De Blasio begs Cuomo to be allowed to vaccinate over-75s, cites 'tremendous frustration' in NYC

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A frustrated New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Friday repeated his pleas to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to allow the Big Apple to vaccinate over-75s, noting that they are most at-risk and warning that it is "very dangerous" to delay that eligibility.

"We’ve got literally twice as many New Yorkers over 75 as the amount of vaccine we have in stock right this minute and yet we are not allowed by state law to give a single shot to a single New Yorker over 75," he said.

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While those over 75 are significantly more likely than any other age group to die of COVID-19, Cuomo’s state government has prioritized health care workers, saying vaccinating them is crucial to keeping hospitals open.

"The rules of the COVID vaccine distribution have been clear for many weeks and agreed to by virtually all credible federal and state leaders," the governor’s office said in a statement Thursday. "The first priority is ‘1A,’ healthcare workers who are on the front lines."

While de Blasio agrees that front-line workers are important, he says the pickup from those in that group has been limited. He said that in a total pool of 100,000 with 54,000 doses available, only 16,000 have been administered.

New York's health care workers are listed under the "1A" group, which will receive vaccines first before those in "1B," or essential workers and those over 75 years old, can start being inoculated. Essential workers include first responders, teachers and public transportation workers, making up about 6 million people.

De Blasio argued that if those in 1A are choosing not to get the vaccine, then eligibility should be expanded to 1B — which would allow the city to administer vaccines to the over-75s. He has also sought to begin vaccinating NYPD officers, but that too has been shut down by Albany.

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"There is no reason to hold us back, there is no reason to stop the right to vaccinate," de Blasio said,

De Blasio said that the city had 270,000 doses that could start be given to the more than half a million New Yorkers who are over 75.

"This is really dangerous if we don't vaccinate the people who are in the most danger, we are going to lose lives we don’t need to lose," he said.

Hizzoner said his frustration was shared by other New Yorkers.

"I’m hearing tremendous frustration and anger from folks who want to get vaccinated and are being told by the state of New York that they are not allowed to be vaccinated," he said.

Cuomo has pushed back against the criticism from de Blasio, suggesting New York City is not making sense with its numbers.

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"New York City, you have vaccinated 14%. How can you say you hit the refusal rate which you say is 30%?" he said this week. "That’s a long way from 14 to 70, and again, we don’t have enough vaccine. We’re only at 900,000 doses against 2 million health care workers, so anyone who hits the refusal rate tell us, and we’ll reallocate."

Meanwhile, he has lashed out at individual hospitals and threatened to fine them if they don’t move the vaccine quickly enough.

"The hospitals are doing the administration, and that was purposeful," Cuomo said. "This is a management issue of the hospitals. They have to move the vaccine and they have to move the vaccine faster."

He said the only excuses he's heard from hospitals is "bureaucracy and their own administration."

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On Friday, de Blasio said City Hall was going to keep trying, despite Cuomo’s pushback.

"We’re still going to hold out hope that they’re going to do the right thing here, but what’s not going to work is if they keep telling us we can’t vaccinate people who are ready, willing and able," he said.

Fox News' Brittany De Lea, Audrey Conklin and Tyler Olson contributed to this report.

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