By Janet Ekstract
NEW YORK (TURKI SHJOURNAL) – “What we have learned through this process is our actions determine our destiny,” New York’s Governor Cuomo highlighted at his Tuesday press briefing. Cuomo reiterated that because of the actions – social distancing and following stay-at-home orders, that the virus can be controlled but only if “we keep it up,” he stressed. As the governor said: “We are everyday changing the curve. We have shown we control the virus, the virus doesn’t control us.” But he warned: “We are artificially controlling that curve.”
Cuomo spoke to the biggest ‘what if’ for many and the biggest fear – how to reopen New York and the tri-state area. He said: ”The worst scenario is we did all of this, we reopen too fast and we see that number go up again – other countries went through this.” The governor added: “We’ve laid out a way to reopen.” He said that he is working with seven states on a regional strategy for getting the economy back up. The key he said is to “come up with a plan that’s not contradictory,” and he also said: “The states can’t do this on their own.” Cuomo commented: “You have to coordinate the reactivation of all the systems.” But he urged, the federal government to make massive funding available to states in the second stimulus bill.
The main priority Cuomo said is: “We must get clear on who is responsible.” He reiterated that the federal government has a huge responsibility to the states and needs to work with states because as Cuomo previously said ‘it’s a delicate balance.” The governor commented on President Trump’s statement made in his Monday briefing about who is responsible for opening the country’s economy. Trump said that he has “absolute control” and he alone has the authority to decide on when states will reopen.
In contrast, the New York governor reminded Trump that his statement is “not accurate.” Cuomo pointed out: “The federal-state relationship is central to our democracy,” and cited a portion of the American Constitution that specifically gives states the right to self-govern. He added: “It’s important that we get this right.” The governor commented that the federal government did not form the states and all other power remains with the states in the American Constitution. In terms of Trump’s repeated insistence on sole authority, Cuomo said: “We don’t have a king in this country, we didn’t want a king.”
The first point, Cuomo said when referring to Trump was: “He does not have total authority over the states and the nation. This cannot go uncorrected.” The governor reemphasized: “This is in the Constitution, it violates the Constitution and it violates democracy.” He stressed that he has worked very hard to “be in partnership” with the federal government during the past month, saying: he doesn’t think the federal government is as powerful as they could be. “The close down of the economy was left to the governors. The governors closed it down, why wouldn’t the governors open it?”
“Let’s talk about who does that,” Cuomo stated, reminding everyone that reopening will be a ‘new normal.’ He stressed that it’s a cooperative effort and that everyone would need to be on the same page. The governor also mentioned that he prefers to work hand-in-hand with Trump on the reopening plan. As Cuomo stated: “I put my hand out in total cooperation with the president. If he wants a fight, he’s not going to get it.” The question is he highlighted: “How do you have a public health strategy that works with an economic strategy?” He remarked there will have to be mass disinfection of major areas like subways, parks, sitting areas and other places throughout New York City. The governor said that will take a lot of planning and since its never been done before, many factors must be looked at in the process. Though what is even more ‘key’ is funding. As the governor stated: “Where’s the funding to help the states do this, I’m broke.” He added: “Funding the states is the intelligent conversation to have.” What will be even more key to reopening the economy is testing, Cuomo commented. He explained that right now the state lab and other labs in New York are trying to obtain tests that have close to a 99 percent rate of accuracy.
On the testing front, Cuomo announced that by next week, New York will be able to do 2,000 antibody tests but the diagnostic test will be key, he added. He said the reason testing is so essential is: “You want testing capacity as a tool, so businesses can use it.” The main issue in obtaining these types of tests is: “You only have a handful of private sector companies that do this,” he said. The governor insists that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) should have purchased the tests in the first place and they should be responsible for distributing them. Cuomo again made the point that these companies have high demand for the tests and sell them to the highest bidder so “private companies got very rich,” he said. As he has mentioned a number of times in previous briefings, in a time of dire need in the middle of a serious pandemic: “This is not about Democrat or Republican, this is about New York, 10,000 lives lost.”
The other pressing issue related to testing is “How do we use technology to do tracking? How do we take our collective strength and figure out how to do all this?” – the governor said. The key in testing is tracking who tests positive so reopening can go forward in a more secure manner. Cuomo reiterated that just temperature taking is not indicative of whether someone is infected – that there needs to be more accuracy. But even with testing, Cuomo highlighted the main point: “There just aren’t enough tests,” so it’s just not possible to accomplish mass testing right now, he said.
As far as getting down to brass tacks to get things fully moving, the governor said: “Sometimes political leaders can learn from following people.” Cuomo reiterated that cooperation and collaboration across the board is crucial. Cuomo said he wants to get the economy up and running just as much as anyone else. He added: “You can’t hermetically seal society.” As far as working with the federal government is concerned, he replied: “I look forward to working with the president in partnership and cooperation.” The governor added: “I put my hand out, to say, let’s do this together.”
