NY Gov. Cuomo questions who should have ‘blown the whistle’ on the coronavirus months ago after Trump slams WHO
NY Governor Cuomo questioned who should have “blown the whistle” on coronavirus months ago after Trump slammed WHO for failing to act.
Cuomo made the comments during his daily COVID-19 press briefing Friday, where he revealed that another 777 New Yorkers had died from the dreaded virus in 24 hours.
“Where were the horns that should have been triggered back in December and January?” the governor asked. “Where were the warning signs?
“Who was supposed to blow the whistle?” he added, before saying the president was right for repeatedly raising the question during his White House conferences.
Cuomo clarified he did not know whether the World Health Organization was ultimately to blame for not raising the alarm sooner but said “the answer is less important than the question.”
“How did they happen? Did we really need to be in this situation?” he continued. “The US winds up with a higher number of cases than the places that had it before.”
Trump had blasted the WHO again Thursday, saying they “minimized the threat” of COVID-19.
His comments prompted Director-General Tedros to warn that politicizing the coronavirus will mean more “body bags”.
Cuomo urged people to keep following the guidelines and to learn from the traumatic experience to prevent a second wave of infection as New York continues to flatten its curve.
“I don’t want a second wave, or a third wave,” he declared. “I want this to be it.”
Although there have been less hospitalizations and ICU patients have decreased over a three-day period in New York, Cuomo said this is no time to be complacent.
He highlighted that countries like Hong Kong, Singapore, and China dangled on the edge of recovery or reinfection after getting their numbers down.
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” Cuomo said, quoting American philosopher George Santayana.
When pressed by reporters, the governor declined to say whether he thought the federal government was to blame for not doing more to address the crisis before it escalated to 7,844 deaths in-state.
“I don’t want to get into pointing fingers,” he said, acknowledging that some people will blame the government, international agencies, scientists and even journalists. “The critics will do that after the fact.”
Cuomo said aggressive testing was the only way to get people back to work, as he called on the Feds to utilize the Defense Production Act (DPA) to do so.
He said private manufacturers wouldn’t be able to meet the demand for a “tremendous, mind boggling” amount in such a limited timeframe, whereas the Trump administration could mandate companies to mass produce them.
The NY governor said he would team up with the government to do this so long as New Jersey and Connecticut were included in the “testing coalition” agreement.
MOST READ IN NEWS
“If I had a DPA in the state, I would use it I don’t have that tool,” he told reporters. “Any way we can partner with the federal government to get these tests up to scale as quickly as possible … I’m all in.”
Cuomo also urged officials on Capitol Hill to agree to a fair federal stimulus package instead of a “political pork barrel bill” during today’s briefing, where he highlighted that the state had been battered by the virus.
He confirmed the state will give $200 million in emergency food assistance to more than 700K low-income households enrolled in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
Do you have a story for The US Sun team?
Email us at exclusive@the-sun.com or call 212 416 4552.
Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TheSunUS and follow us from our main Twitter account at @TheSunUS.