Governor Andrew Cuomo will be among the first to take a COVID-19 vaccine to show that it is safe, he said on Thursday in a conference call. 

"I want people to feel confident, that's why I am willing to be one of the first ones to take the vaccine," Cuomo said in the call. “I would never ask the people of the state to take a vaccine that wasn’t safe."

Cuomo has previously said he is worried with the federal government speeding the approval of a vaccine for political purposes by the Trump administration and has pointed to polls showing similar concerns. But Cuomo on Thursday indicated he had more confidence with the vaccine now that Joe Biden's administration was taking over in the coming weeks. 

New York, along with several other states, is undergoing its own review of any vaccine. Cuomo pledged that review would be simultaneous with the review of the Food and Drug Administration and would not delay distribution of the vaccine in New York. 

Cuomo has criticized a federal distribution plan that relies too heavily on private-sector pharmacies that could overlook poor communitieis and Black and brown people in New York.