By Brenda Panama
As cases of COVID in New York City continue to increase, New Yorkers are as anxious for a vaccine as other Americans. On November 13, 2020, there were 5,401 reported cases of COVID in and around NYC. Several pharmaceutical companies, like Pfizer, were touting a possible vaccine. At the time, no one anticipated that by December 20th, the FDA would approve both Pfizer’s vaccine, plus another vaccine developed by Moderna—for emergency use to prevent Covid.
On Friday, November 13th, 2020, President Donald Trump went on television to celebrate the imminent availability of one or more COVID vaccines. He called the vaccine “safe” and “great,” then announced that once he had the vaccines in hand, he planned to distribute them to throughout America by April 2021 … with the exception of New York State.
This appeared to be because the Trump administration wanted to punish his political critics in New York. Speaking shortly after being defeated in the November 3rd, 2020 presidential election, Trump complained that Governor Cuomo (among others) voiced distrust of White House claims for the vaccine. “These [vaccines] are coming from the greatest companies anywhere in the world,” said Trump about some of the vaccines rushed into development due to federal cash incentives. “But he,” Trump said, meaning Governor Cuomo, “doesn’t trust the fact that it’s this White House, this administration, so we won’t be delivering it to New York until we have the authorization to do so … and that pains me to say that,”
CNBC News then reported “Trump says coronavirus vaccine won’t be delivered to New York right away,” and also stated that Governor Cuomo did announce in September that New York would have their own task force of scientist, doctors, and health experts that would review the possible COVID-19 vaccines approved by the U.S Food and Drug Administration.
Governor Cuomo himself then went to television and other media to respond to President Trump’s implied threat to withhold “his” vaccine from New Yorkers. “The day they distribute the vaccine,” asserted Cuomo, “we will be ready to start the distribution. Our review of the FDA protocol will be simultaneous, concurrent with their delivery. We’re not going to have any lag time.”
The future president, Joe Biden, will be inaugurated on January 21, 2021. So Americans were not sure as to why or how Trump was stating that “he” will distribute the vaccines in April of 2021. Weeks after the November election declared Former Vice President Joe Biden to be America’s 46th President, Trump still seems to deny this reality. Here we are in the midst of a second wave of Covid-19 just before Christmas, and the United States—especially its leading politicians—can be seen to be more divided than ever before.
Sources
