"COVID has created a different dynamic in this country -- I call it low tide in America," Governor Cuomo said. "If you go to the amazing Shirley Chisholm Park and look at the bay during high tide, it looks beautiful, but if you go at low tide, you can see all the ugliness on the bottom. That's what we've seen over this past year during America's low tide - the racism, the discrimination, the inequality - and COVID has only exacerbated that problem. The undeniable fact is that COVID has killed the Black and Latino communities at a higher rate than the white community. There is no getting around that and its why New York has made ensuring fairness and equity in the vaccine distribution such a priority. I understand there is a level of skepticism about the vaccine given how it was managed by the previous administration, but that's why New York did its own review. It's safe, it's effective, and it's the weapon that will win the war, but we will only be successful if everyone is on board."