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States Trying to Fix Trump’s ‘Flawed’ Vaccine Plan, Cuomo Says

States Trying to Fix Trump’s ‘Flawed’ Vaccine Plan, Cuomo Says

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the Trump administration’s coronavirus vaccine plan will bypass poor areas and health-care deserts, and warned that once it’s rolled out, the Biden administration will be hard pressed to reverse it.

On Monday, Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE said their vaccine prevented more than 90% of symptomatic infections in a trial of tens of thousands of volunteers. The preliminary finding is the most encouraging scientific advance so far in the battle against the pandemic.

“The good news is that the Pfizer tests look good and we’ll have a vaccine shortly,” Cuomo said on ABC’S “Good Morning America.” “The bad news is that it’s about two months before Joe Biden takes over, and that means this administration is going to be implementing a vaccine plan.”

Cuomo, a Democrat who chairs the National Governors Association, said he has been working with state leaders across the nation on how to fix the vaccine plan before it takes effect.

States are treading water on many issues, including the distribution of the vaccine and a potential federal relief plan, as they’re caught between administrations until President-elect Joe Biden takes office on Jan. 20. The Trump administration’s response to the pandemic has been hindered by disorganization and internal battles against its own health experts.

Its vaccine plan is “flawed,” because it depends on hospitals and drug chain markets to distribute the vaccine, which would bypass communities that have neither, said Cuomo.

Senator Ben Sasse, a Nebraska Republican, said Cuomo took good news and turned it into a cheap shot.

“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,” Sasse said in a news release. “When we get a vaccine, we’re going to need all hands on deck distributing it as fast as possible -- shamelessly politicizing this is dangerous and stupid.”

Pfizer’s strong trial bodes well for other experimental vaccines, in particular one being developed by Moderna Inc. that uses similar technology. If their success continues, there could be two vaccines available in the U.S. by around year-end, and the Trump administration would be in charge of their delivery.

“Biden can’t undo it two months later,” Cuomo said. “We’ll be in the midst of it.”

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.