Dear Senator Kaplan:
As one of your constituents, I wish to register my feelings concerning New York State and the chaos and incompetence that has been part of the process of making COVID vaccinations available.
I am 77 years of age but I fully agreed with vaccinating health care workers and first responders. Early on there were reports of snafus as vaccinations were left unused and New York State was lagging other states in getting shots into people’s arms. It appears that the governor decided to take full charge of the vaccination process including threatening health care providers with fines for any mistakes.
Maybe this was the reason why vaccinations were left unused.
I was happy to see that seniors over 75 were added to the list of those eligible and so I filled out a form on the state website and was directed to local pharmacies. The one closest to me that actually answered the phone informed me that they were not part of the program.
None of the others that were on the list I received even bothered or could not answer their phones and this has been the situation to the time of this email.
To make matters worse those 65 and above were added and the pool of those wishing to be vaccinated is now in the millions and it is fairly obvious that New York State is not up to the task.
Where has the state Legislature been in all of this?
My impression has been the state legislature has been largely uninvolved. I certainly have heard nothing from you or your office on the failures of the state in the whole vaccination process. If I am incorrect in my impressions I will be happy to be proven wrong.
John Frangos
Manhasset
