The Democratic governor, who accuses Donald Trump and his Republican government of having aggravated the coronavirus pandemic by their politicized management of the crisis, has indicated that he will set up a commission to supervise the distribution of vaccines.
“I will not trust the government on the safety of the vaccine and I will not recommend it to New Yorkers,” Cuomo said during a press briefing.
These statements confirm the growing climate of mistrust with regard to future vaccines in the United States. A poll released on Sept. 17 by the Pew Institute indicated that half of Americans would refuse to be vaccinated if a vaccine was available now, a percentage that has doubled since May.
Another poll, released Sept. 10 by the Kaiser Family Foundation, found that 62% of Americans were concerned about the federal government’s pressure on the drug approval authority, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), to that it approves a vaccine without ensuring its efficacy and safety.
Donald Trump, who hopes to be re-elected on November 3, has been promising for several weeks the imminent arrival of a vaccine in the face of a pandemic that has killed more than 200,000 people in the United States – the heaviest toll in the world – and infected nearly seven millions of people.
Logistical preparations are underway to distribute vaccine doses as soon as ongoing clinical trials produce conclusive results.
Only one U.S. manufacturer, Pfizer, believes October is possible, but that won’t affect most Americans until April 2021, according to Trump, or even mid-2021, according to senior officials.
Proof that the political climate is explosive, Mr. Cuomo and the Democratic Governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, also called Thursday for a congressional inquiry into the “politicized” management of this crisis by the Trump administration.
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/nginx/o/2020/10/31/13447849t1hcddb.jpg "Dead painter Laris Strunke – Arts – Culture +")