New York Democrat Governor Andrew Cuomo is gaining a deserved reputation as a strong leader and effective communicator about the coronavirus crisis in New York state, which has been particularly bad in New York City. His daily live video updates are watched all over the country because of that, and the fact that the state and City are at the epicenter of infection in the United States.
But this is the same governor who on March 25 required nursing homes, the highest risk facilities for residents, to admit actively infected virus patients while saying “It’s not our job” to provide protective gear to them. Quoth Andrew: “That’s life!” Then on May 15, he reversed the policy, along with instituting an investigation into what nursing homes did wrong—facilities that are not equipped to provide acute care and were far below hospitals on accessing personal protective equipment (PPE). Of course, on May 18 he proclaimed that this was all an outcome of nature: “Who can we prosecute for those deaths? Nobody.”