New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday that any potential coronavirus vaccine should be made available to all Americans, not just the rich or privileged.

“The vaccine must be available to all people,” Cuomo said. “It can’t be a situation where only the rich, only the privileged can get the vaccine because one company owns the rights and they can’t produce enough for everyone.”

Cuomo made the statements following news on Monday that biotech company Moderna has tested a vaccine allowing a healthy group of trial participants to develop antibodies against the virus. Vaccine experts on Tuesday told Stat News that Moderna withheld critical information about the efficacy of the vaccine.

The availability of the vaccine has caused controversy on the international stage.

Paul Hudson, CEO of French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi, said last week that if the company develops a vaccine, the doses would likely go to Americans first, as the U.S. financially supported the company’s research. The comments caused outrage in France.

"For us, it would be unacceptable for there to be privileged access of any country based on financial reasons," French Deputy Finance Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher told French media. Sanofi has since backed down from its U.S.-first stance.

Public health experts have claimed it would take 12 to 18 months to develop an effective vaccine against the coronavirus, but it could take longer than that time frame. As of Tuesday at 5:10 p.m. ET, there are 4,876,906 global cases of the coronavirus with 321,999 deaths.

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