Everyone is piling on this cringe-worthy, facts-be-damned embarrassment today, and for good reason. It's one thing for a news network to air some lighthearted intra-sibling banter to brighten the mood amid a dreadful pandemic, even if the conversation is between a "news" anchor and a sitting governor. It gets harder to defend when the journalist involved is known to have deliberately lied about violating quarantine while infected and symptomatic with the disease. It becomes totally untenable when said newsman lavishes praise on his brother's leadership on the issue, when said brother has presided over by far the most deaths in the country -- many of which were caused by horrifically terrible policies that he imposed, then tried to cover-up. But this comment on another CNN program caught my attention, too:
NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo to FL Gov. Ron DeSantis: "I say to them all, look at the numbers. You played politics with this virus and you lost." pic.twitter.com/uObPjyzgV5
— Talking Points Memo (@TPM) June 25, 2020
It takes enormous cojones, and confidence in media cover, for this guy to be spiking the coronavirus football on literally anyone else. Go back and read this post, or any of these damning stories, for a grim recap of Cuomo's disastrous record. He forcibly created lethal hotspots in nursing homes, cooked the books to obscure that fact, dragged his feet at key junctures, and couldn't even be bothered to clean the subway system -- a virus hyper-vector -- on a daily basis until weeks into the crisis. New York was the super-spreader of American states, seeding outbreaks from coast to coast. Its death rates are abysmally bad compared to everywhere else.
Yes, the Empire State finally and thankfully seems to have brought the nightmare mostly under control, but the extreme damage is done. It's also true that some other places that are now contending with the same first wave that utterly ravaged New York are under serious strain. But for Cuomo to accuse anyone else of "playing politics" after his slimy nursing home obfuscation and blame game is galling, especially considering Florida's far superior response. And I don't think he should be inviting a comparison on the numbers in order to anoint winners and declare losers:
It’s crazy the news outlets keep letting Cuomo get away with saying things like this.
— (((AG))) (@AGHamilton29) June 25, 2020
Deaths per 100K:
NY- 161
FL- 15
Look at the numbers!!! https://t.co/xF7imscWoD
It's true that places like Florida, Texas and Arizona are getting much uglier, and it's likely that there will be a surge in COVID deaths in the coming weeks -- though there are also reasons to hope that the death rates will remain relatively low. But even with significant spikes, it seems like none will come close to New York's death toll or fatality rate. Incidentally, another state getting hammered right now is bright blue, Gavin Newsome-led California -- which complicates the media's reflexive and ever-present 'blame Republicans' narrative, which may be why we're not hearing as much about this situation:
MORE: With over 88,000 residents diagnosed with COVID-19, LA County is about 12,000 cases behind the entire state of Florida. https://t.co/bPW4enykg5
— ABC News (@ABC) June 24, 2020
It's almost as if factors beyond "rushed re-openings" are dictating the new trend. And I know we're not supposed to mention things like this, but others have noted how states that have been gradually opening for nearly two months didn't start seeing soaring case totals until recently. Considering the incubation period involved, was there anything that just happened within the last few weeks that may have triggered outbreaks? "Health officials say it's "highly likely" the surge is connected to recent protests, relaxed restrictions and illicit social gatherings," the Los Angeles Times reports. I'll leave you with a scene from June 8th, almost exactly two weeks before the spikes started to show up:
Incredible drone imagery of LA protests pic.twitter.com/1CyYqdmf0y
— Justin Stevens (@_JustinStevens_) June 8, 2020
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