New Rochelle Mayor Noam Bramson jumped the COVD-19 vaccine line last week in an aborted — and illegal — bid to give the coveted shots to all his city workers.
But while 128 of 675 municipal employees, including 45 in the police department, got vaccinated by Thursday, teachers were shut out after the state got wind of the plan.
“The people who work in the most dangerous setting to ensure the best education for the students of New Rochelle are the ones getting screwed,” a teacher told The Post after a plan to shuttle teachers to the hospital by bus Friday morning was abruptly canceled.
Bramson, 51, admitted he rolled up his sleeve after Montefiore New Rochelle hospital offered the vaccines to all city employees and elected officials last Wednesday.
“I personally had intended to wait for a future phase but in order to overcome vaccine hesitancy that was becoming evident within the city workforce, and demonstrate confidence in the vaccine’s safety and efficacy, I received a vaccine mid-afternoon on Thursday,” Bramson said in a statement.
“Knowing now that Montefiore New Rochelle’s program did not have proper state authorization, I regret my participation,” he said.
Robert Cox, whose Talk of the Sound first reported Bramson getting a shot, questioned why the mayor did not publicize it.
State guidelines instructed that limited vaccine doses go first only to health-care workers and nursing home residents or staff. But Montefiore hospital offered its unused doses to the city after many of its own employees apparently rejected the shots. Only 23 percent of the hospital’s staff was vaccinated as of Friday, according to a state tally.
Gov. Cuomo blasted the low injection rate, citing other hospitals with 100 percent participation.
New Rochelle school teachers were set to start getting vaccinated Friday morning and continuing throughout the week with a schedule for each school. Interim District Superintendent Alex Marrero ordered shuttle buses to transport teachers to and from the hospital.
But that plan was abruptly halted Thursday night after the state Department of Health learned of the illegal vaccinations. Bramson said, “Montefiore misinterpreted the state guidelines and should not have been administering the vaccines.”
The state is now probing the hospital, and may slap it with fines or other penalties. A state DOH spokesman said the hospital’s vaccine supply would shift to the Westchester County Health Department. The county picked up 330 doses on Friday, according to LoHud.com.
New Rochelle was one of the first coronavirus epicenters in New York.
“The staff of those schools have continually sacrificed the safety of their own families because of their dedication to the children of New Rochelle,” a teacher remarked.
Montefiore said it “regrets any confusion” about its lack of compliance.
The state Attorney General’s office is conducting a criminal probe of a network of clinics in Brooklyn and Manhattan, ParCare, for allegedly misidentifying itself to obtain thousands of vaccine doses and giving them to ineligible members of the public.