Slamming the federal government for a dismal vaccine rollout yet again, Big Apple Governor Andrew Cuomo on Monday suggested the idea of buying shots for New Yorkers directly from one of the vaccine makers, Pfizer.
Buying directly from pharmaceutical companies may not be possible, especially with the pharmaceutical giant saying it would need federal approval to sell to state governments. If that were to happen, the cost and amount have yet to be discussed, and may not be as lucrative for the state.
Source: Financial Times
Despite these logical hurdles, Cuomo decided that he would go ahead and put forth this proposition on Monday as he claimed to have been frustrated with the vaccine flow initiated by the federal government. In his address, he stated that at the current pace of federal vaccine shipments to New York, it could take six months or more to get shots to the 7 million residents already eligible under federal guidelines, let alone the roughly 12 million other New Yorkers. Residents have been scrambling to try to get the shots, with many getting shut out and upset.
“My job as governor of New York is to pursue every avenue, and that’s what I’m doing,” the Democratic governor said at a virtual news conference as he released a letter he’d written to New York-based Pfizer about his idea. He told the company it “could help us save lives right here in New York.”
Source: Quartz
Pfizer Inc., which was the first to get an emergency approval from the FDA for its vaccine candidate said in a statement that it appreciated Cuomo’s praise and was open to working with the federal Health and Human Services Department on getting the shots as quickly as possible to as many Americans as it could. “However, before we can sell directly to state governments, HHS would need to approve that proposal,” the company said.
In regards to this, an inquiry was sent to HHS representatives about Cuomo’s proposal on Monday.
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