Cuomo Distorts CDC Finding in Blaming Trump
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo made the over-the-top claim that if the Trump administration “had done its job, the virus wouldn’t come” to New York. Cuomo pointed to a study that suggested government officials could have better mitigated the spread of the coronavirus in New York City, but it didn’t say they could have stopped it.
Cuomo made his comments in a July 16 CNN interview after anchor Kate Bolduan asked him about criticism from CNN’s Jake Tapper of a poster Cuomo released depicting New York’s fight against the coronavirus as a successful climb up and down a mountain. The poster, which Cuomo sketched and can be purchased for $11.50, is a whimsical homage of sorts to early 1900s poster art.
Tapper, in a July 14 Twitter thread, mentioned the poster in criticizing the “crowing” from Cuomo’s administration over the state’s handling of the pandemic. “NY state has lost more than 32,000 lives to COVID-19,” Tapper wrote. “So while it’s great that the numbers have gone down, it’s perplexing to see crowing. … No other state has lost as many lives, not even close.”
The poster doesn’t mention that. Bolduan asked Cuomo: “Do you think the poster was a mistake in the midst of all this?”
The governor responded by referring to that he and Bolduan had discussed. The study found that genome sequencing of positive coronavirus cases in New York City mostly resembled sequences in Europe, but the U.S. government’s travel restrictions on Europe were implemented too late to mitigate the introduction of the virus. Those restrictions were implemented on March 13; by March 15, the CDC report says, “community transmission was widespread in New York City.”
