New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo cast doubt on a promising new coronavirus vaccine Monday by bashing President Donald Trump’s handling of the pandemic.
Deflecting from his own mistakes in handling the virus, Cuomo told ABC News that he is urging governors to join him to “stop” the vaccine until Joe Biden, the presumed winner of the presidential election, takes office.
“… we can’t let this vaccination plan go forward the way that Trump and his administration is designing it because Biden can’t undo it two months later. We’ll be in the midst of it and I’m going — I’ve been talking to governors across the nation about that. How can we shape the Trump administration vaccine plan to fix it or stop it before it does damage,” Cuomo said, Townhall reports.
The Democrat governor’s criticism followed an announcement from Pfizer about successful tests of a COVID-19 vaccine. The company said it plans to apply for emergency FDA approval, and the vaccine could be available by the end of the month.
Pro-life researchers said the vaccine was produced ethically and did not use cells from aborted babies.
Cuomo’s criticism of Trump deflects from his own failings in handling the coronavirus. Widely considered to be disastrous, Cuomo issued an order in March requiring that COVID-19 patients be placed in nursing homes with the elderly and people with disabilities, those most likely to die from the virus. Cuomo later reversed the order, but he continually has refused to take responsibility for it.
Follow LifeNews on the Parler social media network for the latest pro-life news!
New York has the highest coronavirus death count and the second highest death rate in the U.S. According to NBC News, as of Monday morning, New York had 34,587 reported deaths.
Conservative and liberal politicians, news outlets and advocates all have been demanding answers of the Cuomo administration. However, the Democrat governor still has not released the total number of COVID-related nursing home deaths in New York.
On Monday, Cuomo ignored his own mishandling of the virus while criticizing Trump’s.
“The Trump Administration is rolling out the vaccination plan and I believe it’s flawed,” he told ABC News. “They’re basically going to have the private providers do it and that’s going to leave out all sorts of communities that were left out the first time when COVID ravaged them.”
He continued: “When you deny a problem the way Trump did, you can never solve it and that’s true in life. The Trump administration denied COVID. So they were never ready for it. There was no mobilization of the government. And they’re still doing the same thing. They’re going to take this vaccine and they’re going to go through the private mechanism. Through hospitals, through drug market chains, etc. That’s going to be slow and that’s going to bypass the communities that we call health care deserts.”
He expressed confidence that Biden, a fellow pro-abortion Democrat, will handle the situation better.
But U.S. Sen. Ben Sasse, of Nebraska, slammed Cuomo for “shamelessly” putting partisan politics above a vaccine that could save lives.
“What on earth is Governor Cuomo talking about? This is great news and everyone – Republicans and Democrats and apolitical folks – should all be jointly thrilled about the possibility of an effective vaccine,” the Republican senator responded. “After this nasty virus has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans and put millions out of work, it is beyond disgusting that Governor Cuomo would use a glimmer of hope for another worn-out ‘Trump is bad’ talking point.”
Earlier this year, Cuomo and four other Democrat governors ordered nursing homes to take coronavirus patients: New Jersey, California, Pennsylvania and Michigan. These five states have some of the highest nursing home death numbers, according to data from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.
In early June, AARP reported more than 43,000 nursing home residents and staff died from the virus, representing more than one third of all known deaths in the U.S. at the time.
“While dire, this figure is an undercount, experts warn, because not all states are publicly reporting data yet,” according to AARP. “In many states, more than half of coronavirus deaths are connected to long-term care facilities.”
In October, the watchdog group OpenTheBooks.com released evidence that Cuomo received campaign donations from hospital groups that lobbied him to enact the nursing home policy, according to the New York Post.
The U.S. Department of Justice also is investigating Cuomo’s handling of the virus.
