Cuomo Opens Door For Restaurant Workers, Taxi Drivers To Get Vaccinated. Can NYC Handle It?

A day after Governor Andrew Cuomo called it “cheap” and “insincere” to consider expanding COVID-19 vaccine eligibility to restaurant workers, Cuomo reversed course and opened the door for many more workers to get vaccinated.

Cuomo announced Tuesday that local governments could choose whether to expand eligibility for restaurant workers, taxi drivers, and people in facilities for those with developmental disabilities in phase 1b—as long as there is enough supply of vaccine doses.

Currently, there are not nearly enough vaccines for the new expansion—with only 438,000 doses on hand. The Associated Press reports that this move could affect 200,000 licensed taxi drivers and more than 800,000 restaurant and food service workers. But how facilities for those with developmental disabilities would be included is vague.

At a press conference on Wednesday morning, Mayor Bill de Blasio embraced the expansion to restaurant workers, but it's unclear how members of this workforce will be prioritized. Will busboys and busgirls be allowed to obtain the vaccine even if they don't interact with customers? How will restaurant worker prove their employment?

As of Wednesday morning, the city’s eligibility website says restaurant workers and taxi drivers can seek the vaccines, but the state’s list omits them. Neither mentions residents at facilities for those with developmental disabilities. These caveats are raising questions over how cities and counties will handle the new expansion, who exactly is in charge of the decision-making and what happens if the local plans fall apart.

Over recent weeks, Cuomo and de Blasio had publicly debated the use of the state’s reserve of second doses for people waiting on their initial shot—until Cuomo permitted the allowance.

Cuomo said app-based drivers for Uber or Lyft are included. THE CITY reports that delivery workers will also be categorized as eligible. People living with disabilities in congregate settings were eligible under phase 1a, according to an earlier announcement from the governor.

The confusing back-and-forth over vaccine eligibility is a symptom of the lack of a centralized public health response that has plagued the nation since the beginning of the pandemic almost a year ago, said Bruce Y. Lee, a professor of health policy and management at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy, said.

“We have to remember that we need to do this strategically. That's why it's so important to have this coordinated at national level,” said Lee. “If you leave it up to the states, then it’s going to be all patchwork.”

That’s how West Virginia and North Dakota can end up leading the nation by efficiently administering more than 80 percent of their delivered supply, while New York sits 19th in the rankings with only 66% of its doses used. While the Trump administration left the pandemic response largely up to governors, Lee said there has also been a lack of transparency and coordination between state and city governments that has contributed to a sense of confusion and anxiety around who can get vaccinated and when. Nearly two of every three American adults say they do not have enough information on when they’ll get vaccinated, according to a January 22nd poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

“I think that's been one of the challenges here during the pandemic. That game plan has not been made clear. There needs to be very clear communication,” Lee said. “The ideal situation would be a website that just basically tells everyone ‘you are here, this is where you can go to get the vaccine, this is when to expect it, this is the priority groups, this is how well the priority groups before you have been covered.’”

Restaurant workers have been at the center of the eligibility expansion debate, which heightened days after new city data revealed Black and Latino city residents are getting about half the share of vaccines expected for their populations. Roughly 60% of NYC’s restaurant workers were immigrants in 2018, according to a state comptroller report published in September. Around 44% are Hispanic and 20% are Asian in the restaurant industry. Neighborhoods with the highest number of restaurant workers include Jackson Heights, Corona, and Elmhurst in Queens as well as Washington Heights, Inwood, and Marble Hill in Manhattan, according to the report.

Those same workers are expected to clock in for shifts with indoor diners on Valentine’s Day, despite a growing concern that more highly transmissible variants are spreading through the city. City and state health officials have said only the variant from the U.K. has been tracked in New York—but they assume that the other strains from Brazil or South Africa are already here.

The NYC Hospitality Alliance interpreted the governor’s announcement as a clear go-ahead for restaurant workers.

“Restaurant workers have been essential to our city during the pandemic, and we applaud Governor Cuomo for expanding vaccine 1B eligibility requirements to include them,” executive director of the alliance, Andrew Rigie, said in a statement. “The NYC Hospitality Alliance is committed to advocating for our industry, and is ready and willing to support vaccine education and outreach to the restaurant community immediately upon its availability to these essential workers.”

The New York Taxi Workers Alliance called for an even larger expansion. “It feels like drivers have been forgotten and left second priority in so many aspects of the recovery. Today brings some light of hope into what's been a tunnel of darkness,” Bhairavi Desai, Executive Director of NYTWA said in a statement. “We call on our delivery brothers and sisters, and all retail workers, to be immediately added.”

“We do have more vaccines now, so there is more flexibility in the system,” Cuomo said on Tuesday. He expects the federal government to boost vaccine deliveries by 20% over the next three weeks, which will trickle down into municipalities.

City Hall welcomed the option, given hours earlier, de Blasio called on the state to allow restaurant workers to get the vaccine before indoor dining returns on Valentine’s Day.

“We’re glad that the discussion around expanding eligibility for more New Yorkers continues to move forward,” de Blasio spokesperson Bill Neidhardt said in a statement. “We need as many New Yorkers to be vaccinated as quickly as possible and the City is looking at these new allowances.”

Columbia University epidemiologist, Rupak Shivakoti, said vaccine supplies make determining eligibility a challenge.

“From a public health perspective, it's not so easy either way, but if the supply is so limited, then you have to make a decision,” Shivakoti said. “If it was a simple decision, we wouldn't be having this conversation.”