Cuomo says NY will sue if Trump's vaccine plan lacks equal access for communities of color
Cuomo says NY will sue if Trump's vaccine plan lacks equal access for communities of color
by CNY Central
Sunday, November 15th 2020
https://cnycentral.com/news/local/watch-gov-cuomo-delivers-remarks-from-new-york-city-1115
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NEW YORK — Gov. Andrew Cuomo threatened legal action on Sunday if the Trump administration did not change its vaccine distribution plan to ensure Black and Brown communities have equal access to a COVID-19 vaccine.
“Any plan that intentionally burdens communities of color to hinder access to the vaccine deprives those communities of equal protection under the law,” Cuomo said while delivering remarks from Riverside Church in New York City on Sunday.
The Trump administration's distribution plan, released in September, relies on existing health infrastructure such as hospitals, drug stores, and other health care providers to distribute the vaccine. The governor has joined the National Urban League and the NAACP in criticizing the plan for failing to adequately serve communities of color who have already been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. The problem, Cuomo says, is that this existing infrastructure does not equitably provide healthcare in communities of color.
"That is the same infrastructure that doesn't exist in the communities we're talking about. It's the same infrastructure that was lacking that caused the health care disparities in the first place, that caused the higher infection rate in the Black and Brown community, that caused the reduced testing rate in black and brown community, and now the vaccine, they are going to go back to the same apparatus, which you know doesn't work for the black and brown and poorer communities in this country," the governor said in early November.
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