Assemblyman Steve Hawley's statement to The Batavian this morning regarding the mass vaccination clinic at Genesee Community College:
"We sent out a letter to the governor and the (New York State) Department of Health commissioner -- our friends, Mr. Cuomo and Mr. Zucker -- indicating our extreme dismay over the fact that it is going to be open to anyone. The rural counties in New York State, the percentage of completion of vaccines is way, way below the state average, and our surrounding counties' average.
"I think at last count, a couple days ago, the state was at over 15 percent completion of shot one and Orleans County was at about 8 percent, and I don't remember Genesee's (which is slightly higher than Orleans) or Wyoming either. But they're all way below and we've got a pandemic going on here.
"We've got people who can't find appointments. I get 20 to 25 calls every day from people who are trying to find a place to go on. If you're working or are caretaking or whatever, you can't sit in front of a computer all daylong, and if you don't have broadband, you can't get on.
So, this is very, very disheartening. We're New Yorkers, too. This is our health -- life and death in many cases, unfortunately, as we've come to learn. Very, very disappointed. I asked them to change their minds and I haven't heard back."
