SERINO PUSHES FOR TRANSPARENCY IN VACCINE DATA

            In an effort to address widespread confusion and frustration surrounding the haphazard COVID-19 vaccination roll-out, Senators Dan Stec and Sue Serino introduced legislation yesterday to require the New York State Department of Health (DOH) provide a comprehensive vaccination report made available to the public on a weekly basis.

            “The state’s mass vaccination plan has been a mass confusion,” said Senator Dan Stec.  “My constituents are very frustrated, disappointed and angry.  We have senior citizens driving across the Adirondack Park in the dead of winter to get a shot three hours from home at a state-run site.  It doesn’t make sense.  Having served on the county level, I know our county public health departments train for and conduct mass vaccination exercises.  They are professionals. Why was their expertise, experience and tremendous knowledge of our communities, and its vulnerable populations, overlooked?  The state of New York has to do better.  A mechanism that assures accountability is needed.”  

            ”My office is being flooded with calls from desperate residents—mostly seniors who have spent countless hours trying to navigate a broken vaccine appointment system,” said Senator Serino. “While we all understand that an overall lack of supply is creating challenges, the frenetic rollout has created complete chaos. The state has to take commonsense steps to immediately streamline and improve the process and that starts by being transparent with where these vaccines are actually going. If the nursing home crisis has taught us anything, it’s that the state is working overtime to manipulate data to fit their narrative and the Legislature absolutely cannot allow that to happen yet again.”

            Senate bill S.4709 would require the DOH to post on its website, in an easily accessible and downloadable format, a comprehensive accounting of the state’s management of the vaccination plan.  The DOH each week would provide the total number of vaccines allocated to New York State by the federal government, the number of vaccines requested and received, the total number of vaccines administered to recipients eligible in the current distribution phase and the number of vaccines declined.

                       The data would be organized by county, date, facility, age, race and ethnicity of vaccine recipients.  The information would be required from DOH retroactive to December 14, 2020.

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