De Blasio's Needling Fails To Free Up Coronavirus Vaccine Doses

New York City NY

04 February, 2021

3:43 PM

Description

NEW YORK CITY — Mayor Bill de Blasio gave it a shot — several, in fact — but his efforts to free up reserved coronavirus vaccine failed to pierce Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration. State Health Commissioner Howard Zucker issued a public letter to de Blasio on Thursday rejecting the mayor's request to use second doses of COVID-19 vaccine instead for first doses. "I am in regular contact with the CDC, including as recently as this morning, on this topic when they affirmed their opposition to using second doses as first doses now," Zucker wrote. Zucker's released the letter as a response to a formal request de Blasio made Wednesday to tap into the city's supply of reserved second doses. It's a request de Blasio has made near-daily as the city's supply of first doses for the two-shot COVID-19 vaccines dried up. He argued that doctors found a slight "delay" in receiving the vaccine's second dose won't affect its effectiveness. Such a delay could help free up reserved second doses — which counted nearly 322,000 in New York City, compared 140,000 first doses on hand, as of Thursday — and put more New Yorkers on the path to vaccination, de Blasio said. "It's just not right to withhold second doses we could be using right now," he said. "What we know is that when you get a first dose, you get some protection. "...How do we say we're going to leave hundreds of thousands of people with no protection at all, and focus those doses only on people who already have gotten some protection when we know that we can get them to the second dose, we can ensure that the supply is there, we can make sure when they get that second dose, we know it will be effective, but in the meantime, we can help so many more people." Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who regularly clashes with de Blasio, previously said he'd follow CDC guidance on freeing up second doses. And Zucker, his top health official, stated in the response to de Blasio that medical experts are of "mixed" opinions on whether a vaccination delay is safe. Even the suggestion of a "brief delay" raises a caution flag, Zucker wrote de Blasio. "People have worked very hard to get a vaccination appointment and there is much public anxiety that second doses will not be available on their appointment date," Zucker wrote. "While the science on whether a 'brief delay' would impact full immunity is open and disputed, I do believe it would create undue anxiety to tell people who have scheduled appointments that those appointments are being shifted even for a 'brief delay.'" Zucker wrote that if the CDC does recommend releasing second doses then New York officials will "set the national model."