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I was minding my own business, socially distancing myself, and trying to get MacDuff to chew his elk antler somewhere other than my lap. In other words, it was an average day. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo started his press conference, and I realized that the world is ending. The Coronacopolypse is here. Listening to the idiocy that is Cuomo makes me hope the end is swift and painless.
My husband always tell me that Andrew’s father, the late NY Governor Mario Cuomo, was one of the smartest politicians who ever lived. Pity that the Cuomo family IQ dropped to zero when Mario died. Andrew is dumber than dirt. He is on my television repeating “flatten the curve” over and over and over. He is like a Chatty Andy doll who string is stuck on that phrase.
If you have any desire to watch the presser, here it is.
Every single time that infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, comes on the tube I feel reassured. He tells me to stay home, groovy. He says we may need to close down everything, and I am on board. He is smart as a whip and has a calm demeanor.
Andrew Cuomo comes on television and I feel like running around the lab screaming, “My hair is on fire.” Andy is not a leader and not at all reassuring. He is the Governor of the fourth most populace state in the country and he is a ditherer.
He is calling for the President to tell him what to do and make a Federal Law to stop the Coronacopolypse. Cuomo called again today for Trump to mobilize the military. He wrote an open letter to President Trump, which was published in the New York Times yesterday. From the article:
Every country affected by this crisis has handled it on a national basis. The United States has not. State and local governments alone simply do not have the capacity or resources to do what is necessary, and we don’t want a patchwork quilt of policies.
There is now only one question your team must answer for you: Can we slow the spread of the disease to a rate that our state health care systems can handle? The answer increasingly looks like no.
As Fox News host Steve Hilton noted, Cuomo doesn’t seem to understand our system of government:
Gov. Andrew Cuomo says the federal government should impose a uniform response to stop "state-shopping"
he doesn't seem to understand that federalism and decentralization of power are fundamental to America
if he wants top-down authoritarian control he should go live in China
— steve hilton (@SteveHiltonx) March 16, 2020
As the head of the State of New York, Cuomo should reach out to the governors of all of the states contiguous with New York and work with them. The governor of every state should do the same.
Again, from the Cuomo editorial:
Ask your experts, how many intensive-care beds do we need for our vulnerable populations, and how many do we have now? The scarcity portends a greater failing and a worse situation than what we are seeing in Italy, where lives are being lost because the country doesn’t have the health care capacity.
States cannot build more hospitals, acquire ventilators or modify facilities quickly enough. At this point, our best hope is to utilize the Army Corps of Engineers to leverage its expertise, equipment and people power to retrofit and equip existing facilities — like military bases or college dormitories — to serve as temporary medical centers. Then we can designate existing hospital beds for the acutely ill.
Andrew, there are many billionaires in the State of New York. Couldn’t you ask them to donate buildings and equipment for the Coronacopolypse? You could offer them tax breaks. Under the amended Insurrection Act of 1807, the President could send the military to New York, but the other 49 state governors may not be happy that you requested this help.
Andrew Cuomo, if he really wants to “flatten the curve” should do what President Trump has done. Call in the pharma people, call in the food people, call in the hotel owners and hospital administrators. Be proactive. Don’t be a dithering fool. What works in New York may not work in West Virginia, still at zero Covid-19 cases.
We do have a national emergency. The Covid-19 is highly contagious. We don’t want a Swine Flu repeat with over 12,000 deaths. We must flatten the curve. Feckless hacks like Andrew Cuomo only hasten the Coronacopolypse.
Featured Image: Covid-19 by Felipe Esquivel Reed/Cropped/Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Lloyd says: Cuomo makes a lot of noise…always trying to improve his presidential stock. Make no mistake, this guy wants to be president. He will say/do anything/everything he thinks will make him appear to be a good presidential candidate when, in fact, he is doing a damn poor job as governor of New York.
GWB says: Coronacopolypse
O.o ?!?
Maybe “Coronapocalypse”?
GWB says: Can we slow the spread of the disease to a rate that our state health care systems can handle?
You mean lower than it already is? I’m not sure that’s possible.
(BTW, if you let the actual private healthcare system handle it, it would go a lot better, too. “State healthcare systems” are circuses.)
Also, what’s really weird is JUST THE OTHER DAY Cuomo was forging ahead for federalism! He was all “the states need more freedom to test and get out ahead of this thing”. This is what we call “passive-aggressive” behavior or possibly “bi-polar”. Someone get this man some help, please.
The scarcity portends a greater failing and a worse situation than what we are seeing in Italy
And that’s malarkey. We have significantly more capacity than Italy does, gross and per capita. Now, NY might not. ‘Cause state gov’t communism interference probably makes it harder.
States cannot build more hospitals, acquire ventilators or modify facilities quickly enough.
Duh. Of course, since states shouldn’t be building hospitals or buying all those things, this should just be an issue of “Get out of my way.”
utilize the Army Corps of Engineers
Oh my word. No. They’re not yours to call upon (imo). Don’t you have a lot of construction firms under your thumb through the mafia various state funding mechanisms?
Under the amended Insurrection Act of 1807, the President could send the military to New York
If he were to send them under that, I don’t think Cuomo would be terribly happy. It’s for “domestic disturbances” – which would imply, if there’s no domestics being disturbing, that the gov’t is the one in need of putting down. I am ok with that, but I doubt Cuomo would be.
The Covid-19 is highly contagious.
I haven’t seen any data that supports that. Almost all of the populations that have “bloomed” so far are highly susceptible populations.
<em We don’t want a Swine Flu repeat with over 12,000 deaths.
All deaths have an element of tragedy to them, but 12,000 deaths from this would not be untoward. If it stays down below half that, a lot of folks are going to be pointing and accusing “fear-monger!”
There is an interesting paper just out, analyzing the Diamond Princess. Popularized version here: https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/03/16/diamond-princess-mysteries/ (does have a link to the original paper, for those who can go through it at more or less speed).
Upshot is that, in what would be thought an ideal environment for it to spread (in Western populations, that is) – 83% of the people on the ship were NOT EVEN INFECTED.
zenman says: So, what’s keeping him from calling up the National Guard, and imposing restrictions on public gatherings…
Certainly if a fly-over state like Indiana can declare a Public Health Emergency 10 days or so ago, the big important state of New York could do the same.
GWB says: Because it costs $money$. If he does it, that’s NY state money. If he gets the president to do it, that’s everybody else’s money. He’s a progressive, so whose money do you think he wants to spend?
Joe in PNG says: They’re trying to Kafkatrap the President.
First, they’ll complain he’s not doing enough. Then, if he does what they say, they’ll complain he’s going too far.
GWB says: And if he were to do what they’re actually calling for, they’d call him Hitler and say he’s being authoritarian! (Even though, then, he’d really be their kind of Hitler.)
Charles N. Steele says: “We don’t want a Swine Flu repeat with over 12,000 deaths.” Tru, but the regular flu has killed over 20,000 in the US this year, over 80,000 in 2017-8. This is apparently more contagious but the panic seems disproportional to me.
One thing that disturbs me is government bodies and officials exercising powers they do not legitimately have. Setting aside the rule of law because it seems expedient is dangerous.
A different point – politicians who claim they are just following “science tells us to do” are wrong. “Science” is really a method, not a body of facts and results, but even the facts and results cannot tell us what to do. That requires values, goals, and judgements – science *cannot* provide that. An epidemiologist can tell you how to stop the spread of infection. S/he can’t tell you if, say, the economic or political cost will be too high.
“Prudence,” “caution,” etc. are empty concepts by themselves. We’re trying to prevent death from Covid-19. How does much will the death rate rise with every percentage increase in unemployment or drop in income? How do political institutions change when extraordinary powers are granted for an emergency? And how *should* we make those trade offs? Prudence and caution call for balancing *all* effects as best we can predict them; values and whisks and wisdom tell us what might be a proper balance. Science is silent on all this.
GWB says: Setting aside the rule of law because it seems expedient is dangerous.
^^THIS^^
just following “science tells us to do”
A different direction from the same point: They don’t want us to do what science tells us to do, but what scientists tell us to do. And that involves an element of trust – not in science itself, but in the people who are supposedly experts.
And we’ve had over the last couple of decades now a LOT of those people either misuse ‘science’ or misapply it, and give us wholly bogus pre- and proscriptions based on it. Some of those misapplications have arguably harmed us (i.e., nutrition ‘advice’ since the 70s).
values and whisks and wisdom
You use broom scrying? It can’t be much less reliable than the climate change models….. 😉
zenman says: Might want to recheck your states law because you are likely missing something…
For instance, here in Indiana:
IC 16-19-3-9Quarantine
Sec. 9. The state department may establish quarantine and may do what is reasonable and necessary for the prevention and suppression of disease.
[Pre-1993 Recodification Citation: 16-1-3-7.]
As added by P.L.2-1993, SEC.2.
IC 16-19-3-10Epidemics
Sec. 10. The state department may order schools and churches closed and forbid public gatherings when considered necessary to prevent and stop epidemics.
[Pre-1993 Recodification Citation: 16-1-3-8.]
As added by P.L.2-1993, SEC.2.
IC 16-41-9-1-6
Close schools, athletic events, and other nonessential situations in which people gather.
Generalissamo Andy (Cuomo II; the lessor) is trying to balance a budget that cannot be balanced. He is behind the revenue curve with the state and every dollar being spent that was not already planned for just makes this worse. In many ways, the Coronavirus has come along at the least opportune time for Andy and the best for the rest of the state as far as illustrating how incompetent and scheming he is.
While the Coronavirus will be deadly to a small portion of our society it is not the black plague or the swine flu of 2009. Instead of the panic that has been instilled by the small minded Cuomo, he should be encouraging people to act to protect those who are most at risk instead of their own hides.
We should see to it that the elderly do not take any unnecessary risks and make sure they have the food and supplies and meds they need and bring medical services to them if need be and do not make them come into the environment of risk within the community. Those with immune disorders and those who are immune suppressed due to medications should be treated the same. Children with similar issues should be treated the same. The rest of society can and will get the flu virus and most if not all will recover with little consequence. Better to get it over with than to hide and hoard.
Bottom line is that we cannot avoid this virus and we cannot hide from this virus. Like all flu virus it will have a seasonal affect and when the weather warms the incidences of infection will taper off to nothing. Panic of any kind is counter productive and any public official who by their statements encourages panic is an enemy of the people. Cuomo fits into this category.
While cancelling school, events and gatherings may reduce the spread of the virus.in the short term it will become more and more unpopular and infeasible as time goes on and eventually people will disregard any suggestions or orders and resume their lives at the peril of getting the virus simply because the reality of the foolishness of such orders will become self evident as the rates of infection will stay the same and people will continue to be diagnosed with the Coronavirus.
Lastly, the statistics from other nations should be viewed with circumspect eyes because their approach to community medicine is far different than ours. In Italy they have elected to not provide any treatment for the elderly and their fatality statistics reflect a much higher number as a result. The entire approach of socialized medicine in Europe is to ration care to balance costs and this has led to their having not enough facilities to accommodate those who are presently ill with the virus.
Another factor that Europe as a whole has is the more densely populated areas as compared to North America. While urban areas are pretty much the same density wise, the rural areas in Europe are much more heavily populated as compared to the regions of US that are outside of urban areas. This will increase the spread of the virus in those more densely populated areas. Regions of the US where you count the population density in terms of people per square mile because the numbers are so low are minimally at risk as compared to the denser populations.
Be smart and take care of those who need to be protected which are the elderly and the infirm and not the average healthy family in the US.
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