Covid-19: Cuomo Seeks To Buy Vaccines For New York Directly From Pfizer

New York has asked Pfizer Inc. if the state can buy COVID-19 vaccines directly from the company because the United States government has failed to increase supply.

Pfizer, the parent company of Wyeth, will have to fork over
Photo Credit: *Wikimedia/Coolcaesar*

Joe Lombardi

01/18/2021 1:01 p.m.

Cuomo said on Monday, Jan. 18 that he sent a letter to Pfizer Chairman and CEO Dr. Albert Bourla asking for the ability to purchase COVID-19 vaccines directly from Pfizer, as the company is not bound by commitments that Moderna made under the government's Operation Warp Speed.

Pfizer has headquarters in New York City and in Rockland County, in Pearl River.

"Pfizer is a New York company - something I am greatly proud of," Cuomo wrote in the letter."The company's decision to opt out of Operation Warp Speed, which the Biden administration plans to overhaul, puts it in a unique situation that could help us save lives right here in New York."

View the letter here.✎ Edit Sign

Cuomo also issued a letter to US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar demanding an explanation for the secretary's false claim that "all of the doses that had been held in physical reserve" would be shipped to states, when in fact the federal government had already distributed all of those doses and would not be increasing the supply.

New York State will receive 250,000 doses this week — 50,000 less than the week prior— even though the CDC has now expanded eligibility to more than seven million New Yorkers.

"There needs to be full accountability of this mismanagement," Cuomo wrote in the letter, which can be viewed here ✎ Edit Sign.

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