Governor Hochul Makes a Public Health Announcement

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul received her COVID vaccination and provided remarks to New Yorkers on the importance of vaccinations.

B-ROLL: B-Roll is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr page will have photos of the event here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Now I do want to say a few words while I am here because I wanted to put a spotlight on the fact that back in August the federal government, Secretary Kennedy and the FDA, took away the rights of pharmacists to provide lifesaving vaccinations like COVID shots to anyone under the age of 65, or who didn't have preexisting conditions. So basically saying that if you don't have a prescription — parents can't get shots for their children; that adults who want to protect themselves had that right taken away. That's why I signed an executive order a short time ago on September 5th basically saying that, “no here in the State of New York, we actually believe in science. We believe in preventative measures like shots, and we will not bow down to what the federal government is trying to impose on us.”

We're also very aware that later this week we're in a two day period starting Thursday. The COVID committee assembled by Secretary Kennedy, and he eliminated the ones that were perhaps unbiased and stacked with his own appointees. That meeting is occurring later this week, so I wanted to come here today and say that we are expecting more chaos out of the federal government. This is how they operate. Whether they're going to take away more rights remains to be seen, but based on what they did in August, I have no high expectations that they're going to reverse the position — where all across this country, we have states where without a prescription and the hassle involved and having to take time off of work, go see a doctor, get a diagnosis and go to back to the pharmacy, ignoring the fact that people have real lives to live and just want to get that shot as quickly as they did before this decision in August that there are other states that are exposed. I feel for them, but here in the state of New York, my job is to protect all New Yorkers, and that's exactly what we're doing. And I want to remind everybody this is the perfect time of the year to go get your COVID shot without interruption — and we're going to continue under this executive order. I plan to renew it again on October 5th. I have to keep renewing it monthly until such time as we can take action with the legislature. I'll be drafting legislation in the upcoming weeks on that.

So thank you Danny, appreciate you being here.

[...]

All right, thank you. I'll let you get back to work, right?