Video, B-Roll, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Visits Broome County Vaccination Site and Thanks Healthcare Workers

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul visited the Broome County vaccination site and thanked healthcare workers.

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

B-ROLL 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 will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.

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

Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for coming out. And it's great to be back in Broome County. First of all, with our amazing County Executive Jason Garnar, who I've spoken to many times as we've worked our way through this pandemic, the early months, the little lull time through the fall and now this winter surge. He's been a tremendous partner of ours, and we had a great conversation a short time ago. He told me he needed another site for testing and vaccinations in Broome County. And here we are, it literally just opened a few days ago.

There is a tremendous demand for this. And it's set up in a way which is really smart, which is to use the same facility with our National Guard and our Department of Health and our Department of Homeland security team, all coming together here, but three days a week, it's available for testing, which is what we're doing here today, PCR tests. As well as the other three days a week Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, when we have the vaccinations here as well.

So I just wanted to make sure the community is aware of that. I also want to thank another tremendous partner of mine and longtime friend, our Assemblymember Donna Lupardo. Who's been a tremendous champion of this region and is working very closely with us. And so I thank them.

Also our Incident Commander is here, Tim Dewey. Who's worked very hard from the Department of Health to get this set up, get it operational, and for that we are grateful.

As well as Stephanie Chapin, our Regional Emergency Coordinator from DSHES, again, we have a brand new team in place in Albany, with new leadership in all these agencies.

And so I want to thank everybody for stepping up and doing everything they can, but I'm mostly here to help support the workers. I've been visiting various hospitals today, making sure that we've let people know how much we appreciate what our hospital personnel have been going through, but also at these sites to just say we are unbelievably grateful to all of you. Especially people from the National Guard who thought the early months of 2020, then through 2020 and 2021, at some point, there'd be an end to having to be deployed, to provide this life saving assistance, whether it's the vaccines or testing, but they're here. They're always here where they're needed. And we want to give a special shout out to the National Guard and Major Ray Shields as well.

I want to also deliver a message. We had a conversation about masks and enforcement of our statewide requirement that businesses enforce that there is either a mask worn or else a vaccination required before there's entry and just having some casual conversations and what I saw over in Tioga County out west, when I met with Martha Sauerbrey over there.

It's not that big a deal. I have seen widespread compliance. Assemblymember, the county executive boasting widespread compliance on a call with hundreds of businesses. This is not that big a deal to them. They understand that we are in unprecedented times, that we have to [deal with the fact] that there was this new variant, which even if you're vaccinated or boosted, in some cases, you still can be vulnerable to contracting the virus.

Now number one, I want to let everyone know that there is no evidence if you're boosted and have been vaccinated that there's a severe impact to this. So the people who are severely impacted are the ones who are not vaccinated. They're the ones now filling up the hospitals and those are the ones we're really asking to change their views and take advantage of a site like this, which is so easy to get to, and just literally walk in and you're taken care of. But also just those who are questioning whether or not a mask mandate is necessary. Yes, it is. We foresaw this when we watched what was happening all the way from South Africa to England, we saw how quickly this virus spread, this new variant. And that's why we put in place a requirement, a simple one. That you wear a mask because you can spread this, even if you're vaccinated.

And I ask everyone, please think about the most vulnerable person at your dinner table for Christmas dinner, just in a couple of days. How would you feel if it turned out that you spread the virus? And as a result, they became sick, ended up being hospitalized, or worse, they did not survive the experience. We don't want that to happen. And that is why I'm just reminding everybody that masks are so simple, easily to be worn. There's very nice styles. I have this lovely "we are New York" version here. But there's no shortages. We just ordered another 150 masks online, about $15 from Amazon. They're available.

So, I want to thank the businesses, first of all, who are complying. I just stopped at the Blue Dolphin Diner over in Tioga. Everybody was following the rules and you know what? They still looked happy. And they were happy for one reason, they're back out together. Because we're doing the right thing, we don't have to talk about shutdowns, or to keep our kids out of school, or paralyzing the economy as it happened last time when we didn't have the defenses we have right now, which are masks and vaccines and boosters and lots of testing.

So, it's a different world from what we experienced just one year ago. [I want to] remind everyone of that. And again, my gratitude to the thousands of individuals and the countless businesses and leaders who are stepping up and doing the right thing. Because the numbers continue to go up, our numbers in this county, even with all the great efforts we're doing, they're still going up, but they would have been going up higher if we weren't enforcing some of these requirements and asking people to get vaccinated.

So we're looking at cases per 100,000 here in Broome County. It is up to 111. There was a time when we got nervous when it was 7, 8, 9, or 10 per one hundred thousand, we're at 111 right now. And we know with the way this virus is spreading so quickly that those numbers are going to increase. And hospital capacity, which is what I've been focused on for months now is going to be continued to be taxed. And we're doing everything we can to help our local health partners as well, get through this. So I do want to wish everyone happy holidays and a Merry Christmas. And my wish for all of you is that instead of spreading COVID, we spread Christmas cheer, and make sure that we give the love and the chance to thank each other for doing the smart thing so we can gather safely and get through this pandemic together.

We are new Yorkers? We are new Yorkers! We're tough and resilient, and we will get through this. So at this point, I'll take any questions.