Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney came to the former JC Penney store in the Poughkeepsie Mall Galleria, which serves as one of Dutchess County’s mass-vaccination sites, in order to encourage Dutchess County residents to get vaccinated.

During his kickoff speech, Rep. Maloney stated: “New York State has seen an 18% drop from the previous week," referring to the vaccination, after the rollout to the most vulnerable has happened, and qualifications to get the vaccine have opened up to anyone over 16 years old. President Biden has directed all states to open vaccinations to people over the age of 16 by May 1, 2021.

Rep. Maloney says that before they declare the decline a problem, they want to get the word out to encourage people to ask their questions to their doctors and faith leaders, to hopefully reach the conclusion that the vaccination is right for them. ALBB has emailed his office for his source, and has not yet received the source of the 18% statistic. Though his office has responded to ALBB’s requests for pictures of the event at JCPenney where he mentioned this stat. If you have this information, please submit.

This comes on the day when the CDC issued guidance that people who are fully vaccinated could be outside walking around, jogging, biking, maybe hiking, and being with others without their masks on - if they are fully vaccinated. Events such as Farmers Markets and other close quarters would still require face masks.

Below is the press release sent today (Tuesday, April 27, 2021) by Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney’s office. You can watch Re. Maloney’s full speech, along with Dutchess County Executive Molinaro here:

“Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (NY-18) will join Dutchess County Executive Marcus Molinaro at the Poughkeepsie Galleria Vaccination Site to urge residents to sign up to get a vaccine. This visit is part of Congressman Maloney’s ongoing effort to combat vaccine hesitancy.”

“As of April 22, 45.1% of Dutchess County residents (132,644 of 294,218) had received at least one dose and 29.8% (87,609) were fully vaccinated. The Poughkeepsie Galleria vaccination site has been vaccinating residents since mid-January.”

“Biden administration officials are anticipating the supply of coronavirus vaccine to outstrip U.S. demand by mid-May if not sooner. A slowdown in vaccinations could delay the arrival of herd immunity. The longer that takes, the more time there is for dangerous variants to arise and possibly evade vaccines.”

“To combat hesitancy, the Congressman is redoubling his outreach efforts with community organizations and local leaders.”

For those who are hesitant:

• Write all of your medical questions down, including all thoughts and fears, and call your doctor to discuss what you should consider.

• Follow the news of Brazil. Brazil has not had a strong prevention plan or vaccination plan, and has been in denial of the pandemic. So far, the CDC warns against any travel to Brazil, saying even vaccinated people could pick up variants; a variant from Brazil has been found in Dallas; Brazil’s congress has launched a parliamentary inquiry into their president’s slow and delayed response; by April had seen 3,000 deaths/day, etc.. Let’s not have any more etc.