Buttenschon Urging Federal Government to Send More Vaccine to NY

A local Assemblywoman has written a letter to the Secretary of Health and Human Services urging him to send New York State more COVID-19 vaccine.

Now that the vaccine is approved and available, the demand is growing. Governor Cuomo's loosening of restrictions on who can get it has dwarfed that demand, but there is one major snag. The local area and the state as a whole has a very limited number of vaccine. That's why Assemblywoman Marianne Buttenschon is calling on the HHS head for help.

Fox News Radio's Tonya J. Powers joined 'First News' with Keeler in the Morning Wednesday to talk about how other states across the nation were handling the rollout. Some states are vaccinating residents at a rapid pace. Powers says, "Arizona is using the home of the Arizona Cardinals to hopefully vaccinate 6,000 people a day." Oneida County has vaccinated 4,200, total. According to officials and health systems, a reason for that is the supply.

In Buttenschon's letter to Secretary Azar she writes,

It's extremely discouraging that the federal government is only allowing 300,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines to be released each week in New York. At this rate, it will take close to three months, if not longer, for New Yorkers in Phases 1A and 1B to receive their vaccinations. This is unacceptable, particularly so, if we are to meet the goal of vaccinating enough individuals to achieve herd immunity thereby protecting the most vulnerable Americans and resuming normal life and operations in order to rebuild our economies and help struggling businesses.

She goes on to say that this is purely "unacceptable." She believes mass vaccination and the herd immunity that would come of it is essential for the state and the region to restore the economy and normalcy. MVHS has had to rollback their appointments as they're awaiting more vaccine and Madison County had to cancel 300 appointments because a shipment of vaccine never arrived.