NEW YORK (WCBS 880) -- State Attorney General Letitia James said Sunday that New York isn’t ruling out suing the Trump administration over its COVID vaccine distribution plan, which she and Gov. Andrew Cuomo said ignores the needs of marginalized communities.
“Let me just say that everything is on the table. We will consider all options at this point,” James said when asked if the state was considering litigation to force the administration to expand its vaccine plan.
At a conference call with reporters, Cuomo said that “COVID has revealed from the very beginning the underlying injustice and inequity in this society.”
He said poorer communities and communities of color have not had the same access to health care, including testing, which has resulted in disproportionately higher infection rates and death rates from COVID.
When it comes to monumental task of distributing the vaccine, the governor said that the Trump administration is “going to go back to the same apparatus that you know doesn’t work for the Black and brown and poorer communities in this country.”
The governor said the federal government should “anticipate the need for special outreach to these communities, fund state governments and fund community-based organizations.”
James said there will be logistical and resource challenges in distributing the vaccine because the federal government isn’t giving proper funding to states and is relying on a private health care infrastructure that has not served vulnerable communities.
“What we’ll see in this nation is a patchwork of health care systems trying to administer this vaccination and unfortunately ignoring far too many communities of color,” James said.
“The plan put forth by the Trump administration falls woefully short of meeting the urgency of this moment,” she said.