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Immuno-Compromised in NY Still Not Eligible to Receive COVID-19 Vaccine

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By Hellen Zaboulani

New York has yet to allow its immunocompromised residents to receive the Covid-19 vaccination. Last week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo had announced that they would be added to the list of eligible recipients. It seems, however, that this change was never implemented amid the state’s frenzied vaccine rollout.

“I just feel it’s almost like saying anyone with comorbidities, you are allowed to be dispensed, you are not important,” said Swati Bhise, 61, who described her frustration and feeling of neglect to the Post on Monday. Bhise, an educator and filmmaker who lives in Midtown East, says her life is at stake if she should catch the Coronavirus. “I am living in fear, I don’t go out,” Swati said in the phone interview. Three years ago, she suffered from acute respiratory distress syndrome, which damaged her lungs and left her intubated in an ICU. She is still unable to walk more than a few blocks without needing supplemental oxygen. She also has type-2 diabetes. Catching COVID-19 “would be a certain death sentence for her,” Bhise’s son Aditya Bhise said. “Don’t pretend we don’t exist. We do exist,” Bhise pleads.

As reported by the NY Post, last Tuesday, at the same time as Gov. Cuomo announced that ages 65 and over would be eligible for the immunization, he had also said that the immunocompromised would be made eligible, in line with federal guidance. Since the announcement, nothing changed, however. It seems the state is already overwhelmed with the number of people currently eligible. Cuomo is saying that they are awaiting specific guidelines from federal authorities, to define and prioritize the “immunocompromised” populace, in order to proceed.

Other states, however, including New Jersey and Florida, have already started permitting those with qualifying conditions to receive the immunization, not waiting for the Feds to weigh in further. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has a regularly updated list of medical conditions that put people at a higher-risk for COVID-19. The list includes patients of cancer, chronic kidney disease, type 2 diabetes, and obesity, just to name a few. As of last week, NJ is permitting anyone who has a condition listed on the CDC’s website to have equal access to the vaccination.

NY has been widely criticized for its slow rollout of the immunization. On Monday, Cuomo continued to shift the blame onto the federal government, saying we are already experiences a severe shortage of doses doled out by the feds. He says the feds expanded eligibility without increasing the supply of vaccines. “Now you have 7 million New Yorkers chasing 300,000 [vaccines],” Cuomo said.

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