Department of Defense: Vaccination cards will be issued to all who get the COVID-19 vaccine

Courtesy: DOD

Department of Defense: Vaccination cards will be issued to all who get the COVID-19 vaccine

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WASHINGTON, D.C.- On Wednesday, December 2nd, the Department of Defense released the first images of a COVID-19 “vaccination record card” as well as the vaccination kits. 

According to Dr. Kelly Moore, the associate director of the Immunization Action Coalition (IAC), the vaccination cards are the “simplest” way to keep track of COVID-19 shots. The IAC is supporting frontline workers who will be administering the COVID-19 vaccinations. Moore said:

“Everyone will be issued a written card that they can put in their wallet that will tell them what they had and when their next dose is due. Let’s do the simple, easy thing first. Everyone’s going to get that.”

Reportedly, vaccination clinics will also be reporting to their state immunization registries what vaccine was given. This will enable an entity to run a query if it did not know where a patient got their first dose.

Moore said that many places are planning to ask patients to voluntarily provide a cell phone number, so that they can receive text messages telling them when and where their next dose is scheduled to be administered.

According to Claire Hannan, the executive director of the Association of Immunization Managers, every dose that is administered will be reported to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

With regards to vaccine kits, the Department of Defense showed that the kits include a card, a needle and syringe, alcohol wipes, and a mask.

According to a statement from General Gustave Perna, Operation Warp Speed has 100 million vaccine kits ready to go if and when distribution of a coronavirus vaccine starts. Perna is Warp Speed’s chief operating officer.

Reportedly, the two companies, Pfizer and Moderna, are awaiting emergency use authorizations (EUA) in the United States. A panel with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to discuss whether to authorize the EUA’s on December 10th and December 17th.

According to a document from the federal government’s Operation Warp Speed, should Pfizer and Moderna get the authorization, the vaccines’ first shipments could happen as early as December 15th and December 22d, respectively.

Those distribution dates are contingent upon a decision by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to authorize each vaccine for emergency use. Pfizer submitted an application to the FDA on November 20th and Moderna submitted an application on November 30th. 

The vaccine manufacturing forecast is estimating 22.5 million doses of Pfizer’s vaccine and 18 million does of the Moderna vaccine will be produced in December alone. However, initial supplies in the U.S. will be limited and the wider population will not have access to vaccines until months in 2021.

A CDC panel voted 13-1 and recently recommended that health care and long-term care workers get inoculated first. The Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) voted to include both groups in what they’re calling Phase 1a of the CDC’s coronavirus distribution plan. Dr. Jose Romero, who chairs the ACIP said:

“The are at exceptionally high risk.”

No one had doubts about the need to protect health care workers. More than 240,000 health care workers have been infected with the coronavirus and 858 have died. Romero said:

“Anybody that works within a health care institution that could have contact with an individual who has COVID should receive vaccination.”

He added:

“That includes individuals such as the persons delivering food, those person in housekeeping who rapidly turn over rooms in the emergency room or who perform cleaning in the patient’s rooms. Those individuals will be included.”

According to Moncef Slaoui, chief adviser to Operation Warp Speed, by February 2021, 100 million Americans could be vaccinated against the coronavirus.

The United States has said that if both Pfizer and Moderna win FDA emergency use authorization in December, they could distribute 40 million doses of vaccine by the end of the month. Each vaccine requires two doses, so that is enough to fully vaccinate 20 million people.

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Governor Cuomo says vaccine would be “bad news” if disbursed under President Trump

November 11th, 2020

ALBANY, NY – In an interview with ABC News, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that the newly developed COVID-19 vaccine by Pfizer would be “bad news” if disbursed under Trump. 

Pfizer has teamed with medical research firm BioNTech SE and announced that their vaccine, tested on more than 3,000 people, was 90 percent effective.   

 Pfizer spokespersons disclosed that according to preliminary data, they could request emergency approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by the end of this month.

Cuomo went so far as to say that he would “stop” distribution “before it does damage”.

George Stephanopoulos of ABC News interviewed the governor on November 9th.  Cuomo explained:

“The good news is the Pfizer tests look good and we’ll have a vaccine shortly.  The bad news is that it’s about two months before Joe Biden takes over and that means this administration is going to be implementing a vaccine plan. 

“The Trump Administration is rolling out the vaccination plan and I believe it’s flawed.  I believe it learns nothing from the past.”

Cuomo has discounted the Trump administration’s plan to have the vaccine distributed through active and guard military units for speed and efficiency. 

He offered a different perspective which conflicted with the plans of the current administration, and stated:

“They’re going to take this vaccine and they’re going to go through the private mechanism.  Through hospitals, through drug market chains, et cetera. 

“That’s going to be slow and that’s going to bypass the communities that we call health care deserts.  If you don’t have a Rite Aid or a CVS then you’re in trouble and that’s what happened the first time with Covid.”

Cuomo laid out his plan:

“What I said I’m going to do in New York is we’re going to put together our own group of doctors and medical experts to review the vaccine and the efficacy and the protocol. 

“And if they say it’s safe, I’ll go to the people of New York and I will say it’s safe with that credibility.   I believe, all across the country, you are going to need someone other than this FDA and this CDC saying it’s safe.”

Covid-19 has claimed the lives of more than 33,000 people in New York; more than any other state.  There is also a large amount of controversy surrounding Cuomo’s decision to place COVID-19 patients into nursing homes where elderly people lived and were especially susceptible to illness.

Last week on “The View”, Governor Cuomo slammed the nursing home scandal  and called it a “conspiracy”, then blamed thousands of COVID-19 deaths in his state on President Trump.

Cuomo has been widely blamed for a large majority of the 33,000+ COVID-19 deaths in his state after moving diagnosed Covid patients into nursing homes back in March. 

He reversed the order in May, but not before thousands of elderly and those with weak immune systems had died.

He said his initial idea was to free up hospital beds in most cities.  President Trump moved the 1,000-bed Navy hospital ship, Comfort, into New York’s harbor area. 

But Governor Cuomo and other state officials only sent a total of 156 people to the ship.

The governor’s brother, Chris Cuomo of CNN News, penned a book praising his brother’s response and handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.  In the book, Chris Cuomo predictably teamed up with his brother against the Trump administration.  Here is a series of quotes from his book concerning the nursing home scandal:

“They have played politics on this from day one, right? They have done a terrible job on Covid from day one and they want a counter defense.  What they were saying was, ‘Well, a lot of people died in nursing homes in Democratic states’.

“It’s not just New York, it’s all the Democratic states, and the truth is, a lot of people did die in nursing homes in Democratic states.

“The truth is, people are dying today in nursing homes in Republican states.  It’s just that Democratic states had the disease worse and earlier.”

Chris Cuomo wrote in his book that older people are more vulnerable to illness.  He wrote:

“If you look at how many people died in New York nursing homes, New York is No. 46 out of 50 states in the percentage of deaths in nursing homes.

“The way the law works is no nursing home in New York can accept a patient if they don’t believe they can care for that patient adequately and if they can do it within the safety of their facilities. 

“So, the conspiracy they’re trying to spread has no factual basis.  But yes, people in nursing homes died and they’re playing politics with the issue.”

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Law Enforcement Today reported on a controversial angle to Cuomo’s nursing home scandal. 

Report: Cuomo’s campaign got huge donations from groups lobbying in support of his deadly nursing home order

October 29, 2020

NEW YORK, NY — A nonprofit’s audit of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s campaign donations has raised concerns of possible conflicts of interest and the creation of bad policies, including the disastrous and deadly directive to force nursing homes to accept COVID-19 patients.

The New York Post reported in an opinion piece by Miranda Devine on Oct. 25 that an audit by the nonprofit OpenTheBooks.com suggested a “systematic pay-to-play culture in Albany,” according to OpenTheBooks.com CEO Adam Andrzejewski.

Andrzejewski’s company compiled a comprehensive database of U.S. public sector expenditures and shared its findings exclusively with New York Post, which noted disturbing connections between money and policymaking.

For example, Cuomo received campaign funds from hospital organizations that lobbied his administration to transfer COVID-positive patients to nursing homes to allegedly relieve pressure on hospitals when the pandemic hit in March:

“Despite warnings from doctors that the move represented ‘a clear and present danger’ to other nursing home residents, Cuomo issued his directive March 25, while federally provided beds in the Javits Center and USNS Comfort hospital ship mainly lay empty.

“As we now know, the directive was a death sentence for an estimated 15,000 nursing home residents.

“With the move proving to be a legal and public-relations nightmare, the association again struck gold when it lobbied for a budget provision limiting the ability of COVID-19 victims to file malpractice suits against hospitals and nursing homes.

“Well satisfied with its investment in the governor, the association then spent millions on TV advertising that praised Cuomo’s management of the pandemic.”

Suggesting the patterns of patronage pointed to a “legalized money-laundering scheme” to influence incumbent political power, Andrzejewski questioned:

“Did the governor operate in his own political interest or the public interest?

“Soliciting state vendors for campaign cash is highly unethical because each instance where a state vendor gave a campaign donation and received a state contract is a potential conflict of interest.”

Cuomo has received $6.2 million since 2014 from 347 companies who then made $7 billion from state contracts, and the Greater New York Hospital Association donated $1 million to the governor’s re-election campaign in 2018, according to New York Post, and there is more:

“The association and the health-care workers union, 1199 SEIU, also spent $5.9 million lobbying in Albany in 2018.

“A few days before the 2018 election, Cuomo approved a multibillion-dollar Medicaid rate hike for hospitals and nursing homes, which the association had lobbied for, and which allowed them to settle a pay dispute with the union.

“Then, in February 2020, Cuomo appointed association board member and Northwell Health CEO Michael Dowling and union President Dennis Rivera to co-chair the Medicaid Redesign Team.

“Dowling donated $5,000 to Cuomo six weeks before the appointment, while the union gave $15,000.

“Northwell Health received $10 million in state payments in 2019, reports Andrzejewski.”

According to New York Post, the public relations disaster of an estimated 15,000 nursing home residents dying spurred the Greater New York Hospital Association to lobby for a budget provision limiting the ability of COVID-19 victims to file malpractice suits against hospitals and nursing homes and spent millions on TV ads that praised Cuomo’s management of the pandemic.

Devine remarked:

“You could call the ads a quid pro Cuomo.”

The Guardian reported:

“The immunity provision in Cuomo’s budget came 18 months after the GNYHA delivered $1.25m to the Cuomo-controlled New York State Democratic committee that was supporting the governor’s re-election bid.

“The money went to the committee’s so-called housekeeping account. The account, which can accept unlimited donations, is meant to support general party activities but has also been used to promote Cuomo and his agenda in television ads, including in his 2018 re-election campaign.

“The GNYHA donations – which were a huge increase from prior years – made the group one of the New York Democratic party’s largest contributors during Cuomo’s campaign. Three of the hospital association’s top officials separately gave more than $150,000 to Cuomo’s campaign between 2015 and 2018.

“In all, during the governor’s second term, Cuomo’s campaign and his state party committee raked in more than $2.3m from hospital and nursing home industry donors and their lobbying firms, according to data compiled by the National Institute on Money in Politics.”

The governor’s senior adviser, Rich Azzopardi, said the Cuomo administration’s decision to insert the language into the budget was not a reflection of lobbyists’ influence, according to The Guardian, and he further stated in an email:

“This law was intended to increase capacity and provide quality care, and any suggestion otherwise is simply outrageous.”

Azzopardi also allegedly told OpenTheBooks.com that agency contracting is done at arm’s length from the governor, “on the merits, by career civil servants and procurement professionals, with no input or influence from the Executive Chamber, and generally through a competitive bidding process.”

However, Andrzejewski uncovered a pattern of political patronage for campaign cash across the state that benefited Cuomo, according to New York Post:

“The Big Four accounting firms, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, KPMG and PriceWaterhouseCooper, gave Cuomo $360,000 in campaign donations between 2014 and 2019 and reaped $260 million in state contract payments.

“The real-estate and construction industries similarly are generous. For example, Scott Rechler, owner of RXR Realty, his wife, children and affiliated businesses gave $540,000 to Cuomo’s campaign between 2011 and 2020. Rechler’s brother, Todd, gave $90,000. Andrzejewski found four real-estate leases owned by RXR Realty-affiliated companies and signed by two state agencies that are worth $41 million.

“Three big banks, Citibank, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, splashed $196,100 in campaign cash on Cuomo, while reaping millions of dollars in state contracts.

“ Ten law firms pulled in $10.4 million in state payments after donating $440,000 to Cuomo since 2014.

“Five major cable and telephone companies took $233.9 million in state payments after donating $610,000 since 2014.”

The healthcare, accounting, real estate, construction, banking, legal and telecommunications industries contributed heavily to Cuomo’s campaigns and received hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of state contracts and excellent returns on their investments according to The New American.

Yet, thousands of nursing home patients died from policies that were pushed and financed by the governor’s campaign contributors, and there is still no official number of nursing home deaths that has been publicly released:

Fox News Channel senior meteorologist Janice Dean, whose in-laws succumbed to the virus in Empire State assisted-living and nursing homes in March, tweeted:

“Here’s one hard truth Cuomo has still yet to tell: how many nursing home residents have died of COVID-19. 9 months into the pandemic, and three months after his health commissioner testified that he was hard at work counting NH deaths, Cuomo has not announced the grim total.”

In early May, the Cuomo administration changed the state health department’s methodology for counting nursing-home deaths to make the number appear smaller, according to The New American, by counting only those residents who died in a long-term facility and not in a hospital:

“Around May 3, the department made a small but significant change to its methodology. It now counts only those residents who actually die in long-term care facilities, not those who die in the hospital.

“NYSDOH spokeswoman Jill Montag told Kerr the change in methodology was made “in order to maintain consistency and reliability in the data as presented, and to avoid any potential for double-counting.

“However, Kerr pointed out, ‘the reporting change has, in fact, resulted in inconsistencies.’ On April 28, New York reported that 644 adult-care residents had died of COVID-19 either at the care facility or in the hospital. Sixteen days later, by which time the state had stopped including hospital deaths in its counts, it was reporting just 165 COVID-19 deaths among adult-care residents.”

On May 11, Cuomo rescinded his deadly nursing home policy, but the actual number of official deaths is still under wraps.

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About The Author

Jenna Curren, Ed.D., is an assistant professor in criminal justice studies. As chair of a CJ advisory board, Jenna actively partners with members of the community to integrate current students into internships and prospective law enforcement careers. Prior to working in academics, Jenna held various custody and treatment positions and was a lieutenant for the CT Department of Correction. Throughout her tenure, she supervised men, women, youth and mental health offenders. A C.E.R.T and honor guard member, as well as a training officer, Jenna has 10 years of experience in the criminal justice and human services fields.

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