In the early days of the China virus lockdowns, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo made a deadly decision to send COVID-positive patients into the state’s nursing homes. Ok. In the frantic first weeks of the crisis, little was known and many mistakes were made, fair enough. Cuomo could have simply said it was a mistake made during a crisis and moved on. Instead, he wrote a book congratulating himself for his leadership, and now this guy wants to lecture Staten Island.
Cuomo announced at a press conference this week that Staten Island, the city’s smallest borough, now accounts for 25 percent of the city’s COVID deaths even though it has but 5 percent of the population. This is not true. In fact, Staten Island only has a small percentage of the city’s overall COVID deaths. When called on it, Cuomo’s office clarified that he meant in the last month.
But let’s put this in some perspective. According to the city’s data, Dec. 1 was Staten Island’s deadliest day of the past month, with nine reported deaths. Since then, the rolling average has been at four deaths per day in the borough. Back in April at the height of the crisis, New York City was struggling with as many as 800 deaths a day. Cuomo’s attempt to play with statistics to make this look like a major crisis is absurd, but sure enough, most of the media are buying it hook, line, and sinker.
Cuomo’s goal here is twofold. One is to monger up enough fear of the second wave that New Yorkers sheepishly accept his ridiculous restrictions on our lives. Not only is the damage being done by the virus now a fraction of what it was when we first locked down, but everyone from the World Health Organization to the Great Barrington Declaration signatories have thrown grave doubt on the efficacy of lockdowns. Put simply, even if this is a major emergency, which it isn’t, Emperor Cuomo’s cure will almost certainly be more harmful than the disease.
But the other reason, maybe even the real reason Cuomo is doing this is to try to embarrass his political enemies on the Island as well as the Republican voters there who do not buy into his whole Emmy-award-winning “America’s Governor” routine. He had a public spat with City Councilman Joe Borelli after the Staten Island politician publicly defied his Thanksgiving orders by having more than 10 guests to dinner. Cuomo is desperate it seems to prove a Thanksgiving spike that simply isn’t materializing. I know, I know, wait two more weeks.
Meanwhile Mac’s Public House, a Staten Island pub, openly defied Cuomo’s orders to close its doors last week leading to some of the largest anti-lockdown protests the city has yet seen. Sheriffs across the state have also rebuked Cuomo saying they will not enforce his draconian measures. The governor’s approval rating has been dropping significantly from its high in April. Cuomo sees the writing on the wall. People are getting fed up with his authoritarian rule. His answer? Try to convince us the virus is as bad as it’s ever been and we need his fatherly leadership to tell us what we can and can’t do for just a while longer.
But this isn’t March, and the people of New York City have learned too much since then to be locked back in our cages without a fight. We certainly don’t want to hear these grave orders from Cuomo who made what was likely the deadliest decision of the pandemic, sending thousands to their doom. He has been running away from that decision for months now, certain that by presenting himself as Captain Lockdown, the man taking this seriously, that history might remember his book’s laughable version of events rather than the truth.
Back off Staten Island, Gov. Cuomo. Is it having a spike? Yes, but a small one, just like almost every neighborhood in the city has. Why is it only when Jews and Republicans see COVID spikes that Cuomo blames the community? When other groups are disproportionately infected they are never blamed, rather the inequities of America are. Cuomo needs to stop playing politics with the virus, admit and apologize for his own vast errors, and let New Yorkers get back to their lives.
