New York state warns hospitals they must vaccinate staff before elderly: report

An adviser to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) sent an email to the state’s hospitals Feb. 5 instructing them to  vaccinate their hospital staff against the coronavirus before the elderly, according to Time Magazine.

“If, and only if, all phase 1a eligibility groups been exhausted hospitals may vaccinate individuals in the 65+ category,” Larry Schwartz, the state’s vaccination chief reportedly said in the email obtained by Time. 

“You must schedule those employees before you do any other eligible 1a populations,” Schwartz continued. 

New York, like many other states across the country have limited the coronavirus vaccine administration to its most vulnerable groups including front-line health care workers and the elderly. Health care workers are in priority group “Phase 1a.”

The report from the magazine comes as health care workers in New York have been hesitant to take the coronavirus vaccine despite a push from health officials and hospitals to vaccinate as many frontline workers as possible. 

Schwartz clarified his email in an interview with Time that the goal was to ensure that healthcare workers who wanted the vaccine could get one. 

“In no way was the message about penalizing anyone,” Schwartz told the magazine. The governor’s advisor sent the email because hospitals will start to receive fewer allotments of the vaccine as the state sends them elsewhere to start vaccinating others, Schwartz said. 

Ramon Rodriguez, the President and CEO of Wyckoff Heights Medical Center, told Time he is worried about the decision to send fewer vaccines to hospitals. 

“We get the doses and we use them,” Rodriguez said. “Our vaccinations are more targeted towards sick people who are chronically ill because this is the place they know to go to. We are their health care provider.”

The news comes as New York City has struggled to keep up with the demand for coronavirus vaccinations.

In recent weeks, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) announced that thousands of vaccination appointments had to be canceled or moved because the city didn’t have enough doses to distribute. 

The Biden administration has vowed to ramp up vaccination distribution efforts following the presidential transition. And on Thursday, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, Anthony Fauci, told NBC’s “Today” show that he believes in April anyone who wants a vaccine will be able to get one.