Andrew Cuomo responds to Trump threat not to send vaccine to New York: ‘He’s trying to intimidate people’



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“He’s trying to intimidate people – he’s trying to intimidate governors, he’s using government as a tool of retaliation,” Cuomo told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer in “The Situation Room,” adding that “I’m not going let a bully push New Yorkers around, period. “

In his first public appearance since screening his election defeat, Trump singled out Cuomo in an Operation Warp Speed ​​announcement at the White House on Friday, saying the federal government would need Cuomo’s approval before they can begin distributing a coronavirus vaccine in New York City in the spring. At this point, President-elect Joe Biden, not Trump, will be president and tasked with distributing a potential vaccine.

“From April, the vaccine will be available to the entire population with the exception of places like New York State, where, for political reasons, the governor has decided to say … he wants to take his time on the vaccine, “Trump said in the White House rose garden, adding that” we won’t deliver it to New York until we get permission to do so, and it hurts me to say it “.

He continued, “Governor Cuomo will have to let us know when he’s ready for this. Otherwise, we can’t hand him over to a state that won’t give him to his people.”

Earlier this fall, Cuomo said New York health officials would review any coronavirus vaccine approved by the United States and recommend that New Yorkers not be vaccinated until the process led by the U.S. State would not be finished.

Cuomo said on Friday that Trump’s comments were false, noting that New York was one of several states that have set up science panels to independently endorse any coronavirus vaccine approved by the US Food and Drug Administration “to donate. trust people in the approval process “in light of concerns that it has been politicized.

“As soon as the FDA approves it, our panel will approve it, seven more states will review it,” Cuomo said. “And then I can say to the folks in New York, ‘I know you were dubious, but we had a separate committee to review it – sure, take it.'”

Cuomo said the state committee’s review of the FDA’s protocol for approving a potential vaccine would be “concurrent” with the delivery of the vaccine, so “there will be no delay. – as soon as they have the medicine for us, we are ready to distribute it. “

But Cuomo said he’s convinced such a review wouldn’t reveal any issues with a potential vaccine.

“I don’t think the FDA is going to play games at this point,” he said. “So I don’t foresee any real problems.

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