New York Governor Andrew Cuomo says the federal government has caused increased anxiety by greatly expanding the number of people eligible for getting inoculated against COVID-19 while promising a release of vaccines it didn’t have, so he’s attempting to by-pass the system.

The Democrat says he sent a letter to Centers for Disease Control Secretary Alex Azar telling him the handling of the vaccine has been incompetent and accusing him of lying to the American people about what he was going to do about releasing more doses.

Cuomo says he has also sent a letter to vaccine-producer Pfizer asking to buy the shots directly.

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The move to buy vaccines separate from federal supplies is similar to what New York State did at the start of the pandemic when ventilators were not being sent from federal stockpiles to hard-hit emergency rooms.

While Cuomo says the New York-headquartered Pfizer can do what it wants as it is not part of the Trump Administration’s “Operation Warp Speed”, the company has said it can’t sell to states or private entities under its emergency distribution approval from the Food and Drug Administration.

Cuomo says he’s pushing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to buy more vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna and Oxford AstraZeneca and to approve the Johnson & Johnson shots to increase the supply.

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