There’s one very annoying reporter at Cuomo’s daily press conference who asks what I would call classic TV reporter questions. “Governor, we’re hearing from <representative of supposedly aggrieved group> and they’re saying that <some restriction is causing them inconvenience> — what do you want to say to them about that?” (The reason that I’m saying they’re TV reporter questions is that they are always phrased dramatically, and rely on outlier personal anecdotes.)
A few days ago, Cuomo called her out, saying that his answer is always going to be the same: inconvenience is better than death. Yesterday, for example, her question was about nursing home visitation, saying that a lot of the elderly are missing their main advocates because nobody is visiting. Cuomo allowed that she was right, but if your advocate can carry a disease that can kill you or other residents, they’re not much of an advocate, are they?
Anyway, the subtext of all of Cuomo’s responses is essentially that death is bad, and we want to take all reasonable measures to avoid it. Our entire New York re-opening plan is designed to do that. I’m afraid from what I saw this weekend, and read about this new case in Rochester, we may see an outbreak tied to chucklefucks in bars, but in general the formula of universal masking and limiting exposure in enclosed areas seems to be working well as we carefully re-open.
Contrast this with Greg Abbott down in Texas:
Although the numbers of COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations are on the rise in Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott sought to reassure the state Tuesday, saying hospital beds remain plentiful and treatment options have improved.
Abbott aimed to put the increase in perspective, attributing Tuesday’s record high number of new COVID-19 cases — 2,622 — to certain counties reporting large batches of tests all at once, particularly from prisons and assisted living centers, which can skew statewide numbers.
He also gave no indication that the increase in cases and hospitalizations would slow the pace of reopening the state’s economy.
“As we continue the process of opening up Texas, as we continue to have Texans return to their job so they are able to earn a paycheck that will help them pay their bills and put food on their tables, we at the state level … remain laser focused on maintaining abundant hospital capacity,” Abbott said.
Death doesn’t matter as long as it doesn’t completely fill up the hospitals, because, as Abbott well knows, a lot of the people who are in those abundant hospitals are going to die, needlessly. Even though mayors of large cities in Texas are begging him to allow them to require masks, he’s refusing. That, and the amount of death and disease he’s willing to tolerate, make me want to puke:
Especially when we know that they could be like this with relatively minor inconvenience:
Also, to all the former New Yorkers who moved to Texas and Florida for the low taxes, hope you’re enjoying your unnecessary brush with death.
hells littlest angel
LOL. For a limited time only: liberty and death.
PaulWartenberg
The mayors of Texas need to revolt, make masks and social distancing more mandatory, challenge Abbott to his face – even literally if they have to – because the willingness of Abbott and his Republican lackeys to ENCOURAGE the spread of a lethal disease is a goddamn criminal offense.
Brachiator
Texas is going to have to do more than just offer people a comfortable place to die.
I still have family back in Texas, trying hard to deal with this bullshit.
And remember that this is what Trump is trying hard to do for all of the country.
Gin & Tonic
What’s the source of those graphics?
eric
@Brachiator: i would repeatedly and loudly ask why the governor’s mansion is still suspending tours if it is so fucking safe in texas. that is a fucking gimme. hit him often and hard.
Betty Cracker
It’ll be interesting to see how it unfolds in FL now that a significant portion of the population has decided the danger is over. In mid-March, I thought we were heading toward one of the worst outbreaks in the country because Governor Slabhead was dithering along with President Shitbag.
But a lot of folks figured shit out on their own and took precautions even before the business and public space closures. I don’t know that they’ll do it again, especially now that First Summer is here, which makes wearing a mask especially awful.
Marmot
I don’t get the Northeastern habit of reflexively bashing Texas directly in the face of those of us trying to change it. Seems like a dick move.
Otherwise, I liked the post.
rikyrah
low-tech cyclist
In the prescient words of Vampire Weekend, “I don’t wanna live like this, but I don’t wanna die.”
low-tech cyclist
Hell yeah, that’s what I’ve been saying here over and over again, and y’all hate hearing it from me.
Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)
A long, long time ago Grandpa Rasputin took Grigori and me aside and said, “Boys, death is unpleasant. Put it off as long as you can.” Another time he explained the Great Rule of Economics: Dead people are lousy customers, as they never buy anything after the funeral.
Apparently, the dimwits running Texas never heard these things.
JCJ
@Betty Cracker:
This is interesting to me. I was in Bangkok at the end of January and mask wearing was widespread. I doubt that it is much warmer in Florida than it was in BKK at that time, and as the esteemed Amir Khalid has pointed out the weather in KL is Florida summer year round. Why is it so much more difficult for Floridians to wear a mask in the heat than people in Bangkok?
Crashman06
@JCJ: I’m sure it’s uncomfortable in both places but from what I understand mask wearing in Southeast Asia is a common cultural occurrence. Not so here in the West.
John S.
@Betty Cracker: I don’t care what governor mini-Trump does. My family isn’t going out anywhere in South Florida unless we have to, and we are wearing masks when we do until the numbers show we’re doing better.
catclub
@Gin & Tonic: also, put the NY and texas numbers on the same graph, and NY still looks much worse. MUCH worse. Texas could still get worse and catch up, but so far…
NY had 1000 deaths per day at peak. Texas has 40?
cleek
now draw those two daily deaths graphs with the same Y axis. and note that TX has 10M more people than NY has.
hint: per capita, NY has a death rate of 159.
TX: 7
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1109011/coronavirus-covid19-death-rates-us-by-state/
NotMax
@Marmot
Agreed. It’s a gratuitous below the belt jab.
catclub
@cleek: Ha! beat you to it!
Betty Cracker
@JCJ: I agree with @Crashman06 at #13 — wearing a mask in the heat sucks in every hot place, of course, but cultural factors come into play. Americans especially aren’t culturally conditioned to take action for the common good, and it doesn’t help that we have an idiot president, idiot political party and idiot propaganda networks telling people the virus is a hoax/overblown. I suspect that even people who initially took precautions will be lulled into a false sense of security by peer pressure.
catclub
@catclub: my theory is that the nursing home population in NY is VERY old and frail. They are the ones who were too frail to move to Florida.
(I am pretty sure that the theory is bogus, but it is mine.)
catclub
@rikyrah: It is a benefit of never having taken responsibility for ANYTHING. The press already knows not to bother mentioning it.
low-tech cyclist
Since masks are there to protect others, my attitude is: if I go into a place and see unmasked people, I’m turning around and heading right back out.
Of course, I’m up here in Maryland, and there are places I can buy groceries, hardware, etc. at that are stringent about masks. I don’t know if you have that option down there these days. (My wife and I travel to central FL regularly, but not since February for obvious reasons.)
cmorenc
“Leaders” like Abbott and Trump make everyone (including we progressives) worse people – I cannot help wishing Abbott catches such a severe-enough case of COVID-19 that he winds up hospitalized on a ventilator, desperately trying to catch enough breath to stay alive. In my very worst moments, I find myself hoping that he flails and then fails at staying alive, while at the same time being rather disgusted with myself for feeling that way, even though I cannot help thinking how richly deserved such a fate would be for both of them.
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: The Obama-hater that is one of my brother in law’s best friends – who lives in Florida – is coming to my Michigan sister’s house on Thursday for a few days, and then the guys are heading out for their annual golf trip with 18 guys.
My sister told me that Florida is doing well with COVID, so she is unconcerned. When I questioned her, I learned that she believes this because they are wide open and have no restrictions.
sigh.
CaseyL
At least one of the prematurely re-opened/never really shut down states (Arizona?) has already seen its ICU units overwhelmed, so it seems unlikely that the virus has become less lethal.
Barbara
@Betty Cracker: I call a bit of BS. Arizona, Florida and Texas are all the land of aggressive air conditioning. So even if it is uncomfortable outside, it is unlikely to be uncomfortable inside, where the risk is greatest. I’ve been to Arizona many times and no one is hanging around outside in June enjoying the weather. They are inside enjoying the chilly air. Eating spaces present their own risks, since you can’t eat while wearing a mask, but this is where physical distancing measures become more important, such as with reduced occupancy levels.
download my app in the app store mistermix
The point of the graphs is that our curve in New York was bent, and during the same time we were bending our curve. Texas has not bent the curve. It wasn’t to directly compare number of cases between New York and Texas.
Patricia Kayden
Gin & Tonic
@download my app in the app store mistermix: I was merely asking for the source.
cleek
@download my app in the app store mistermix:
NY is still leading the nation per-capita – it has 20x the per-capita rate of TX. NJ, CT, MA aren’t far behind.
NY is really not in a position to crow about its results.
TX’s ‘curve’ is trending up, over three months. NY tore through that part of its curve in about 10 days.
WereBear
@CaseyL:
It’s not just that. It’s also that the longer we put off people catching it, the better prepared we are when someone does get very sick.
We all have, or know of, people who can’t leave home, or have it brought to them, or they risk death. And this will be the case until they get vaccinated.
What about them? Why are Republicans determined to lower their odds of surviving?
WereBear
@cleek:
Considering NYC had the airports clogged with people from Europe thanks to Trump’s Europe travel ban, I think we can.
Frank
For anyone who has spent St. Patrick’s Day or Cinco de Mayo in Rochester, “Chucklefucks in Bars” should be on the city’s seal.
catclub
This. Quantity has its own quality. I think there are plenty of idosyncratic differences we have not yet understood. For instance, why was Greece so much lower than Italy?
catclub
@WereBear: still no. NYS did a much worse job than other states – such as California and Washington state.
Now, if they had quarantined all those folks flooding in from Europe….
did they do that?
Barbara
@catclub: First, I think we should all concede that the story is still being written. What I find most disturbing is that Arizona, and maybe others, don’t seem to have learned anything from New York. New York was hit with a tidal wave at the same point everyone was trying to understand how to contain and manage the wave. So it will almost always look worse. But other states had what New York didn’t, and that was time to figure out what they should do. No state, including large ones like California and Texas, are going to do as well as they could have if they had better federal support, but still, based on current information, they are going to gradually catch up to New York — they just won’t (hopefully) have health care systems that become overwhelmed, and again, hopefully, there will be more information to better manage those with severe cases. Arizona looks scary.
jonas
How much of these southern governors’ sanguine attitude towards this dramatic upswing in cases is due to the fact that it’s mostly impacting African American and Hispanic communities?
That’s a rhetorical question, of course.
jonas
He can ask Boris Johnson what it’s like. Answer: not fun.
Geminid
Virginia has a mask mandate for indoor businesses and from what I see I think it makes a difference. Aside from a couple small country stores, virtually everyone I see in indoor retail stores are masked, staff and customer. But without a state mandate businesses are reluctant to impose one on their own, even if they know it is needed.
waspuppet
Good example of the other quintessential TV-reporter question was thrown at Ralph Northam a couple weeks ago. Translated: “I have a two-part question. First, are you making full complements of staff work in the prisons so good, honest, hard-working family men will catch the virus from filthy, disgusting prisoners? And as a follow-up, are you short-staffing prisons and abandoning the incarcerated, leaving them to die of a horrible virus?”
WereBear
@Geminid:
Exactly. Even people who know better need reminders from actual leadership, who create rules for everyone to follow.
trnc
@catclub:
OTOH, timing is also part of the equation. NY got hit hard because they got it early. I know Cuomo and DeBlasio had their own issues, but it was ramping up while there was a valid question about the possibility of federal guidance, which we now know was intended to mislead. And (not unrelated) there were no travel restrictions. The administrations and/or citizens of states that are getting hit harder at this point have no excuse for being more reckless.
J R in WV
@cleek:
I think the real point here is that NY state managed to bring their cases and death rate way down by implementing strict safety standards.
While TX is denying the ability to implement any safety standards whatsoever anywhere in the state.
In other words: ” Hold my beer, and Watch This!” It’s going to be very nasty if the TX Republicans continue to disallow strict requirements of safe distancing, wearing masks, etc.
J R in WV
@catclub:
Perhaps they (foolishly in retrospect) expected the federal government to have a plan for bringing a massive number of Americans back from abroad, when the federal government announced their intention to bring a large number of Americans home.
After all, TSA is a federal program…
Anyone with an ounce of common sense would have PLANNED that whole cluster — but I contradict myself, hoping Trump or his minions would have planned anything, ever.
Another Scott
@Gin & Tonic: They look like Flourish graphs, but I haven’t found those particular ones.
E.g. for Alabama – https://www.alreporter.com/2020/05/05/alabama-covid-19-cases-are-trending-up-again-as-deaths-surpass-300/
HTH.
Cheers,
Scott.
Barbara
@catclub: I don’t know what your aim is, but the last time I checked, TSA is in charge of entry into the US.
Bill Arnold
@low-tech cyclist:
Yep. Any unmasked people present in store, no customer. And that “no customer” rule applies until there is a vaccine, + a year or two to be sure. (Or maybe forever; bad mask discipline means a possibly higher probability of other issues.)
Bill Arnold
@catclub:
There’s also the issue that one of the airports serving New York City is Newark in New Jersey.
New York City like it or not is a serious international travel hub; that’s part of what did New York City in. Another was sheer density of human bodies increasing transmission rate. Another (big) part was a delay in imposing lockdown. Even a week earlier (reasonable politically) would have made a substantial difference. An earlier mask order (NY’s was April 17) would have made a difference but there was still pushback (backed by strong dogma and health care worker shortages) on masks at that point.
The current daily death rate in New York State is comparable to Texas’s current daily death rate, Texas’s graphs are pretty noisy, not sure why. Anyway, Texas and other states opening up while stupidly not doing distancing/mask wearing are setting themselves up for a lot of hurt.
Related, from someone who is currently (IIRC) in Thailand: