Erie County Legislator Joe Lorigo has sent a letter to the Chairwomen of the Legislature and Health and Human Services Committee to discuss recent developments in the fight against COVID-19, including poor management of rolling out the vaccine.

The last full Health and Human Services Committee meeting at the Legislature took place November 12, 2020, and an informal meeting was scheduled for December 17 but was limited to 15 minutes of discussion. Since then, New York State has begun an effort to distribute the COVID-19 vaccine but it has reached a limited number of people in Erie County.

Legislator Lorigo said, “So far, getting the vaccine rolled out has been a disaster. People in the first scheduled group are now being told it could take up to 6 months to receive their vaccine. We need to get to the bottom of this and I believe the Erie County Health Department has a responsibility to communicate more frequently with the Legislature. I have many questions, and the people I represent do, too. I hope my colleagues across the aisle will understand the urgency in this matter and agree to schedule a committee meeting as soon as possible.”