#Cuomo needs to give Israel’s COVID-19 vaccination method a shot

After Gov. Cuomo’s outrageous bungling, New York government is belatedly opening up more vaccination sites and trying to fix its overelaborate, confusing registration systems. 

But the gov still needs to loosen up in (at least) one vital way: Copying Israel in setting up a “standby” system so that none of the miracle drugs goes to waste. 

Israel lets anyone sign up and hang out at a vaccination site so they’re available if a batch is about to expire but no one else “qualified” is available. 

It’s not that different from how airlines use standby status to fill up otherwise-empty seats. 

This system both avoids excessive crowding at any given site — why stick around if dozens are already waiting? — and ensures that any continued problems with registration don’t lead to wasted vaccine. 

Cuomo’s current combination of threats — fines and possible confiscation of your vax stocks if you’re too slow in using all your vaccine, and bigger fines if you jab the “wrong” person — just hogties management and leaves line workers paranoid. 

Yes, as long as supplies are limited, it makes sense to prioritize higher-risk groups — but the overall goal is to get to herd immunity as fast as possible, and that calls for getting as many arms processed as fast as possible. 

The city, state and nation are all better off if sites are vaccinating as fast as supplies come in — then pharma companies can work to boost production and regulators will face more pressure to greenlight new vaccines without needless delay. 

The goal is to keep the Javits Center, Citi Field, Brooklyn Navy Yard and other sites constantly humming to get New York to the “goal line” of 80 percent vaccinated as quickly as possible. 

Letting even younger, healthy people get shots now (if they’re willing to wait for the chance) helps us all get to herd immunity as quickly as possible — protecting even those who haven’t been jabbed from much risk of transmission, and allowing everyone to get back to something close to normalcy. 

Lockdowns have huge costs — economic ones, which have fallen by far the heaviest on the poor and minorities; other health woes, as people must forgo crucial medical care; and mental-health problems that have led to higher rates of dementia, drug abuse and suicide. 

An overfocus on who gets vaccinated first just slows everything down. Better to make it the overriding priority to get the most people jabbed the fastest.