New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday that the state was getting hit hardest in the United States because of their welcoming spirit rather than admit the increase is a result of gross incompetence by NYC Mayor DeBlasio
When Mayor de Blasio dragged aides and members of his NYPD security detail to his Brooklyn YMCA Monday morning amidst the coronavirus outbreak, fellow fitness enthusiasts were coughing and sneezing — and a mentally ill person was walking around touching the equipment, a gym source said.
“It’s crazy that he made his staff and detail come with him to the gym and expose them like that,” the source said.
But the incident is just one example of the mayor’s disregard for the health of his staff during the crisis, multiple sources told The Post.
There’s also growing frustration from senior aides, who fault the mayor for dithering instead of making decisions, micromanaging instead of leading, and insisting he knows best instead of listening to others, three sources said.
‘Thank god for Cuomo,’ is a common refrain among the mayor’s staff, made only partly in jest, sources said.
That’s because Gov. Andrew Cuomo has taken the lead on the city’s COVID-19 response — canceling the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, shutting down large venues including Broadway, and even pushing the mayor to close public schools.
But instead of the big picture, the head of the City that Never Sleeps has insisted on proofing all public materials about the city’s COVID-19 response from press releases to ad campaigns, one source said.
Cuomo noted that New York had 15 times the coronavirus cases of California and other states and offered his opinion about why that was the case.
“Because we welcome people from across the globe,” he said. “We have people coming here, we have people who came here from China, who came here from Italy, who came here from all across the globe.”
Cuomo said that he believed that the virus was in New York City long before people even knew it was a problem.
“I had no doubt that the virus was here much earlier than we even know,” he said. “And I have no doubt that the virus was here much earlier than it was in any other state, because those people come here first.”
New York currently has 30,811 cases, California has 2,644 cases, Washington state has 2,404 cases and Massachusetts has 1,159 cases.
Cuomo added that New Yorkers lived “close to one another,” which was another reason the virus spread more quickly.
He cited the close quarters in which New Yorkers lived in their communities, restaurants, movie theaters, public transportation, that, made New Yorkers more vulnerable.
But he said that the greatest weakness of New Yorkers was also their greatest strength.
“Our closeness is what makes us special,” he said, noting that New Yorkers were more open, accepting and tolerant than the rest of the world.
“The closeness is that New York humanity that I think exists nowhere else,” he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment