NEW YORK — New York City will receive nearly half a million Covid-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna this month for health care workers in high-risk settings and residents and employees of nursing homes, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday.
The vaccines will be administered by health department staff, medical professionals and volunteers recruited through the Medical Reserve Corps, which was deployed to overwhelmed hospitals during the spring surge.
The vaccines have not yet been cleared by the FDA, though data suggest they are highly effective at reducing or preventing symptomatic disease.As the city's infection numbers climb back to the days when it was the national epicenter of the pandemic, leaders say relief can't come quickly enough.
“Thank God the cavalry is coming,” de Blasio said at his daily briefing Thursday. “The moment we have all been waiting for is finally here. Vaccines are being approved, vaccines are being shipped. We expect the first shipments as early as Dec. 15.”
Moderna will provide 211,275 doses and Pfizer will provide 254,250 doses, which will be tracked by the city health department's Citywide Immunization Registry. Should certain facilities have excess doses, the city health department can reallocate those vaccines, said city Health Commissioner Dave Chokshi.
Once the federal and state governments determine a prioritization list, Chokshi said, “then we can be much more precise in terms of sharing where that initial allotment will go."
Some of the 55 city-based acute care and specialty hospitals have begun placing orders for the Covid-19 vaccine through the citywide registry, the commissioner said.
Long-term care facilities, including nursing homes, will likely access vaccines through a partnership between the federal government and CVS and Walgreens, Chokshi said.Those vaccine orders will be visible to the city health department as more doses become available, he added.
The city is also working with the state on a distribution plan that prioritizes first responders and other public servants, de Blasio said.
“I don’t think we’re going to have a leftover problem,” de Blasio said. “I think there’s going to be tremendous need, tremendous interest and speed of execution. I honestly don't think it's going to be a problem anytime soon.”
Yet some health care professionals said they are hesitant to take a Covid-19 vaccine that was so quickly developed.
“Thus far it’s been a unanimous 'hell no,'” said Peggy Desiderio, an emergency room nurse at Mount Sinai Morningside, of the conversations she’s had with her fellow nurses. “Why are we going to be guinea pigs? We’re the suicide squad. Isn't it enough we were stuck on the front-lines?”
About 20 percent of the 920 physicians polled by the Medical Society of the State of New York said they had reservations about getting immunized with a vaccine once it became widely available.
The challenges of a citywide immunization program aren’t just with health care workers.
The city also intends to focus its vaccination efforts on immunizing Black and brown New Yorkers, specifically people who live in public housing — communities that were hardest-hit by the pandemic but also have a historic distrust in government and medical interventions.
Decades of institutional medical racism that has contributed to disproportionately poor health outcomes in Black and brown communities — along with a general mistrust in government that has only been exacerbated in recent years — likely will put the city at a disadvantage when trying to prioritize the vaccination of those groups.
“There is tremendous distrust,” de Blasio said. “It’s different in New York City in some very important ways, because people of color have also seen a series of changes to address disparity.”
De Blasio cited his administration sending resources to 27 neighborhoods that were hardest-hit by Covid-19 and said those residents, along with people living in public housing, should trust the city government to get them a vaccine based on its pandemic response.
Chokshi and senior adviser Jay Varma added the city intends to work with community-based organizations and faith leaders to build trust and bolster vaccination rates when more doses come to the city.
“This is a very real issue, and I’m not going to be surprised at all [if] anyone is hesitant at first, but we have to prove by our actions that this is an equitable distribution of the vaccine,” the mayor said.
Members of the City Council will hold an oversight hearing on vaccination distribution Friday.
Council Member Mark Levine, who chairs the health committee, said he wants a breakdown of how the city will prioritize hospital employees such as cleaning staff and translators, among other low-wage workers across the city.
“We have a challenging history on vaccination in New York City,” he told POLITICO. “Even the flu vaccine, which is now routine and so well-established — we are getting barely over 50 percent.”
He called on the city to invest tens of millions of dollars, similar to its census outreach, to educate New Yorkers on the Covid-19 vaccine and its potential side effects in order to combat growing vaccine distrust and misinformation. Levine added that health care workers and local leaders need to steer the public to the vaccine.
“We will have a virtuous cycle because the more people who will get vaccinated and begin to share that experience with friends and family, the easier it will be to get more buy-in,” Levine said. “The early stage is critical.”
The city reported 174 admissions to its city hospitals, with 49.7 percent of those patients testing positive for Covid-19. The city’s positivity rate was 5.19 percent on a 7-day rolling average, which offers a more accurate picture of community spread than the daily rate of 3.9 percent, according to City Hall. The city also reported 1,962 Covid-19 cases on Thursday.
“These three indicators [are] moving in the wrong direction,” de Blasio said.