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New York Governor Andrew Cuomo says now that he wishes he “blew the bugle” on the coronavirus threat back in January instead of waiting weeks to prepare New Yorkers to face the spread of the deadly pathogen. “I wish someone stood up and blew the bugle. And if no one was going to blow the …
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo says now that he wishes he “blew the bugle” on the coronavirus threat back in January instead of waiting weeks to prepare New Yorkers to face the spread of the deadly pathogen.
“I wish someone stood up and blew the bugle. And if no one was going to blow the bugle, I would feel much better if I was a bugle blower last December and January,” Cuomo said during a recent interview with Axios on HBO.
“I would feel better sitting here today saying, ‘I blew the bugle about Wuhan province in January.’ I can’t say that,” the governor added.
The governor also questioned the early responses of other countries to the outbreak, asking why they were slow to ensure China was handling the emergency properly.
“When China says, ‘Don’t worry, I have a fire in my backyard,’ you don’t hang up the phone and go back to sleep, right? You get out of your house and you walk two houses over to make sure I have the fire under control. Where was every other country walking out of their home to make sure China had it under control?” Cuomo asked.
New York, especially the New York City area, did not act immediately to prepare for the coronavirus outbreak despite having weeks to gear up between January 20, when the first confirmed virus case in the U.S. was discovered in the Seattle area, and March 1, when the first case was announced in New York.
A day later on March 2, Cuomo said his “arrogance” in the state’s heath care system convinced him that the toll from the virus would not turn out to be as bad as in other countries. The same day, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio urged New Yorkers to “go on with your lives” and “get out on the town,” even offering a movie recommendation.
Cuomo issued a stay at home order for New York on March 20, when the state had 43 deaths from the virus and more than 5,600 positive cases, just under the total number of cases Seattle has had up to this point. Seattle has seen 400 deaths since the outbreak began.
As of Tuesday afternoon, New York has seen more than 292,000 cases of the virus and more than 17,300 people have died.
