‘Wish he trusted us on nursing homes!’ Trump fires back at NY Gov. Cuomo for questioning safety of govt-approved vaccines

US President Donald Trump slammed NY Governor Andrew Cuomo for questioning the safety of federally approved vaccines, reminding him of his much-maligned order to care homes to admit patients who had contracted Covid-19.

“Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York wants to put New York at the END of the Vaccine List in that he doesn’t trust the FDA or Federal Government, even though the Vaccines are being developed by the finest Labs in the World. Wish he trusted us on Nursing Homes!” Trump tweeted on Friday.

This comes one day after Cuomo said that his state, which remains the hardest hit by the coronavirus, with over 32,000 deaths, will conduct “its own review” of the vaccine after it’s already been declared safe and effective by the federal government.

“The first question is, is the vaccine safe? Frankly, I'm not going to trust the federal government's opinion,” said Cuomo, who has frequently butted heads with Trump over his handling of the pandemic.

Earlier this month, Cuomo blamed the president for his state suffering the worst outbreak in the country, arguing that it was Trump who “caused” the outbreak in New York by not banning travel from Europe early enough.

Cuomo himself has faced accusations of gross mismanagement of the Covid-19 pandemic with his own policy of requiring nursing homes to admit patients from coronavirus-infested hospitals without testing them for the disease. The policy is believed to have contributed to at least 6,600 nursing home deaths, and a report by AP in August suggested that the real number may be higher by two-thirds.

Facing pushback for his March 25 executive order, which was subsequently erased from New York’s official healthcare website, Cuomo blamed the nursing homes for following his order without a second thought. 

Last month, the US Justice Department announced it was considering a civil rights probe into four Democrat-run states, including New York, to “determine if the state orders requiring admission of Covid-19 patients to nursing homes is responsible for the deaths of nursing home residents.”

As part of the inquiry, New York, New Jersey, Michigan, and Pennsylvania had to turn over their Covid-19 data to federal investigators.

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