November 13, 2020
Governor Cuomo: “What the president says is just untrue. At one time a statement like that would almost be incredible, but with this president it’s common. Here are the facts. We trust the drug companies. Pfizer is a great New York company, actually. Regeneron is a great New York company. What the American people don’t trust is President Trump, and every poll has shown, Wolf, yours included, that over half the American people are afraid that they politicized the approval process of the vaccine for political reasons during the campaign. So we’re in a situation now where half the people in the country are saying I don’t know if I should trust the vaccine. A number of states, New York included, but a number of states set up a separate scientific panel that will review the FDA’s approval to give people confidence in the approval process.”
Cuomo: “There will be no delay. Our review will be simultaneous with their delivery. And again there are seven states that are doing this. And by the way, it has to be done because you have half the American people saying they don’t trust the approval process. Who’s going to put a needle in their arm if you don’t trust the approval process of the vaccine? But it will be simultaneous. We’re not going to redo the tests that the FDA did, but we will have a scientific panel that will review the protocol that the FDA went through so that they can say to me, it was the proper protocol, it was not politicized. I can say that to New Yorkers and I’ll have the confidence to do it.”
Cuomo: “For him not to have the Biden people in an orderly transition, that’s just the height of irresponsibility and narcissism. I’ve been working with the Biden transition. I’m the Chairman of the National Governors Association this year. The states really did all the work, as you know, on COVID. All the President did was point to the states and say you’re in charge.”
