As the pandemic took hold of the United States last March, upending life as Americans knew it, Trump offered little consolation. The president claimed COVID would
I was reading/hearing about the nursing home controversy since last August at least, so this is not a new story - I heard about it AT HIS PRESS CONFERENCES where he was questioned about it over and over again. Awful, stupid mistakes were made, and his statement about whether they died in LTC facilities or hospitals, the cases were still counted as COVID deaths. Well, that is the truth, just not necessarily the truth people want to hear. I just wonder if this story is more about knocking him down off his pedestal rather than making it into a learning experience about how to deal with pandemics going forward. How did New York do in comparison with other states i.e. Florida, South Dakota? His was a breath of sanity in the Trump chaos and I for one appreciated it. The last thing I would ever want to be is a politician dealing with this pandemic, always have to choose between the least bad options and constantly changing advice from the 'experts.'
Judd, if you'd gone just one step further in researching, you would have discovered that CA's largest city is LA (2019 pop 4 million), while NYS's largest city, NYC, is MORE than double that (2019 pop 8.42 million.) Here's the point: LA's 4 million are spread out over 502 sq mi. NYC's pop is crammed into 305 sq mi. Density contributes to Covid spread, and spread contributes to deaths - as we all well know (or should know) by now. Stop the apples-to-oranges comparisons.
Timing: NY was first up in the Covid battle on the east coast. There are estimates now that up to 20% of New Yorkers had Covid BEFORE the first case was officially dx'd in March. And NY entered into the global pandemic AFTER China, AFTER Italy (remember watching the footage on the nightly news?) which meant when NY NEEDED supplies, there were none to be had. We (NYS) MADE our own hand sanitizer; we MADE masks (out of state friends sent me my first masks), we MADE hospital gowns (via shuttered garment shops), we set up our own in-state testing sites (because the CDC was overrun with tests waiting to be processed and we could NOT wait 3-4 weeks for test results. We/NYS MADE replacement parts for defective parts in Covid test kits. Mike Bloomberg's organization, at Cuomo's request, set up the FIRST test-and-trace corps - an operation which is still used to this day. And when we started experiencing food shortages, we/NYS TRUCKED produce and milk from upstate NY to downstate NY where the need was greatest. And Cuomo & Co put the whole thing - every single piece of it - together.
I've lived in a number of states and in other large cities, and have NEVER seen such a masterful governor in my life. NEVER.
Also, Judd, if you ratchet up your investigation just a notch, you will land squarely on the Trump Admin. Yes, Trump sent NY a ship... which was specifically designated for NON-Covid pts. (Remember all the cruise ships docked up and down the eastern seaboard with sick passengers and no state to put them? There's a reason the federal ship USS Comfort refused to accept Covid pts in NY before it ever arrived.) Other states lent us ventilators because there was a NATIONAL shortage of ventilators. Again, remember, this was back in the day (March of last year) when the medical profession (and Cuomo conferred with medical professionals around the world) thought the best treatment was to vent pts. Plus we were running out of hospital beds and personnel. At Cuomo's behest, our hospitals increased capacity to time and a half what they had been. They DID the impossible. And I will ALWAYS be grateful for the hundreds of nurses and other medical professionals who flew into NYC (the state provided housing) to work in our hospitals. It was a horrid time. It was frightening beyond belief. And the Trump Admin continued to DENY Covid was a problem. We/NYS still have not been federally funded for what we went through.
We've learned a lot in the last year, and I would put Gov Cuomo up against ANY gov if we had to do it all over again. But this is now a Republican political play. For example: FOX faux weatherperson Janice Dean (who is neither degreed nor certified in meteorology) claims that Gov Cuomo "killed" both her in-laws with his order. The fact is one of those in-laws died the DAY AFTER Gov Cuomo issued the order. He issued the order and the following day, her first in-law passed. (Don't take my word for it; it's out there; just google - I think it's on Wiki and it IS verifiable.) So Janice blames the governor. The fact is: COVID took her in-laws, not Andrew Cuomo or his nursing home order.
Here's my last comment. Nursing homes are not prisons. The families of those residents could have removed their loved ones and brought them home, or arranged for transport elsewhere AT ANY TIME. They did not. There's a factual reason why NY AG James concluded, "Cuomo's March 25 order "MAY have put residents at increased risk of harm in some facilities."
That man worked his butt off for this state, for this city, and for me, and I do not appreciate him being pummeled around like some political football.
We will NEVER know exactly how many people died of Covid in any state in this country. It is a global pandemic, and here's what Cuomo said in yesterday's briefing, and my hair stood up when he said it because he had the same measured tone as he did when he told NY'ers last March: "This is not the week to go grocery shopping or to go to the pharmacy." (At the time, I turned to my son and I said, "You can't go out anymore" and my 23 yo said, "I know." And we stayed indoors for the next 3-4 weeks.) Yesterday Gov Cuomo said there is another pandemic coming. I believe him.
I look at the Nursing homes here, locked down for almost a year. Time and again outbreaks in all of them. Employees bring it back in as they mostly here don't mask up outside of the job. They like to say so and so got it at the Dr. Office.
Cuomo knows how much of the take NY has lost. Just like our Gov. Northam. Both started out well until the state coffers emptied. Trump punished the Blue states like NY and VA.
So while Cuomo hasn't all been good, the financial affairs of NY likely influenced him, good, bad or indifferent. He should have been stand up. But wasn't. In the end, Trump caused most all the chaos with the Pandemic. He caused chaos in our country aplenty and even away from office he still is.
To frame the issue fairly, I think you should be looking at the mortality data and not the new case data. The number of deaths/day in NY reached a very depressing 750 -1,000 people per day during the March/April crisis. That was before we learned the protocols used now to treat this disease -- early oxygen, steroids to fight the immune response, etc. In March/April, deaths per day in CA were less than 100 and almost nonexistent in non-mask wearing states like GA.
For those of us who live in NYC, we remember what it was like to listen to continuous ambulance sirens 24 hours a day for weeks on end. We remember the hospital set up in a meadow in Central Park. We remember sewing masks and collecting ski goggles for our friends who are health care workers. We remember bodies being driven to other states to be cremated.
Today deaths / day in NY are running about 120 down from about 200 in January. In Jan/Feb, deaths in CA have been 400-600. In the non-mask wearing GA, 150-180. On February 12th NY reported 139 deaths from Covid, CA reported 546 and GA reported 195. (Pop of CA – 39.5 mil, NY 19.4 mil, GA 10.6)
Yes Cuomo has a big ego, but he did something I will be forever grateful for. He stepped up into the huge vacuum left by the Federal Government. He gave us a sense of sanity and calm in a terrifying time. He partnered with neighboring states and they collaborated about decisions. He focused on the importance of masks when the Orange one was making it a political battleground. I can tell you when I walk out of my building today, everyone in NYC is wearing a mask – even kids in their strollers.
So the nursing home data is not a good story. But I think context is really important when we judge people’s decisions in retrospect.
I was reading/hearing about the nursing home controversy since last August at least, so this is not a new story - I heard about it AT HIS PRESS CONFERENCES where he was questioned about it over and over again. Awful, stupid mistakes were made, and his statement about whether they died in LTC facilities or hospitals, the cases were still counted as COVID deaths. Well, that is the truth, just not necessarily the truth people want to hear. I just wonder if this story is more about knocking him down off his pedestal rather than making it into a learning experience about how to deal with pandemics going forward. How did New York do in comparison with other states i.e. Florida, South Dakota? His was a breath of sanity in the Trump chaos and I for one appreciated it. The last thing I would ever want to be is a politician dealing with this pandemic, always have to choose between the least bad options and constantly changing advice from the 'experts.'
Two words: Density. Timing.
Disclaimer: I'm a New Yorker.
Judd, if you'd gone just one step further in researching, you would have discovered that CA's largest city is LA (2019 pop 4 million), while NYS's largest city, NYC, is MORE than double that (2019 pop 8.42 million.) Here's the point: LA's 4 million are spread out over 502 sq mi. NYC's pop is crammed into 305 sq mi. Density contributes to Covid spread, and spread contributes to deaths - as we all well know (or should know) by now. Stop the apples-to-oranges comparisons.
Timing: NY was first up in the Covid battle on the east coast. There are estimates now that up to 20% of New Yorkers had Covid BEFORE the first case was officially dx'd in March. And NY entered into the global pandemic AFTER China, AFTER Italy (remember watching the footage on the nightly news?) which meant when NY NEEDED supplies, there were none to be had. We (NYS) MADE our own hand sanitizer; we MADE masks (out of state friends sent me my first masks), we MADE hospital gowns (via shuttered garment shops), we set up our own in-state testing sites (because the CDC was overrun with tests waiting to be processed and we could NOT wait 3-4 weeks for test results. We/NYS MADE replacement parts for defective parts in Covid test kits. Mike Bloomberg's organization, at Cuomo's request, set up the FIRST test-and-trace corps - an operation which is still used to this day. And when we started experiencing food shortages, we/NYS TRUCKED produce and milk from upstate NY to downstate NY where the need was greatest. And Cuomo & Co put the whole thing - every single piece of it - together.
I've lived in a number of states and in other large cities, and have NEVER seen such a masterful governor in my life. NEVER.
Also, Judd, if you ratchet up your investigation just a notch, you will land squarely on the Trump Admin. Yes, Trump sent NY a ship... which was specifically designated for NON-Covid pts. (Remember all the cruise ships docked up and down the eastern seaboard with sick passengers and no state to put them? There's a reason the federal ship USS Comfort refused to accept Covid pts in NY before it ever arrived.) Other states lent us ventilators because there was a NATIONAL shortage of ventilators. Again, remember, this was back in the day (March of last year) when the medical profession (and Cuomo conferred with medical professionals around the world) thought the best treatment was to vent pts. Plus we were running out of hospital beds and personnel. At Cuomo's behest, our hospitals increased capacity to time and a half what they had been. They DID the impossible. And I will ALWAYS be grateful for the hundreds of nurses and other medical professionals who flew into NYC (the state provided housing) to work in our hospitals. It was a horrid time. It was frightening beyond belief. And the Trump Admin continued to DENY Covid was a problem. We/NYS still have not been federally funded for what we went through.
We've learned a lot in the last year, and I would put Gov Cuomo up against ANY gov if we had to do it all over again. But this is now a Republican political play. For example: FOX faux weatherperson Janice Dean (who is neither degreed nor certified in meteorology) claims that Gov Cuomo "killed" both her in-laws with his order. The fact is one of those in-laws died the DAY AFTER Gov Cuomo issued the order. He issued the order and the following day, her first in-law passed. (Don't take my word for it; it's out there; just google - I think it's on Wiki and it IS verifiable.) So Janice blames the governor. The fact is: COVID took her in-laws, not Andrew Cuomo or his nursing home order.
Here's my last comment. Nursing homes are not prisons. The families of those residents could have removed their loved ones and brought them home, or arranged for transport elsewhere AT ANY TIME. They did not. There's a factual reason why NY AG James concluded, "Cuomo's March 25 order "MAY have put residents at increased risk of harm in some facilities."
That man worked his butt off for this state, for this city, and for me, and I do not appreciate him being pummeled around like some political football.
We will NEVER know exactly how many people died of Covid in any state in this country. It is a global pandemic, and here's what Cuomo said in yesterday's briefing, and my hair stood up when he said it because he had the same measured tone as he did when he told NY'ers last March: "This is not the week to go grocery shopping or to go to the pharmacy." (At the time, I turned to my son and I said, "You can't go out anymore" and my 23 yo said, "I know." And we stayed indoors for the next 3-4 weeks.) Yesterday Gov Cuomo said there is another pandemic coming. I believe him.
Thank you, Judd, for calling out both sides. This is fantastic analysis and important work that everyone needs to see.
Thank you, Judd, for calling out both sides. This is fantastic analysis and important work that everyone needs to see.
I look at the Nursing homes here, locked down for almost a year. Time and again outbreaks in all of them. Employees bring it back in as they mostly here don't mask up outside of the job. They like to say so and so got it at the Dr. Office.
Cuomo knows how much of the take NY has lost. Just like our Gov. Northam. Both started out well until the state coffers emptied. Trump punished the Blue states like NY and VA.
So while Cuomo hasn't all been good, the financial affairs of NY likely influenced him, good, bad or indifferent. He should have been stand up. But wasn't. In the end, Trump caused most all the chaos with the Pandemic. He caused chaos in our country aplenty and even away from office he still is.
Judd,
To frame the issue fairly, I think you should be looking at the mortality data and not the new case data. The number of deaths/day in NY reached a very depressing 750 -1,000 people per day during the March/April crisis. That was before we learned the protocols used now to treat this disease -- early oxygen, steroids to fight the immune response, etc. In March/April, deaths per day in CA were less than 100 and almost nonexistent in non-mask wearing states like GA.
For those of us who live in NYC, we remember what it was like to listen to continuous ambulance sirens 24 hours a day for weeks on end. We remember the hospital set up in a meadow in Central Park. We remember sewing masks and collecting ski goggles for our friends who are health care workers. We remember bodies being driven to other states to be cremated.
Today deaths / day in NY are running about 120 down from about 200 in January. In Jan/Feb, deaths in CA have been 400-600. In the non-mask wearing GA, 150-180. On February 12th NY reported 139 deaths from Covid, CA reported 546 and GA reported 195. (Pop of CA – 39.5 mil, NY 19.4 mil, GA 10.6)
Yes Cuomo has a big ego, but he did something I will be forever grateful for. He stepped up into the huge vacuum left by the Federal Government. He gave us a sense of sanity and calm in a terrifying time. He partnered with neighboring states and they collaborated about decisions. He focused on the importance of masks when the Orange one was making it a political battleground. I can tell you when I walk out of my building today, everyone in NYC is wearing a mask – even kids in their strollers.
So the nursing home data is not a good story. But I think context is really important when we judge people’s decisions in retrospect.
Thank you for all your good work on many topics.
Judd, Link to read Cuomo's order broken.
An awful guy. 14/10 golden retrievers would hate.