New York hires Deloitte and BCG to advise on vaccine rollout

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has hired consulting firms Deloitte and Boston Consulting Group (BCG) to support the state’s vaccine rollout, according to a report from The New York Times.

Cuomo has opted not to use the longstanding vaccination plans the state’s health department previously developed with county health departments. The county plans were created years ago, following a health department mandate instituted in the aftermath of 9/11 and the H1N1 outbreak in 2009.

Cuomo has instead chosen to make new vaccine rollout plans that rely on large hospital systems to coordinate vaccinations. The governor has taken assertive control over pandemic policy from state and local public officials, who he said have little understanding of how to conduct large-scale vaccination operations.

Cuomo officials have emphasized that the cold temperatures required for vaccines make them better suited to be handled by hospitals rather than underfunded local health departments.

For help in making the new rollout plan, Cuomo turned to Deloitte and BCG, according to the NYT report. Dennis Whalen, the in-house lobbyist for Northwell Health – the state’s largest hospital system – also had direct involvement in the rollout plans.

Bringing in Deloitte and BCG builds on the governor’s previous hiring of McKinsey in spring 2020 to craft a “Trump-proof” reopening plan.

Federal, state, and local governments have eagerly enlisted consulting firms to advise on various response efforts to the Covid-19 pandemic. McKinsey for example, won a number of pandemic response contracts in Washington State, as well as a contract with the federal Department of Health and Human Services to help distribute relief funds to hospitals. Deloitte, meanwhile, was hired by California to help upgrade its unemployment IT system when it was swamped by pandemic-related claims, while New Jersey tapped Public Consulting Group to support its contact tracing programs.