Vaccine Czar's Calls 'The Definition Of Corruption': De Blasio

New York City NY

15 March, 2021

1:11 PM

Description

NEW YORK CITY — Mayor Bill de Blasio promised to fight any politically-motivated reduction in New York City's coronavirus vaccine supply coming from embattled Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The pledge came Monday after reports by the New York Times and Washington Post that Cuomo's "vaccine czar" Larry Schwartz made calls to local officials across the state gauging their support for the governor amid growing scandals. De Blasio said he didn't receive such a call but if he did he'd tell Schwartz "what he can do with that." "What we've heard is about the governor and his team trying to link vaccine supply to political support — that is the definition of corruption," de Blasio said. "It is disgusting, it is dangerous." De Blasio called for a "full investigation" into Schwartz's calls on top of ongoing probes into the state's handling of nursing home deaths in the pandemic and sexual harassment accusations against Cuomo. Schwartz, a longtime political operative and Cuomo adviser, told the Washington Post he made calls to county officials acting as a friend of Cuomo's and not in his capacity as the state's vaccine distribution leader. He denied talking about vaccines in a political context. Beth Garvey, acting counsel to the governor, issued a statement later Monday that said vaccine distribution is based on objective criteria. "To be clear, Larry's conversations did not bring up vaccine distribution -- he would never link political support to public health decisions," she said. "Distorting Larry's role or intentions for headlines maligns a decades long public servant who has done nothing but volunteer around the clock since March to help New York get through the COVID pandemic. Any suggestion that Larry acted in any way unethically or in any way other than in the best interest of the New Yorkers that he selflessly served is patently false." But some county executives were disturbed by the calls, according to the Times and Post. One filed notice of an impending ethics complaint because of fears the state could slow the flow of vaccines if Schwartz wasn't pleased by the executive's support of Cuomo, the Post reported. De Blasio, who has been one of Cuomo's most visible critics amid the scandals, said he hasn't talked to the governor for several weeks. He said accusations Cuomo gave out vaccine supply for political reasons is in many ways the single worst scandal facing the governor. "It's unacceptable and we are not going to stand for it," he said. "And if we see any effort to reduce the vaccine supply to New York City as political retribution, we will bring it right out in the open."