Andrew Cuomo is no hero. He's to blame for New York's coronavirus catastrophe
By: Lyta Gold and Nathan Robinson (the Guardian)
Gov. Andrew Cuomo failed to act and then over reacted to compensate for his earlier mistakes. But Cuomo certainly looks good in front of a camera. Andrew Cuomo play acts as a hero on the TV and that is enough.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Andrew Cuomo may be the most popular politician in the country. His approval ratings have hit all-time highs thanks to his Covid-19 response. Some Democrats have discussed him as a possible replacement for Joe Biden, due to Biden's perceived weakness as a nominee. And there have even been some unfortunate tributes to Cuomo's alleged sex appeal.
All of which is bizarre, because Cuomo should be one of the most loathed officials in America right now. ProPublica recently released a report outlining catastrophic missteps by Cuomo and the New York City mayor, Bill de Blasio, which probably resulted in many thousands of needless coronavirus cases. ProPublica offers some appalling numbers contrasting what happened in New York with the outbreak in California. By mid-May, New York City alone had almost 20,000 deaths, while in San Francisco there had been only 35, and New York state as a whole suffered 10 times as many deaths as California.
Federal failures played a role, of course, but this tragedy was absolutely due, in part, to decisions by the governor. Cuomo initially "reacted to De Blasio's idea for closing down New York City with derision", saying it "was dangerous" and "served only to scare people". He said the "seasonal flu was a graver worry". A spokesperson for Cuomo "refused to say if the governor had ever read the state's pandemic plan". Later, Cuomo would blame the press, including the New York Times for failing to say "Be careful, there's a virus in China that may be in the United States?" even though the Times wrote nearly 500 stories on the virus before the state acted. Experts told ProPublica that "had New York imposed its extreme social distancing measures a week or two earlier, the death toll might have been cut by half or more".
But delay was not the only screw-up. Elderly prisoners have died of coronavirus because New York has failed to act on their medical parole requests. As Business Insider documented:
"Testing was slow. Nonprofit social-service agencies that serve the most vulnerable couldn't get answers either. And medical experts like the former CDC director Tom Frieden said 'so many deaths could have been prevented' had New York issued its stay-at-home order just 'days earlier' than it did. On March 19, when New York's schools had already been closed, Cuomo said 'in many ways, the fear is more dangerous than the virus.'"
The governor has failed to take responsibility for the obvious failures, consistently blaming others and at one point even saying "governors don't do pandemics". (Actually, some governors just don't read their state's pandemic plans.) But much of the press has ignored this, focusing instead on Cuomo's aesthetic presentation: his poise during press conferences, his dramatic statements about "taking responsibility" (even when he obviously hasn't), and his invisible good looks.
The mask mural is yet another publicity stunt mistaken by the press as a sign of leadership. On 29 April, Cuomo unveiled a wall of handmade cloth masks that had been sent to his office by concerned citizens all over America. He called it "a self-portrait of America. You know what that spells? It spells love." Since the arrangement of masks doesn't form words, the mural doesn't actually spell anything, but it is a perfect symbol of Cuomo's leadership failures. Handmade cloth face coverings are not as effective as N95 masks, of course, but if unsuitable for healthcare workers they would still have been perfectly appropriate to distribute to New Yorkers (some of whom have been brutally arrested for not wearing masks). But Cuomo, rather than putting the needs of New Yorkers first, chose to tack hundreds of cloth masks on a wall as a monument to himself.
Cuomo's record was shameful long before coronavirus began. He enabled the IDC (Independent Democratic Conference), a group of conservative Democratic state lawmakers, in allying with the Republican minority to block progressive legislation. (Cuomo denies any role in the IDC, but that stretches credulity.) Before the pandemic, he pushed through Medicaid cuts which shut down necessary hospital space in the name of "efficiency" despite the warnings of medical professionals. And on 3 April, as 3,000 New Yorkers already lay dead from the virus and hospitals like Elmhurst in Queens were overwhelmed with cases, Cuomo forced through further Medicaid cuts, slashing $400m from hospital budgets.
As the state now staggers to its feet, Cuomo has partnered with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to "reimagine education" (which almost certainly means privatization), and with the ex-Google chief Eric Schmidt to - as Naomi Klein puts it - "permanently integrat[e] technology into every aspect of civic life". All of this has happened without the democratic input of New Yorkers, who would likely prefer that the progressive legislators they elected could govern without interference, that their hospitals have enough money to function and that billionaires don't infiltrate and control every element of civic life.
There's something disturbing about Cuomo being hailed as the hero of the pandemic when he should rightly be one of the villains. As Business Insider notes, he is now only able to attain praise for his actions because his earlier failures made those actions necessary. He's lauded for addressing a problem that he himself partly caused. Of course, part of this is because Donald Trump has bungled the coronavirus response even more badly, so that Cuomo - by not being a complete buffoon - looks like a capable statesman by contrast. But this is the problem: for too long, Democrats have measured their politicians by "whether they are better than Republicans". This sets the bar very low indeed, and means that Democrats end up settling for incompetent and amoral leaders who betray progressive values again and again.
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Lyta Gold is the managing editor and amusements editor of Current Affairs. Nathan Robinson is the editor of Current Affairs and a Guardian US columnist
The media judges heroes by their ability to create controversy and deflect blame.
The real heroes that are leaders of state governments are governors Kemp, DeSantis, Noem, Abbott, and a few others.
That is yet to be determined. You can't call anyone great who has not faced what Cuomo has faced.
Nerm,
As a New Yorker, I feel that this piece is so unfair to Cuomo and is just another partisan hit piece. No gov is perfect, but he did the best in a bad situation. The Mayor is a different story.
Then as a US citizen are all the Trump articles of the same whole cloth because after all............
??
I think that there are some Trump pieces that are there just to pick on stupid stuff, if that is what you are asking me, Jim.
Yes and thank you for an honest answer.
after all what? As far as I know Andrew Cuomo is not a known liar, crook, bigot, moron and cheat.
No comparison.
No one should give Trump a break. He is the worst president in the history of this country.
People should go easy on him? No, not even for one day.
What we as a nation needed as soon as the possibility of an outbreak was known by the federal government was a clear, honest and sober assessment of the risk. That would have set the tone and example for all the State Governors to follow suit.
What we got in February was dismissive and dishonest misinformation from the white house downplaying the risks and claiming there was "nothing to see here" and that the corona virus would just miraculously disappear by April even if it did appear.
What Cuomo has done since his State was hit by Covid, after the tepid response from the federal government, has been a clear, honest and sober assessment of the risk in NY which is why he is receiving a boost in approval. Dishonest Donald continues to downplay and dismiss Covid and push any and all blame for any deaths on others because he's the most inept piece of shit ever to grace the oval office where once the motto was "the buck stops here" but now it's "hey, that's not my buck, I've never seen it before, pass it on cause it's not my problem and definitely not my fault, and, um, China and stuff, why don't you blame them, they're communists and who knows maybe they made this stuff just to try and make me look bad, did you ever think of that, of course not because you're all fake news..!".
Yesterday a study from Columbia University estimated that a better early response from our leaders would have saved 36,000 lives. Since the states preceded the federal government in recommending and ordering closings the brunt of the blame for the delay falls to Trump. Everyone knows this. Some people just choose to delude themselves about it.
I've never seen a stupid article about Trump. I've seen articles about his stupidity though.
You mean an unconstitutional federally ordered shutdown at the time the mayor of New York was telling people to go out and live their normal lives? It's like you are intentionally forgetting that the Democrats were more worried about appearing racist at the time the early response was necessary.
Hard to see with "Bias Blinders" on John.
Sean,
You keep repeating the same lie. NY shut down less than 2 weeks after our 2nd case. The mayor might have had a stupid mouth, but the Gov Cuomo did not.
And why are you bringing race into this? Do you think that only minorities live in the city? Think again.
If my governor had had access to the same info Trump did but did not act on, we would have shut down earlier and might be back to full open by now.
Perrie, it would be nice to actually point out what you consider a “lie” and actually rebut it rather than blindly casting aspersions. Do you actually know what de blasio was saying about the virus?
I was talking about the push from Democrats to attend Chinese New Year celebrations and go to Chinese restaurants to fight xenophobia. If you recall, that was the main concern of democratic politicians in early March. I believe you even seeded an article about how great New York was for doing that at the time.
Pretty much every state In the country “shut down” within about two weeks of getting their first cases. The point of the Johns comment is that the shut down around March first have to save those lives. Only a state could have decided to shut down on March first and that wasn’t even being considered in New York, which was the root of most American cases.
Sean, now you know daily I post rebuttals to things with links but no one reads them and they go back to their talking points. It beyond frustrating. And really whose mind am I going to change especially with an Op/Ed.
But I will show you how disingenuous this article is. This is one of many misrepresentations in the article:
As if he was dismissing the coronavirus. But do you know when he made that statement? In January. There was not a single known case of Coronavirus in NY and wouldn't be until March.
There are plenty more like this.
I didn't seed a political seed about Chinese New Years, so I don't know what you are talking about. And again, when is Chinese New Year? Jan 25th. Months before our first case was known. The president of the US was still saying it was going to magically disappear, remember? He wasn't worried either.
OK I am done talking to you, since you keep saying this bullshit over and over and it isn't true. Our first case was March 1, our second was March 3. We started lockdown of groups of more than 200 immediately after March 3, 5 days later 50 or more. 2 weeks after the first case we were in total lockdown.
I realize that a most competing Democratic Governor might blow your mind, but they do exist.
This is one of many misrepresentations in the article:
You said I was lying Perrie, not the article.
here was not a single known case of Coronavirus in NY and wouldn't be until March.
I was talking about what he said in March.
one talking to you, since you keep saying this bullshit over and over and it isn't true. Our first case was March 1, our second was March
[Deleted]
John, who I was responding to, claimed that tens of thousands of people would have been saved if the lockdowns had started two weeks earlier. Two weeks earlier means the first week of March, when New York only had a handful of reported cases. Do you follow so far? If so, where's the "bullshit?" This is what DeBlasio was saying in early March, "I’m encouraging New Yorkers to go on with your lives and get out on the town despite Coronavirus" And on MARCH 9th, "But mainly the point is go about your business" And here's what I wrote:" at the time the mayor of New York was telling people to go out and live their normal lives?"
So tell me where's the lie?
Did De De Blasio not tell people to get on with their normal lives? Did he not say that at the time John's post claims a shutdown would have saved ten of thousands of lives? You claimed my post was a lie. Try to back it up instead of whining.
2 weeks after the first case we were in total lockdown.
That's false. The bars were packed celebrating Saint Patrick's day weekend. The lockdown only started after the bars and restaurants closed after one of the busiest party weekends of the year.
a most competing Democratic Governor might blow your mind, but they do exist
Since the post you called a lie quoted DeBlasio and only DeBlasio, I'm convinced you really aren't paying attention and just lash out with your partisan script.
We started lockdown of groups of more than 200 immediately after March 3,
Forgot to point this falsehood out. The Knicks, Nets, Rangers, Islanders etc. were playing in front of thousands of people on an almost nightly basis after March 3rd until their leagues shut down.
The ban on gatherings of more than 500 people didn't go into effect until March 13th.
No, we have been doing this dog and pony show for a while. You are repeating a lie that I have debunked over and over. My exact quote is:
How utterly condescending. Noted and reported.
Again, our first reported case was March 1 and our second March 3. On March 5th President Trump said: "It's going to all work out. Everybody has to be calm. It's all going to work out." and on March 11th he said:" The vast majority of Americans, the risk is very, very low." So tell me according to your time line, even our idiot DeBlasio was being told that the risk was very low. Why would he think otherwise?
The lie is that NY was privy to information and didn't respond and that was the Gov Cuomo's fault. It wasn't until March 16 that Trump made some recommendations. But on March 7th Gov declared his first state of Emergency.
Stop being a bully. It is totally unbecoming.
Now that is false. St Pats was on March 17 this year. DeBlasio declared NYC in a state of Emergency on March 12.
Really, because I started this thread talking about Cuomo, and here: 2.1.10 and here: 2.1.13 where I talk about the state lockdown, which is implied that only a Gov can do, so who is lashing out and being partisan? Not me.
You finally got me Sean. It was the 12th. Exactly 9 days after case 2 and only 95 cases reported. Yet one day earlier, President Trump said: "The vast majority of Americans, the risk is very, very low." Holy mixed messages. So tell me, what crystal ball should Gov Cuomo have gone by?
How about calm discussion of what was occuring? Maybe having someone who was versed in what to do in an emergency such as this in the room to give their opinion?
And the president had 9 rallies went golfing 6 times before March 12th...
Trump says he would've handled COVID-19 the same even without impeachment: "I don’t think I would have done any better had I not been impeached."
“China has been working very hard to contain the Coronavirus,” Trump wrote in a Jan. 24 Twitter post . “The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American People, I want to thank President Xi!”
It was neither the first nor the last such tribute. On Jan. 22, the first day Trump spoke publicly about the coronavirus, he told Fox News there was nothing to worry about. “It’s all taken care of. And China is working very hard on the problem. We spoke about it and China is working very hard on it.”
Even two months later, Trump was still lauding China and Xi. “Look, I have a very good relationship with President Xi and they went through a lot. You know some people say other things. They went through a lot. They lost thousands of people. They’ve been through hell,” he told reporters on March 24.
Too much blame to go around, but there is only ONE President.
jest sayin.
Then I'd recommend you pay closer attention. He's a politician. Of course he lies, he's a moron and a cheat.
Bigot? I could go with the same unfounded BS the left uses against Trump but then I'd have to degrade myself and that I won't do.
e been doing this dog and pony show for a while. You are repeating a lie
You owe me an apology. I didn't lie and you know it, because you still haven't addressed what I wrote. Not that it' will do any good, but I'll summarize it again:
"John, who I was responding to, claimed that tens of thousands of people would have been saved if the lockdowns had started two weeks earlier. Two weeks earlier means the first week of March, when New York only had a handful of reported cases. Do you follow so far? If so, where's the "bullshit?" This is what DeBlasio was saying in early March, " I’m encouraging New Yorkers to go on with your lives and get out on the town despite Coronavirus" And on MARCH 9th, " But mainly the point is go about your business" And here's what I wrote:" at the time the mayor of New York was telling people to go out and live their normal lives?"
So tell me where's the lie?
Please don't bother with the straw men, hand waiving arguments you use that can are just attempts to deflect. Address what I wrote, not what you want me to have said, or think I've said in other places, and address what I actually wrote that you called a lie. If I call one of your Cuomo defense posts a lie, I wouldn't respond by declaring something like well, I was referring to how you deny Biden is a plagiarist when called about what you were lying about in the Cuomo post.
. St Pats was on March 17 this year.
And Christmas will be on December 25th. There's a reason I wrote Saint Patrick's day weekend instead of SAint PAtrick's day. Please address what I wrote instead of trying to score points dishonestly be rebutting fake arguments that I didn't make yet again. The bars were open on the weekend (one of the busiest party weekends of the year) and were packed. Whether or not De Blasio declared a state of emergency on the 12th (another irrelevant point) the bars and restaurants remained open. That's a fact.
Here's an New York Times article pleading with people to stay home on the 14th and showing a long line for a bar in Manhattan on the night of the Friday 13th, in case you want to keep arguing the falsehood that people weren't at bars on Saint Patrick's day weekend in New York. Although given how big of a story this was, it seems incredible I need to actually post this.
What a nasty question! Your a horrible reporter....... Oh! Wait! Sorry just got into (Deleted) mode...
I would agree with your assessment. After Cuomo's initial case of denial, he did an about face and was all business, utilizing the best numbers available to plan for what might happen.
It has been stated here and elsewhere that he overreacted, but I do not consider that to be correct. By the time that the state knew that the virus was here it was already in community spread mode. Therefore, we did not know the extent to which it had travelled.
Sean,
You said:
Then it is not an irrelevant point since the mayor did what he was supposed to do which was declared a state of emergency. If the bars were breaking the law, they should be brought up on charges. Your original claim was that the mayor didn't do what he was supposed to do, but he did.
No where in that article does it say that photo is a NY bar. IN FACT the quote right above that photos says this:
Also, you might want to check your Trump timeline.
March 10
“This was unexpected. … And it hit the world. And we’re prepared, and we’re doing a great job with it. And it will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away.”
— Trump , to reporters at the U.S. Capitol
March 11
“The vast majority of Americans, the risk is very, very low.”
— Trump , in an Oval Office address to the nation. He restricts travel from most of Europe, but also causes confusion about trade from the bloc.
Are you telling me that it's OK for Trump not to seem concerned but the NY Mayor declares a SOE despite the President says the risk is very, very low the day before and that some bars broke illegally and now everything is NYC's fault? Please.
Which he obviously reevaluated since the SOE was issued on the 12th. Which brings me to: Please review what the president was saying on March 10 and 11th.
Now that is a hoot. Talk about tactics. Let's start from the top of this thread and watch the moving goal posts by you.
Andrew Cuomo isn't a saint. The article serves as a reminder that politicians are human and can only take action according to available information and advice. Hindsight is always more acute than foresight. Could Gov. Cuomo have taken steps sooner? Yes. But that hindsight analysis overlooks Cuomo's humanity.
I agree Bill de Blasio is in a league by himself. But de Blasio's political management of the pandemic isn't all that different than Gov. Cuomo's. Don't minimize the role of the press to highlight the political message the press wants to deliver. The press really does influence the politics.
I am not going by the press. I am going by the reality of the situation and what Cuomo has tried to do from the beginning, which keep us informed and listen to what NYer's wanted.
This article went on to criticize petty things like mural of masks. He was trying to keep up the spirits of New Yorkers in a terrible situation.
It can't even make up its mind... he's liberal, he not liberal enough...
This was a once in a 100 year event. No one was going to produce the perfect result. But considering that NY bore the worse of the pandemic (so far), I think he did a really good job and continues to do so as he opens up NY. Was it perfect. No. But tell me, do you think anyone would be?
Exactly! Just look at the difference between how they sainted Cuomo and made a villain out of DeSantis when the reverse is the truth.
I agree Gov. Cuomo responded to the outbreak pretty well, as seen from my distant vantage point.
The fact presented in the seed article is that Gov. Cuomo was not proactive in preparing for and preventing the outbreak. Gov. Cuomo allowed the outbreak to happen. Gov. Cuomo demanded emergency supplies of resources because Cuomo didn't adequately plan and prepare for the outbreak. Those are verifiable facts. Gov. Cuomo responded after it was too late.
That's the yardstick being used to measure the Federal response.
Is it a political hit piece? Of course. But it's the same political hit being directed toward the President and the Federal officials responding to the pandemic.
So you are going with two wrong make a right?
But here is the difference.
The president was warned in January of the possibility of a pandemic and he blew it off. He was warned about an impending pandemic even before that for 3 years of his administration and didn't prepare. He even said that the virus was going to just disappear, while it was actually here in the country. All of this was way before NY got its first case on March 1. The blame is not equal. He willfully ignored what his own advisors were telling him all along the way until it was no longer deniable. That is something that Cuomo never did.
And in fact, despite some minor spats, Cuomo worked well with Trump during the pandemic. Both parties have acknowledged this.
You're trying to equate the two men and their responses, but outside of New York, the rest of the country is doing much better.
California has twice the population of New York, and 1/9 the number of deaths. Texas has 1/2 again as many people as New York, but only 1/20th the number of deaths. It's a similar story in Florida. Florida has only a couple million more people than NY (and significantly more elderly) but less than 1/10th the deaths.
Trump is president of all 50 states. If you are going to blame him for New York, you need to also give him credit for the 49 other states.
Cuomo is only responsible for New York.
I don't have anything against Cuomo (or New York) at all, so don't assume some bias in me. I just don't know how you can look at the results and claim that Cuomo has done a better job than other governors.
No, I'm pointing out that the news media is two-faced. The quality of reporting has been rather low in both cases.
Gov. Cuomo ordered a state-wide shut down of non-essential businesses (the PAUSE order) effective March 22. Just a few days before signing the PAUSE order Cuomo was chiding de Blasio for fear mongering.
Or President Trump worked well with Gov. Cuomo. Keep in mind that Cuomo was making hair-on-fire claims and over estimated demands.
Tacos,
I am not blaming anyone. What I am saying is that this article is full of it with blaming Cuomo alone. The governors look to the various resources to make their decisions and that Cuomo is not different there. They also look to the federal agencies
What makes NY different? Well we are the hub for international flights. We were told the virus was coming from China and not Europe so over 4 million people passed through NY from Europe during that period. Now add the density of the city and you have a perfect storm.
Right now there are spikes all over the US and this isn't the second wave. We are already seeing reckless behavior all over the US. Humans never learn.
This I do not recall. Can you please back that up?
Remember those requests based on the information Cuomo was getting from the CDC, so how so were they hair-on-fire claims and overestimated demands, when it came from Dr. Fauci himself? And also take into consideration, that all parties involved had no idea what to expect and still don't? I mean really, do you think that these people all had crystal balls?
So now Cuomo is the target 🎯 of a partisan hit piece from the left? This seeded article did come from The Guardian after all.
This is an op/ ed hit piece. Whether they be right or left, op/eds are just an opinion based on the bias of the writer.
Lyta Gold and Nathan Robinson work for "Current Affairs" which is an ultra-left publication. Ther gripe about the Gov is that he is too right and that he actually works with Republicans in our legislature. Do you think that is wrong?
Except that it is also critical of Trump.
There are hundreds of partisan hit pieces here on NT. But because this one is directed at a Democrat it's a problem?
Over 28,000 deaths as of today. The only other state that is even (barely) into double digits is their next door neighbor, New Jersey. And that's probably because there is so much traffic between the two states that the mess in NY is spilling over.
New York has 1/4 of the deaths from the virus, but nowhere close to 1/4 of the country's population (more like 1/17th). We can talk about how much blame the governor might or might not deserve for that, but the idea that he is some kind of hero for his brilliant response is completely refuted by those death numbers.
It is hard to see how he has mitigated any substantial part of this. At the very least, the numbers support the argument that he has been the least effective of any governor when it comes to mitigating the mortality of this virus.