal administration. An operation aimed at achieving the objective of vaccinate 70 to 90% of New Yorkers to achieve collective immunity more quickly.
Ready to pull out his checkbook to get the Pfizer vaccine doses
At the very start of the pandemic and so far, New York is one of the US states most affected by the disease. New York has indeed recorded more than 1.24 million confirmed cases of COVID and nearly 41,000 deaths so far.
According to Cuomo, this winter, hospitalizations and deaths were on the rise across the state, putting its citizens in a position they would lose if the number of doses intended for New Yorkers, which this week were not than 250,000, did not increase significantly.
The governor also criticized the CDC for their shift in focus which opened up eligibility requirements for 7 million New Yorkers while reducing the weekly vaccine allocation. As a result, quite a few New Yorkers were unable to get vaccinated and state and city vaccination centers were overwhelmed and frustrated.
A request that requires approval from the HHS
This public chaos prompted Cuomo to take action and pull out his checkbook in an attempt to purchase supplies directly from Pfizer.
As Pfizer is willing to work with the HHS on a distribution model that allows as many Americans as possible to have access to its vaccine as quickly as possible, it has not refused Cuomo’s request. But he stressed, however, that he would not be able to sell his vaccine directly to individual US states. without having obtained the approval of the HHS which already has its plans for supplying these precious doses of vaccine to all states.
However, some see Cuomo’s maneuver as a strictly political intention intended to be seen well by its fellow citizens. All the more so in this delicate period with the transition between the outgoing federal administration and the arrival of the recently elected Biden to power.
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