Enough of this Praise for Cuomo

A large portion of the media has been lionizing New York's governor Andrew Cuomo. While he does have personality traits that make him likable and he appears to say the 'right things' (at times sounding unusually non-partisan) I am not that impressed with the way that his state government has handled the COVID pandemic. Results matter and New York is very short in this department.

As it stand right now the situation in New York State is dismal. The state has 28.9% of the country's total number of 'official' COVID cases and accounts for a whopping 38.6% of all American COVID deaths. New Yorkers only make up 5.9% of the American population.

In terms of deaths per million New York currently sits at 1197.Six and a half times the national average. In fact the New York death average per million is over twice as much as Italy and Spain (both heavily hit nations) and three times the values for France and the UK. Each of which have not weathered the disease well. However it doesn't stop there.

New York's high infection rate numbers have also bled into its Tri-State neighbours - New Jersey and Connecticut - that now have deaths per million of 762 and 583 respectively, These are both higher than the Italian average (that we fretted about so intensely in March). The numbers are obscene.

All three states. together account for almost 50% of US deaths. Remove the Tri-States from the US numbers and American death rates are only slightly higher than Germany. So it isn’t the rest of the country that is problem (although there are a few hotspots elsewhere)

Now the classic retort when bringing up New York is to mention its very high population density. That is certainly true of the five boroughs area, but even with correction multipliers of two or three the numbers are still outrageous. In addition population density by itself doesn't necessarily dictate fate. Seoul. Tokyo, Hong Kong and Tapiei all have high population densities but very low COVID death rate levels.

New York has been a shambles and Cuomo must take a great deal of the blame (not all - the mayor of NYC Bill de Blasio has been awful..the New York subway is a literal COVID petri dish).

For one Cuomo was late on the lockdown (whose original intent if you remember was to flatten the resource curve). The state locked down on March 20th, three or four days after most other states.

In fact as late as March 18^th  Cuolmo had this to say in an interview in the New York Times – “The fear, the panic, is a bigger problem than the virus. Telling New Yorkers they must not leave their homes scares people.". He also said that he will not "approve such edicts in New York City or elsewhere”.

Cuomo’s response was lauded by Reason magazine for not panicking under pressure. Two days later he changed his mind. New York would be in catch-up.

In fact as the number of cases started increasing Cuomo did indeed panic. Big time.

New York State looked wholly unprepared with respect to PPE, hospital beds and ventilators (an obsession with Cuomo) and unlike Gavin Newsom and other governors Cuomo seemed incapable of securing these items from other sources. Why the state was in such a shocking position at the onset of this epidemic? is a question that needs to be asked,

Fortunately for Cuomo the Federal Government stepped in. The ventilators did arrive (for better or for worse...their efficacy is now debated),  Trump bullied those that he could to gain masks for New York’s Health workers,  FEMA stepped in to set up hospital sites in the boroughs and Cuomo could breathe a bit easier. He did thank Trump for his efforts here.

To his credit Cuomo stood up well as the voice of the state but the death numbers continued to mount. Words can only paste over bad results from poor planning for so long.

The worst would follow from a terrible policy directive made earlier in the epidemic involving nursing homes. On March the 25^th Cuomo made a fatal decision mandating that all state nursing homes accept patients for diagnosis regardless of their COVID status. This decision would prove to be a knife into the gullet of one of the state’s most vulnerable population groups. By some accounts almost a third of patients entering these homes were positive for COVID. The consequences have been ugly.

Meanwhile New York state continues to simmer. New COVID cases numbers are dropping but that may be more of a function of New York City closing in on the 60% herd immunity marker than anything else. Death numbers are still very high and the state is still reeling.

Cuomo has weathered it well in the eyes a great deal of the media (would it be the same if he were a Republican?) but the number reality for New York tells a different story. A governor is elected with the mandate to serve as a safety guardian for the state,

 Cuomo tried and I will give him credit for that but there is a great deal he could have done better. At the end it is only results that matter. You don’t gain real kudos for participating with relish. New York has not performed well by any metric and Cuomo must take a great deal of the blame.