New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on Thursday said his city has a goal for coronavirus vaccinations in January: vaccinate 1 million New Yorkers.
The mayor told CNN’s “New Day” it will take “a call to arms” and help from the federal government, but he knows New York City can do it.
“[T]he bottom line is to get out there and vaccinate,” de Blasio emphasized. “So, Alisyn, I want to let you know we’ve set a goal for the month of January, we’re going to vaccinate a million New Yorkers in the month of January. Now, we’re going to need the help of the federal government, the state government, the manufacturers of the vaccine, we need everyone to pull together, but we know New York City can vaccinate a million people in the month of January and really put this thing into high gear. And every single time we vaccinate someone we are one step closer to making the coronavirus a thing of the past in terms of the horrible grip it has had on our society. And more and more people want to get vaccinated, and we’re going to make it possible right here.”
Host Alisyn Camerota asked de Blasio to explain how New York City can vaccinate 1 million people in one month.
“Look, we’re going to do a call to arms here,” he replied. “We’re going to say to every part of the health care world we need you, local community clinics, we’re going to put up pop up sites, we’re going to use our schools. You name it. Whatever it takes to reach a million people, we’re ready to go because we have an extraordinary health care community here in this city, and we have the people ready to do it, we have the trained folks, we have, you know, millions of New Yorkers who want the vaccine. Again, we need some help, we need the federal government to speed up, we need the manufacturers to do what they need to do. Really, the vaccines need to go where they can be used.”
“We have the capacity to make it happen right down to the grassroots, and I think the way you do great things is by setting great goals. So, we are going to show it can be done. I agree with the president-elect. I think Joe Biden is 100 percent right. This thing is not moving the way it needs to in the United States of America. New York City is going to show that we can jump-start this and vaccinate people at a record pace, and we want to see the whole country be a part of this because we need to go faster to fight back the coronavirus if we want to recover.”
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