Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) on Friday signed an executive order backing pharmacists’ ability to broadly administer COVID-19 vaccines in New York. 

Hochul, a leading advocate of vaccine mandates during the pandemic, suggested the authorization was necessary because of allegations that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is limiting access to the vaccines, which his department has advised could have harmful side effects, and recently issued recommendations stating the inoculations are not necessary for healthy young people and pregnant women.

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“I want to get this on the books to make sure that the status quo that existed before the federal government decided to ignore the health needs of our families, before they took these steps, that the status quo remains in the state of New York,” the Democratic governor said during a visit to an elementary school on Long Island. “So you can go into a pharmacy, not have to worry about going to a doctor’s office and getting a prescription, which is another step that I think a lot of people just don’t have time in their busy lives to handle.”

Hochul’s executive order Friday morning is designed to undermine recommendations made under Kennedy’s HHS. The order backs pharmacists’ ability to administer COVID vaccines to anyone over 3 years old, even without a prescription.

CVS and Walgreens pharmacies across several states that require pharmacists to follow federal recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s panel on vaccines have begun requiring prescriptions for the vaccines as the country awaits the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices latest recommendations later this month for the latest COVID inoculations. 

The Food and Drug Administration, which, like the CDC, lies under the jurisdiction of the HHS, also recently recommended that the new COVID vaccines are best for those 65 or older with serious health conditions.  

Hochul’s push for widespread COVID vaccinations this week comes after she emerged as a national leader on the policy during the pandemic. At the time, the governor sparked controversy for imposing a mask mandate on businesses, stating that those that did not require vaccine mandates for patrons and employees must require them to wear masks indoors or else pay fines of up to $1,000 per violation. Hochul also stirred the waters when she required all health care workers in the state to be vaccinated or be terminated, and later rejected measures to rehire an estimated 34,000 health care workers who were fired for refusing the mandate as the state suffered from a major health care worker shortage.

The New York governor’s stance on vaccinations was further probed in 2021 when she told worshippers at the Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn that “God wants” them to receive the COVID inoculations. 

“Yes, I know you’re vaccinated. They’re the smart ones, but you know, there are people out there who aren’t listening to God and what God wants. You know this. You know who they are,” Hochul said. “I need you to be my apostles. I need you to go out and talk about it.” 

The current vaccine debate between Hochul and Kennedy centers around disagreements about who is corrupt in the federal health sector. Critics say Kennedy is fueling politically motivated policies that undermine science. Kennedy says the Washington health establishment has become a corrupted force more concerned about lining their pockets with profits from questionable alliances with the pharmaceutical industry than incentivizing positive health outcomes, which he says has led to potentially harmful vaccines being authorized for public use, and to the surge in chronic disease over the last few decades. 

Since becoming the head of the HHS, critics have accused Kennedy of threatening or denying people access to COVID vaccines. The HHS chief says vaccines are still available to anyone who wants them, arguing he has only scaled back federal recommendations and mandates pushing people to be vaccinated. 

In May, the FDA announced it would no longer place the COVID vaccine on the CDC’s recommended immunization schedule for healthy children and pregnant women. The choice should be made on an individual basis between patients and their doctors, said FDA Commissioner Marty Makary. 

While insurers and leading national medical groups usually base their policies on recommendations from the CDC, the FDA authorization does not prohibit insurance companies from covering COVID vaccines outside of the recommended categories.

Last month, as the FDA issued recommendations for COVID-19 vaccine doses for the fall and winter season, the agency said younger people who are healthy are not advised to be inoculated. COVID-19 vaccinations were endorsed for younger demographics only if they had at least one underlying medical condition that puts them at higher risk for hospitalization or death.

In addition to the FDA’s vaccine recommendations, the Trump administration’s move to fire CDC director Susan Monarez in late August has also made Kennedy the object of intense criticism. The controversy stems from Monarez’s accusations that she was forced out of the CDC because she “refused to rubber-stamp unscientific, reckless directives” centered around vaccine policy, and allegations Kennedy is using the HHS to “weaponiz[e] public health for political gain.”

Monarez alleged Kennedy demanded she preapprove the CDC’s ACIP’s vaccine recommendations ahead of the panel’s September meeting. Monarez said she hesitated to do so because she doesn’t trust the panel’s new roster. saying she refused to do so because she is skeptical of the panel. Kennedy removed all 17 ACIP members in June due to accusations that the CDC panel had become riddled with corruption and served as a “rubber stamp” for big-pharmaceutical corporations. Kennedy replaced them with individuals he said were “committed to evidence-based medicine… [and] demanding definitive safety and efficacy data before making any new vaccine recommendations.”

When grilled on Monarez’s removal from the CDC during a Senate hearing Thursday, Kennedy said he asked her to resign because she told him she was not “trustworthy.” 

“I asked her, ‘Are you a trustworthy person?’ and she said ‘No,’” Kennedy said. “If she wrote that I fired her because she refused to sign on in advance for the ACIP committee, no, that’s not accurate,” Kennedy said, adding he asked her for “clarification” about a statement he says she made related to plans not to sign on to the panel’s recommendations.

“I told her I didn’t want her to have a rule that she’s not going to sign on to it,” he said.

LIBERAL STATES TEAM UP TO COUNTER KENNEDY ON VACCINES AND PUBLIC HEALTH

President Donald Trump has continued to stand by Kennedy as the HHS chief faces growing backlash from the Washington establishment. 

“He means very well. And he’s got some little different ideas. I guarantee a lot of the people at this table like RFK Jr., and I do, but he’s got a different take, and we want to listen to all of those takes,” the president told reporters Thursday. “It’s not your standard talk. I would say that, and that has to do with medical and vaccines. But if you look at what’s going on in the world with health and look at this country also with regard to health, I like the fact that he’s different.”