Talk about two wrongs not making a right.

For weeks, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said the state would conduct its own review of possible COVID-19 vaccines because he, and by extension the state, didn’t trust the federal Food and Drug Administration to approve a safe vaccine.

“Fifty-four percent of New Yorkers say they wouldn’t take it,” Cuomo said during his Sept. 24 press briefing. “The first question is, is the vaccine safe? Frankly, I’m not going to trust the federal government’s opinion and I wouldn’t recommend to New Yorkers based on the federal government’s opinion. … On the first question of is it safe, New York state will have its own review. When the federal government is finished with their review and says it’s safe. We’re going to put together our own review committee headed by the Department of Health that will advise me – we have the best hospitals and research facilities on the globe in this state. We’re going to put together a group for them to review the vaccine so I can look at the camera and I can say to New Yorkers that it’s safe to take. I want to make sure that we know it’s safe to take.”

More recently, Cuomo has criticized the federal government’s plan to distribute the vaccine, saying he would prefer that distribution to be handled by a Joe Biden administration rather than President Donald Trump. Of course, that prompted Trump to say a COVID vaccine from Pfizer would be available to the general public by April, but not for New York residents. The president said he wants the vaccine sent to states whose residents will begin taking the vaccine immediately, not wait for a state review.

Enough.

Cuomo’s insinuation that the doctors and researchers who have worked tirelessly over the past eight months to develop a vaccine are being influenced more by politics than they are a genuine desire to prevent people from catching COVID-19 is insulting to those doctors and researchers. At the same time, the president’s willingness to withhold a vaccine from New York residents solely because of a political spat with Cuomo is simply cruel and, at the same time, plays into Cuomo’s point about politicizing the vaccine in the first place.

As we said, two wrongs do not make a right. in this case two wrongs endanger peoples’ lives and should not be tolerated of either the governor or the president.