New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo speaks at a news conference on September 8, 2020 in New York City.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is proposing a law to make it a crime to sell or administer coronavirus vaccine shots to people trying to jump the line.
“This vaccine may be like gold for some people,” Cuomo said at a news conference Monday. “If there is any distribution fraud – you’re letting people get ahead of other people, or friends or family, or selling the vaccine – you will lose your license, but I think it should be criminal and I will propose a law to that effect. “
Cuomo said providers can lose the license if they administer vaccines fraudulently, though the law would add criminal sanctions if approved by the state legislature. To date, health workers and people living in nursing homes and assisted living centers are eligible for the Covid-19 vaccine.
The announcement comes just over a week after a New York clinic, ParCare Community Health Network, was accused of misrepresenting itself before the state health department for vaccine doses.
The New York State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Howard Zucker said in a statement that the clinic could have “deviated [the vaccine] to members of the public, contrary to the state’s plan to administer it first to front-line health workers, as well as to nursing home residents and staff. “ParCare said it would cooperate with the attorney general ‘s investigation.
New York has already begun administering Pfizer and Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccines, although the launch has been slower than expected. Cuomo urged state hospitals to administer the vaccine more quickly. He said hospitals face fines of up to $ 100,000 if they do not administer their coronavirus vaccine allocations later this week.
The state has received more than 774,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccine, but has given only 237,000 shots as of Saturday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Hospitals that have received vaccines against Covid-19 over the past three weeks have used only about 46 percent of the average doses, according to a slide Cuomo presented at the briefing. While some hospitals have administered almost all of their doses, others have used only 15%, according to the governor.
“This is a hospital management problem. They need to move the vaccine and they need to move the vaccine faster,” Cuomo said.
Cuomo said the New York State Department of Health sent a letter Sunday to all hospitals saying that if they do not use vaccine allocations later this week, they will be fined up to $ 100,000 and not they will receive more assignments.
To move forward, state hospitals will have to use their doses within a week of receiving them. Suppliers who are seriously left behind could receive more sanctions, he said.
“You have the assignment, we want it in people’s arms as soon as possible,” Cuomo said. “We will use other hospitals that can manage it better.”
New York participates in the federal government’s partnership with pharmacy chains like CVS and Walgreens to administer doses to long-term care residents, though Cuomo said the program is not advancing fast enough.
Just under half of the state’s 611 facilities participating in the program have administered the first dose of vaccine to residents so far, Cuomo said. The state will send staff to “complement and expedite” the federal program to reach up to 85 percent of residents of its nursing homes inoculated with its first dose later this week, he said.
“The goal is for all residents of nursing homes to be vaccinated over the next two weeks,” Cuomo said. “Residences have always been the most vulnerable populations and we want to achieve that. We want to achieve it quickly.”