There’s nothing to celebrate about Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s woefully botched rollout of the new coronavirus vaccine in his state. But his repeated failures deserve extra scrutiny given his own attempts to portray himself, with help from a fawning media, as a hero of the pandemic.

For the second time in as many days, Cuomo’s administration has relaxed its rules dictating who was eligible to receive the first dose of the vaccine. The adjustments came in response to reports that healthcare providers were left in the sad position of discarding expired doses of the fragile medicine when not enough patients could be found who fit the state’s overly specific criteria. Providers could have administered the unused vaccines to volunteers of any demographic rather than let the surplus supply go to waste, but Cuomo’s government made clear that exorbitant fines would be imposed on those who did not strictly adhere to the governor’s rules. As a result, perfectly good doses of a vaccine in high demand were simply thrown away.