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“With a COVID-19 vaccine waiting in the wings, federal dollars need to follow if we are going to get this right and overcome this pandemic,” Sen. Schumer said.
By Forum Staff
With a COVID-19 vaccination nearing the ready for distribution, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Sunday that a successful rollout will require about $30 billion in fed funds to ensure states like New York have the resources to distribute the vaccine (for free), educate the public, hire health workers, establish clinics and more. Schumer said New York will require hundreds of millions of dollars for its own vaccination campaign and program, and that many other states will have similar needs.
“With a COVID-19 vaccine waiting in the wings, federal dollars need to follow if we are going to get this right and overcome this pandemic,” Schumer said. “States like New York will need funding to make sure the resources required once the vaccine is made available are both in place and in progress. New York will require hundreds of millions of dollars to hire health workers, establish clinics, including possible mobile ones, and make sure that we have boots on the ground engaging with people in communities, particularly those that often struggle with access to healthcare—and that is going to cost money.”
Schumer added, the federal government will buy COVID-19 vaccines and then deliver batches of them to where states say they’re needed. Sites can range from massive hospital systems, like in New York City, all the way to mobile vaccine sites upstate, even pharmacies. States will need dollars to administer this work, hire the appropriate staff and prepare for information tracking, outreach awareness, engagement with community leaders, minority groups and more.
Schumer said the solution to this funding need lies in the House-passed Heroes Act, which Schumer continues to push, but is still waiting for a vote in the Senate. Schumer said that the critical vaccine program demands the fed funds allocated in the legislation to maximize vaccines’ success. Schumer made the case to hone on this latest and critically important aspect of the Heroes Act by saying that when the American people voted for a new president they were sending a message to the highest levels of government to take this pandemic more seriously and that needless inaction in the Senate by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell must end.
Two weeks ago, Schumer spoke with President-Elect Joe Biden on a call with congressional leaders. The president-elect and Schumer spoke about the intensifying COVID-19 pandemic and the growing economic pain facing so many Americans across this country. They discussed the urgent need for the Congress to come together in the lame duck session on a bipartisan basis to pass a bill that provides resources to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, relief for working families and small businesses, support for state and local governments trying to keep frontline workers on the payroll, expanded unemployment insurance, affordable health care for millions of families, and more. Schumer says one of the mainstays of the urgent need here is rooted in a vaccination campaign and effort that succeeds.
