FILE – In a Friday, Sept. 14, 2018 file photo, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks to reporters during a news conference, in New York. Gov. Andrew Cuomo questioned Sunday, Oct. 14, 2018 why state Republicans would have invited the founder of a far-right group to speak in Manhattan, and he blamed them and President Donald Trump for violent clashes that took place after the speech. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer, File)
As of Saturday, the number of Coronavirus cases had risen to 76 in the state of New York, including 11 in the Big Apple.
And that’s quite the jump — on Friday, NYC had registered only 5 cases, and statewide there’d been only 44 Thursday.
Given the new stats, Gov. Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency.
He also commented on the cluster of Westchester County, which boasts 57 of the 76:
“Westchester is an obvious problem for us. They talk about the contagion in clusters and then the clusters tend to infect more and more people.”
In directing the citizenry, did he take a bit of a swipe at Trump?
Andrew issued, “I’m not urging calm.”
The “calm” remark was possibly a reference to the Commander-in-Chief’s take on the outbreak the day before.
On Friday, POTUS stopped off at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Atlanta headquarters, where he offered this:
“It will end. People have to remain calm.”
“Calm” has been a big part of Trump’s message to the nation all along. On February 29th, he told Americans not to worry:
“Healthy individuals should be able to fully recover, and we think that will be a statement that we can make with great surety now that we’ve gotten familiar with this problem. They should be able to recover should they contract the virus. So healthy people, if you’re healthy, you will probably go through a process and you’ll be fine.”
The Leader of the Free World instructed that “there’s no reason to panic at all.”
Andrew’s taking a different approach:
“I’m not urging calm. I’m urging reality. I’m urging a factual response as opposed to an emotional response…that people understand the information and not the hype.”
Of course, New Yorker City residents have good reason to be concerned: It’s a very crowded place — a perfect environment for the spread of a contagion.
As reported by ABC14, thousands have been advised to quarantine themselves:
As more than 4,000 people in the state have been encouraged to self-quarantine, a Queens man who drives for taxi or ride-hailing services tested positive after showing up to a St. John’s Episcopal Hospital, which prompted 40 doctors and nurses to self-quarantine, meaning the staff will have to be replaced in the meantime.
Panic isn’t a particularly good thing. And, as Westchester County Executive George Latimer explained to Fox’s America’s News Headquarters, “What spreads faster than the disease is the fear of the disease.”
Hopefully, precautions are being taken to prevent formidable growth in the great state of New York.
Along the way, it seems to me that Andrew and Trump are both right: Keep a realistic perspective and be cautious; but always remain calm.
-ALEX
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