WASHINGTON — A top pandemic advisor to President Joe Biden said he is not at a point to “throw stones” when asked to name New York’s biggest mistakes in its handling of the coronavirus outbreak.

Andy Slavitt, who serves as a senior adviser to the White House COVID Response Team, spoke to Spectrum News on Monday, as the U.S. marked a milestone in the pandemic fight: all adults nationwide becoming eligible for the coronavirus vaccine.

"Everybody has been doing their best,” said Slavitt. “It's impossible to be flawless at this. It’s hard to get through something where there’s lots of people dying and not feel a sense of regret.”

Slavitt did explicitly praise New York’s healthcare workers for their “bravery”, especially in the first months of the outbreak.

New York was one of the early hotspots in the COVID fight. The state saw a massive surge in cases in March and April of 2020.

A year later, many New Yorkers are counting down to another rollback on pandemic restrictions. The governor is planning to soon boost capacity at zoos, museums, and other attractions.

Asked to evaluate the pace of New York’s reopening, Slavitt said the state has some unique circumstances, pointing to the number of people who may have antibodies after contracting the virus.

“There's some amount of immunity that still exists, it's not clear how much, but that potentially provides an advantage,” said Slavitt. “On the other hand, there are these kinds of New York based variants, as well as the UK variant that exists, and so I think we just have to watch those.”

Nationwide, more than half of the U.S. adult population has received at least one vaccine shot. Slavitt said going forward, things are going to get easier for those still looking to get the vaccine.

“We have millions more vaccines everywhere. We have thousands more vaccinators in the field,” he said.