Video, Audio, Photos, and Rush Transcript: Barclays Center Launches Vaccine Incentive Program With Governor Kathy Hochul and Lieutenant Governor Brian Benjamin

VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

AUDIO of the event is available here.

PHOTOS of the event are available on the Governor's Flickr page.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

So strange not to see more crowds in here, but hi kids, how you doing? Really good? This is pretty cool isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. I thought so. I thought so, John, first of all, John Abbamondi, I want to thank you for your true leadership, not just as the Chief Executive Officer of the Brooklyn Nets, but also for the way that you have really stepped up the entire organization. Barclays, the Nets, Liberty, to step up and really be a partner to the community during the pandemic.

This place was used for testing, for vaccinations, for a food bank during the worst days of the pandemic, when it was just a really, really hard time. And so you've really proven yourselves to be true leaders in our community. I want to thank all of you, so let's give you all a round of applause here.

I'm also joined by my Lieutenant Governor, do you know what a Lieutenant Governor is? That's all right. I didn't know what one was before I became one either. That's all right. That's like the number two person in the entire state of New York. Let's give a round of applause to Lieutenant Governor Brian Benjamin. And he has a brand new baby at home, so that's pretty exciting. Isn't that fun? Left a little baby at home, a little Olivia and his wife, Kathleen and little girl, Caroline. So we're happy you could make the time, even though things are very exciting at home. We are so fortunate to have some of our superstar athletes who play right here on this court. We have Bruce Brown, the guard/forward for the Brooklyn Nets. Let's give him a round of applause. Betnijah Laney, also the guard/forward for New York Liberty, who is one of the most improved players, All-Defensive Team 2020 for the WNBA. Let's give her a round of applause. And DiDi Richards, guard/forward for New York Liberty as well, one of the breakout stars WBCA Defensive Player of the Year.

So we have some really good athletes here. Let's give them a super round of applause. Well, today I'm taking my COVID briefing on the road. It's a lot more exciting than being in the office all the time. And I love to come out and see the kids. And I also know that this is the first event to be held on your brand new floor. So we all made sure we wore our shoes so I wouldn't scuff them up. Okay. So we're very careful about that. So what I want to do is first of all, highlight what's going on with the pandemic here in the state of New York. And one thing I can tell you, my friends, we will not take our eye off the ball. We are watching what is happening in other places around the world. We're seeing the number of cases spike in places like Europe and the second half of October, more than half of the world's new cases were reported in Europe.

What scares me the most is that in a place like Great Britain, half of the new cases are children under the age of 15 because they are not vaccinated, and this dramatic rise is because of that and we see that the weather's starting to change and more people are going indoors. We want to make sure that all of our children are safe.

You kids want to be safe? Yes, you do. Yes, you do. So how are we going to keep you safe? You're going to take your shot, right? You're all going to get your vaccine. It's got to be very cool. Anybody who gets a vaccine is really a superhero to me, and I know you're going to do that as soon as it's allowed.

So literally today, in Washington, DC, our Capitol, there's people meeting at a place called the Center for Disease Control. What is that? They're the ones who are going to okay the authorization, the approval for children ages five to 11 to receive this life-saving vaccine.

So we are very, very excited that this is going to be available soon. We've been getting ready here in the State of New York. We have been talking to pediatricians, doctors' offices, the pharmacies, the drugstores, the places are going to be able to give this to you, as well as you can get the shots right here. Wouldn't that be cool, to get it done right here? I think so, too. I think so, too.

And we're working with our schools. So far, 60 percent of all the schools of New York school districts have said that they're willing to do the vaccinations on site. So it makes it easier for families. A lot of the schools would be directly communicating with the parents as well.

So we've been waiting for this. We announced more pop-up sites. What do you think of pop-up sites? Sounds kind of fun. Doesn't it? It's kind of pops up and all of a sudden it's there. I like this stuff, too. So, we say we're going to put up 120, we actually put up 146 pop-ups sites so it's a lot easier for families. I want to thank the Department of Health for all their great work on that.

But what happens next? We have to work with trusted allies. You know what that means? It's your parents, it's your friends, it's your neighbors, it's your teachers. And we have to get the word out right now that when this vaccine is available, that every kid says to their mom or dad and their guardian. I want to get the shot, I want to take my shots so I can be safe. I don't want to have to worry about this.

So, kids it's coming. You've been hearing about all the adults getting their vaccinations and maybe some of your older siblings, like age 15 to 17 is okay. But right now, we're just about to hear the news that it's going to be okay for five to eleven year-olds. Anybody, five to eleven here, anybody here? All right. Well, how about that? How about that? Well, that's very cool.

So, we also want to make sure that people aren't telling lies about the vaccine. We launched something known as #GetTheVaxFacts campaign to dispel that we've already had a thousand people check that out. Look at the facts. This is what the experts, the doctors, are saying is our way to get out of this. So, we also have to bring on more trusted ambassadors. Who are trusted ambassadors? In my mind, those are our superstar athletes. The people we look up to, the people who do things like play basketball in a way that just excites our fans.

They're the ones that I'm trusting with this. Yeah. You're ready to play basketball, aren't you? We're going to shoot some hoops afterwards. So, we're launching, we did this with some of our athletes as well. We have our Vax to Win NFL sweepstakes. We were giving away tickets to people who got their vaccinations and they got tickets for the Buffalo Bills, the Giants, the Jets. We had our players at the press conferences.

So now we're taking it to the court, and I'm so delighted to have the participation of our friends at the Brooklyn Nets and the Liberty, and make sure that we have a new incentive. So, here's the deal gang. If you get your vaccine, here you go to Barclay's Modell's site, you can receive a voucher redeemable for two tickets. All you have to do is get the shot and you get two tickets to come watch a game.

Does that sound like a good deal? That is a great deal. Let's give that a round of applause. I like the sound of that. You can go to a Nets home game or you can select another event there and you can book this in advance.

There's a whole lot of deals. So I want to make sure everybody knows how excited I am. I'm a mom. I would have wanted my kids ages five to 11 to get the vaccine, to make sure that they are safe. And again, I have to get the word out. This is available, very soon. We'll make sure it's there for you. And this is the way we can stop having to wear masks at school.

Although they look really good on all of you and you can start going where you want. We can start saying that this pandemic that you're going to someday tell your own kids about is finally over. To say, I survived the pandemic. I was tough. I got through it and I survived because I got my vaccine. That's what I want you to tell all your friends, your family, you are what I'm calling the ambassadors, not just these athletes, not just our basketball players, but all of you as kids to start telling everybody, we are so excited for this.

We can't wait to get this done because we want to go out and just be normal kids once again. This is how we do it. The state of New York is ready. And again, I want to thank the Nets and Liberty and everybody for taking the lead here. So that should be a slam dunk? Okay, it should be a slam dunk, right? We're going to do this. We're going to have a slam dunk here.

Separate announcement, I want to say that to expand our services, we are now making it permanent, that this vaccine is available to all pharmacists. It was only temporary. It was supposed to expire in a few months and we just, I'm signing a bill into law. That's what I do as governor, I sign bills into law to make sure that those are available.

So the message is let's all take our shot. Let's go play some hoops. Come on up kids. I want you to stand here because you're going to meet somebody and want to shake his hand when he comes up to the stage. And that is our great Lieutenant Governor Brian Benjamin, shake his hand when he comes up. This is a really cool guy. He's a big shot."