Cuomo vs. Trump: Coronavirus Vaccine Debate Heats Up With Lawsuit Threat

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he’d challenge the Trump administration in court for allegedly thwarting a COVID-19 vaccine distribution process.

“I tell you today, if the Trump administration does not change this plan and does not provide an equitable vaccine process, we will enforce our legal rights,” he was quoted by Politico as saying on Sunday.

His remarks are just the latest in an ongoing feud between Cuomo, a Democrat, and Republican President Donald Trump. In late October, the governor said the federal government had “surrendered” to the COVID-19 pandemic after White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who has now contracted the virus, said controlling the outbreak wasn’t an option.

“We are not going to control the pandemic,” Meadows told CNN. “We are going to control the fact that we get vaccines, therapeutics, and other mitigation areas.”

In his latest remarks, Cuomo criticized the Trump administration for relying too much on health clinics, hospitals and drug stores to distribute an eventual vaccine. The governor said those plans expose poor communities to risk because those options might not be readily available to them.

“My friends, we cannot compound the racial injustice that COVID has already created,” he said. “And let me be clear — the Black and brown communities that were first on the list of who died cannot be last on the list of who receives the vaccines, period.”

Analysis in August from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found some minority communities may be more vulnerable to COVID-19 because they tend to have underlying health issues, lack access to health care and work on the front lines of the pandemic.

Drugmakers Pfizer and BioNTech last week announced clinical trials for their COVID-19 vaccine showed 90% effectiveness. Moderna on Monday said its vaccine was 95% effective during clinical trials. Any vaccine, however, would not be widely available until 2021.

Cuomo in September set up a task force that would review federal authorization before any vaccines for COVID-19 are distributed in New York, expressing concerns about moving too fast too soon. Trump last week seemingly tossed the vaccine ball into Cuomo’s court.

“Gov. Cuomo will have to let us know when he's ready for it, otherwise we can't be delivering it to a state that won't be giving it to its people, immediately,” the president said. “And I know the people in New York very well, I know they want it.”