BUFFALO, N.Y. — New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has appointed doctors and medical professionals from across the state to this Clinical Advisory Task Force.
The state's Clinical Advisory Task Force will review every COVID-19 vaccine authorized by the federal government, and will advise New York State on the vaccines' safety and effectiveness in fighting the virus.
"We want to make sure we can tell New Yorkers the vaccine is safe and then we want to have a distribution plan, and we're putting together our own group to determine that," Cuomo said.
The members of the task force are below:
- Charles M. Rice, Ph.D., The Rockefeller University
- Scott M. Hammer, MD, NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center
- Adolfo Garcia-Sastre, Ph.D., Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
- Sharon Nachman, MD, Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University
- Kelvin Lee, MD, Roswell Park
- Bruce Farber, MD, Northwell Health
- Shawneequa Callier, MA, JD, George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences
"Once the FDA says it's safe, we'll have a New York group of doctors and some of the best doctors around the world review what FDA did so I'll be able to say to New Yorkers it is safe," Cuomo said. "There are polls that say half the American people wouldn't take the vaccine right now because they don't believe it's safe. I want to be able to say to New Yorkers it is safe, take it, and I want to have the best distribution because ideally we want to be the first COVID-safe state in the nation."
During his COVID-19 update on Tuesday, Governor Cuomo stated that the COVID-19 positive rate for the Western New York region on September 28 was 1.3 percent. The region was tied with New York City for the highest positive rate in the state.
Cuomo also said that while numbers for the region are better than some days, it is still not great. He stated that the region still has a caution flag.
WATCH: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's COVID-19 update on Tuesday, September 29, 2020.