I see that Cuomo is getting a lot of static in the press about the slow rollout of New York’s COVID vaccine, and he responded in typical Cuomo fashion by threatening $100K fines for hospitals that didn’t use up their current vaccine stock. I’m sure Cuomo deserves a good part of the blame because he’s a micromanager, though some of the stuff I’ve seen on Twitter indicating that local health departments should have been in charge of the rollouts seem a big misguided when the first set of vaccine recipients are in hospitals.
Anyway, what this demonstrates to me is how easy it is for media to ingest and accept as status quo something that’s totally outrageous. The vaccine rollout is yet another thing that the Trump Administration totally fucked up. Whatever his faults, Cuomo is around to pick up the pieces after Jared or Pence or whomever didn’t do their job, just as most of what’s going on with COVID right now is because some Trumper didn’t do their job, or, more precisely, followed Trump’s instructions to cover up and ignore.
In a few days, dios mediante, Biden will own this problem, and the second he’s sworn in, every god damned Republican who actively participated in sedition or passively tolerated it will switch gears to point and blame Biden for every issue with the vaccine rollout. Yet, today in New York, we’re discussing what fucking Andrew Cuomo is or isn’t doing. Our world truly is wired for Republicans.
RR Mikey
The whole state of the GOP and their nonsense is just exhausting. It’s interminable.
dmsilev
Same thing in California, though with somewhat less micromanagement from the Governor. Slow rollout (roughly 1/3 of the doses received have been administered), and a big part of the story is a lack of resources on the front lines to deal with it. That should have been something the Federal government could have helped with, but of course Trump and his crew didn’t and don’t give a fuck. Moscow Mitch spending half a year sitting on a bill that, among other things, funded vaccine distribution infrastructure is another thing that needs to be broadcast over and over again.
CaseyL
Governor Cuomo has gotten a lot of hate over the years, correctly in my view, for manipulating the State Lege in order to keep more power in the Governor’s Mansion. Given his obvious belief that most people who aren’t him are idiots, I understand his motivation though I don’t agree with it.
I think the cadres of people who already hated Cuomo were upset to see him emerge as a hero for his handling of the pandemic, and are therefore happy to find something to use against him. I think they’re particularly happy to find something related to the pandemic to attack him with: finding a way to undermine his best work, as it were.
Joseph
You’re right that the real problem is Republican control of the federal government, but that doesn’t give Cuomo a total pass. He still has a lot of resources to pick up the pieces, and he doesn’t seem very focused on creating solutions to improve the rollout- he just puts pressure on someone else. I’ve also been angry about his lack of reaction to the 2nd wave. Cases keep rising, and we know it’s because of in-home gatherings, but he hasn’t taken action to get the word out or improve enforcement.
I’d take Cuomo over any Republican governor, but in New York I expect better. Having just moved back from Asia I think our biggest problem in the US is refusing to expect more of politicians even when they are on our side.
jonas
The article doesn’t actually report on what is causing the delays. *Why* aren’t hospitals able to get this stuff into arms fast enough? Did they even talk to any administrators? Are there just not enough health care workers at the moment to staff vaccination sites? It appears regional hospitals were given the vaccine, and have been giving their own employees the injections, but didn’t have an organized way to distribute it to the broader population of health care workers, such as EMTs, nursing home patients, and doctors and nurses not directly affiliated with the hospital. What about your local dentist and his hygienists, e.g.?
p.a.
If the options are slow rollout or Floriduh, slow, controlled it is…
Baud
The fact that this is happening all over the country suggests that the primary failures are with national leadership.
jonas
@CaseyL: As we like to say here in the Empire State, Cuomo is the worst politician in NY. Except for all the others. That’s how he’s survived for so long. I agree Cuomo is notoriously imperious and that serves him well sometimes, and less well others. His best decision was overseeing a slow, deliberate reopening after the lockdown this past spring based on case numbers that kept the virus at bay most of the summer and into this fall. California, notably, didn’t do that and we see how that worked out for them. There really should have been another total lockdown starting in November, but that was just politically and economically unworkable without a federal bailout package to go with it, so here we are.
germy
germy
Yes, that’s pretty much it in a nutshell.
Ruckus
shitforbrains cares always and only about one thing – himself. In his tiny little, diseased mind, the entire world revolves around the stick that is very firmly stuck up his ass. I realize that we have another 15 days till we can move on past this but we will, 3-4 hundred thousand dead bodies notwithstanding. Blame is fine, I’m all for it, he deserves all of it, every last molecule of shame and ridicule we can heap on him, but the fact is he will be out of the way soon. Of course not soon enough, 4 yrs ago would have been immensely better. Most of “his people” will never understand what their ignorance and hate did to this country. If they did they wouldn’t be so fucking ignorant, nor follow someone so ignorant. But there you go, here we are, let’s move on.
Kattails
Nice rant, seconded.
My extra COVID unemployment money came through today. I’ve been living on modest Social Security plus $179/week unemployment for months after the last relief money ran out. I literally cried when I saw the money there; the snow tires are really iffy, there’s stuff that’s been on hold, it’s really going to be helpful. So I called my Senators’ and Congresswoman’s offices to say thank you for their hard work in getting this through, knowing how much resistance they’ve had to deal with. One of the young women particularly said thanks for calling, they are not getting much of that. So may I suggest that anyone whose reps are actively working on this, call them, nice not to just hear complaints and requests all the time.
Joseph
@CaseyL: Cuomo was slower than many governors initially- Inslee, Newsom, even DeWine responded faster in March. He made a lot of mistakes that he should be called out on, bickered needlessly with De Blasio, and constantly changed direction (remember the agreement with neighboring states, which was replaced by regions within NY, which in turn haven’t been mentioned in months?). He did get cases down, but never to the low level European countries reached in the summer.
More generally, he’s hated for blocking liberal policies, and then suddenly supporting watered-down versions of them. For example, we still don’t have legal marijuana, he dragged his feet on congestion pricing (and now isn’t actively pushing for it), his free college plan has so many exceptions is nearly unusable.
Yes, primary responsibility is with the Republicans. Yes, he did get cases down, eventually. By the US’s low standards he’s good. But good enough that we should be satisfied? Not at all.
E.
Republicans go into politics to win; Dems go into politics to make the best decisions they can for the people they represent.
It’s only natural the stories the R’s get to tell are simpler and easier to broadcast. Most of them only require one or two words: “Death Panels,” “Illegals,” “Thugs,” “Socialists,” “Snowflakes.” But if you are looking at things like evidence and data and experience and forecasts and complex problems of allocating resources in a gigantic country, your stories are going to run more along the lines of explanations that have nuance and admit to the existence of risk. That’s why we keep losing and I don’t see an easy fix.
Mary G
Not to say there isn’t major Republican malfeasance here, but there’s another part of the story. Everyone who can give shots is either taking care of Covid patients already or has preexisting conditions that make exposure to the hordes dangerous. We have senior nursing and medical students working in the hospitals already.
Ruckus
@jonas:
How do you inject the vaccine without needles and syringes? We need 600 + million of those. We need a organized way to deal with the problem on a NATIONAL basis. We haven’t had a national government to speak of for 4 yrs now, at least not one with a rational human being in charge. This is what the conservative goal has been for the last what 75 yrs at a minimum. Their number one guiding principle is that government is bad, let us prove it to you. They just did.
They proved that no government is worse than good government. Their proof is in the grave of every person with COVID. They are too stupid to understand this, too stupid to learn it, we have to move on, to marginalize them so that we are not ever in this mess again. We have to take back the power of reasonable, competent government, to do good for the people who own it. It won’t be perfect, nothing having to do with people is perfect, but the good is better than the willfully incompetent. Cuomo is proving that, the good is better than the willfully incompetent.
germy
I’m not a Cuomo fan, but he wouldn’t have these challenges if there weren’t so many maskless assholes running around the state.
Eunicecycle
@germy: which is directly linked to The Maskless Asshole at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
Benw
@Baud: it sure feels that way. It’s like once the hospitals have vaccinated their staff they have no clear guidance on how to pick who gets the next doses. There are way more people in the high risk tiers than doses right now, so someone at the top needs to actually decide how to distribute what’s available. Trump won’t, and Cuomo is pushing the buck down to local hospital admins.
@jonas: yep, at least close indoor dining yesterday!
germy
@Eunicecycle:
Yes.
Trump could have made a fortune selling MAGA masks to his base. But he wanted to wish the pandemic away, and not “frighten the stock market”
Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix
@Joseph:
The regions are mentioned in almost every news conference, because that’s how we track which areas are doing well. The agreement with the states led to some cooperation with NJ and Conn. So I think you’re missing some pieces here (to stay with the theme of the post).
Ohio Mom
Joseph @13:
Yes, my Governor, Mike DeWine got Ohio off to a good start — and then crumbled when the brains behind the operation, the head of the state health department, Dr. Amy Acton, was hounded out of office by misogynist, antisemetic, gun-toting anti-maskers.
I have to admit I was completely nonplussed when DeWine was doing everything right. It was upending my entire worldview. I’m not happy he reverted back to form, that has been a direct threat to Ohio Family’s continued well-being. But it did quiet my cognitive dissonance.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@germy: Trump is Mr 70s so he’s a woo believer. Likely thought his orange clown makeup would protect him from the Virus.
trollhattan
They have been pulling Romex for sixty years crafting it. It will take a long time to dismantle, if we ever manage. Just look at the Tories and Likud–who’s ever going to topple either?
Matt McIrvin
@germy: What, a single dose isn’t fully protective and it takes time to build immunity? You don’t say…
trollhattan
@germy:
Something I appreciated from Cuomo early on was his consistent response to the loaded questions:
“Don’t you think it’s tragic to take away a small business’ livelihood?”
“But dying is worse.”
Not that Republicans care, but simple, repetitive messaging is the only kind they respond to.
germy
@Matt McIrvin:
I’m guessing Ms. Granger got her first dose and then decided to throw a big party to celebrate.
Just my guess.
Brachiator
The world is wired for stupidity. Every country in the goddam world is being criticized for their vaccine rollout. Every country. Liberal. Conservative. Whatever.
Some of it is justified (the UK for example).
But “smooth roll out of vaccinations, carry on” ain’t sexy headlines.
germy
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
The Power Of Positive Thinking!
Baud
@Brachiator:
Israel is apparently doing a good job (if you don’t count the Palestinians, which they don’t).
Baud
@germy:
Probably. Plus, 95% effective doesn’t mean 100% effective.
Matt McIrvin
@germy: I swear, simple cognitive illusions are going to be the death of us all.
trollhattan
From the left coast comes a question: who’s funding the Newsom recall? We don’t know.
You can never be faulted for guessing Orange County Republicans
Major Major Major Major
Cuomo fucked up, he’s been fucking up for almost a year. I’ll give him a pass for March but that’s about it. Yes, the federal government should have done a lot more, but you know who else had months and months to get a vaccination plan in place? Cuomo. The problems we’re having extend beyond not having enough freezers or whatever it is we think the feds would have been able to ameliorate.
Every governor knew Trump wouldn’t help.
And now Cuomo is instituting great policies like “we’ll fine you $100,000 if you let vaccines expire, and $1,000,000 if you vaccinate somebody ahead of schedule”. Which is… a fuck-up.
I spoke to my physical therapist yesterday and he said that they’re now eligible for vaccination, but nobody’s been able to get any word from the state, whatsoever, about how to acquire said vaccination. It’s just a shambles.
patrick II
In the service they used airguns. A pistol like thing with a bottle of vaccine hanging underneath and feeding the gun. They would line us up and walk down the line, injecting. Those don’t work?
Matt McIrvin
@patrick II: I was just wondering about those–it seems like they’ve fallen out of favor for a number of reasons, including a greater risk of cross-contamination if the gun isn’t kept super-clean. They do work though. I was thinking they might be good to use for this kind of giant mass vaccination just because they’d get past some people’s needle phobia.
Roger Moore
@Mary G:
That we’re short on people to give vaccinations is a sign of bad planning. Once we knew the vaccines were on their way, we needed to find everyone who could give vaccinations and get them ready. If that meant giving a bunch of people quickie training on how to give vaccinations, the time to do it was before there was vaccine sitting in the freezer. I think we’re going to be able to scare up some people do to vaccinations, but they should have been ready weeks ago.
MisterForkbeard
@Benw: My folks woke up me at 5:30am with an excited text saying they’re in the 1-B phase of California’s rollout. Which is great, but something I could have waited a couple hours to hear :)
I looked up the rules and they’re vague, though. There’s some language about IT workers being in 1-C but not a lot of information about what that means. I’m in IT with a mild risk condition (asthma), do I get the vaccine in 1-C or wait for phase 2 or 3?
What’s needed in addition to the tiering system is something like what WA is doing: an app or central database you can sign up for the vaccine with, and then the state/counties can order it appropriately and reach out to people. Doctors and nursing homes can do it on behalf of some of their patients, etc.
MisterForkbeard
@Matt McIrvin: I’m willing to bet she went out and partied. Or just continued her normal unsafe behavior while her immunity hadn’t built up yet.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
So word is the Trump is looking to bail to his Scotland resort Jan 19th to avoid the election and now the Scots are moving to keep it luzer hind end out of their country.
GrueBleen
“Anyway, what this demonstrates to me is how easy it is for media to ingest and accept as status quo something that’s totally outrageous. ”
and
“Our world truly is wired for Republicans.”
Hmmm. Now just consider “shifting baselines syndrome” as expressed by: “Humans often don’t remember what we’ve lost or demand that it be restored. Rather, we adjust to what we’ve got. ”
https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2020/7/7/21311027/covid-19-climate-change-global-warming-
See also “reference-dependent utility“.
Baud
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Someone needs to just suck it up and take Trump to Mt. Doom in Mordor.
Brachiator
@Baud:
The situation in Israel is crazy, but there is wisdom and foolishness in equal measure. From the Jerusalem Post.
It is insane that any group hinder speedy access to the vaccines.
schrodingers_cat
The media is wired for Republican so it is even more important that we don’t join them and become their amen chorus.
laura
@trollhattan: Fuckers frustrated with the fact that the Governor is a Democrat is what this is all about. It’s our state’s version of denying the legitimacy of any democratic elector and refusing to respect the will of the voter. V 1.0 delivered us Arnold Schwarzenegger for two terms and no legitimate basis for recalling Gray Davis other than fuck you, that’s why. V 2.0 is going to be some mouth breathing numpty that may or will likely not be Kevin Faulkener. These fucking fuckers. There’s nothing good that will come of this – and all manner of bad. It worked once and that’s too much reason to try it out again and then take it accross the country.
Tazj
The Erie County Executive(Mark Poloncarz), thinks that letting the counties have more control over vaccine distribution is the key to getting people vaccinated sooner. A county health department clinic was given approval recently and they started vaccinating fist responders and medical personnel from clinics and offices yesterday. The county has 2 medical refrigerators for the vaccines and they are getting a third.
Why wasn’t approval given sooner?I don’t know but I hope giving the counties in NY more leeway will speed things up. I know that people’s adherence to the state’s restrictions isn’t improving.
Benw
@MisterForkbeard: yep and failure to do something like what WA is doing at the national level is straight up Trump’s fault. He’s legit still killing people as the vaccine is sitting there
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@laura: Remember the Republican who though he bought the Davis recall had tears in his eyes when had to conceded to Arnold and Arnold only won because he was a celebrity. Mostly likely if their is a recall (this is what, the third attempt to recall Newsom so far?), it will just be another Democrat who wins.
citizen dave (aka mad citizen)
@MisterForkbeard: “What’s needed in addition to the tiering system is something like what WA is doing: an app”
Improbably my state (Indiana) legalized sports betting a 1 to 1.5 years ago (one of the first states; forget when it started). I don’t play, but apparently the apps can tell if you are physically located within our fair state to make sure you are legally betting. Maybe we need to get the sports betting app people involved in the vaccine distribution :)
Major Major Major Major
@MisterForkbeard:
Yet another thing that states could do on their own, but few did. Now they’re scrambling at the last second to use Eventbrite. It’s downright dangerous to just blame the feds for all this.
Probably not an app though, plenty of people don’t have smartphones, apps are tricky, just make a website.
laura
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Mostly likely if their is a recall (this is what, the third attempt to recall Newsom so far?), it will just be another Democrat who wins.
Please show your math.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@laura: Arnold has been the last Republican elected to state office in 20 years. No one can remember the names of the Republicans who ran against Brown in his second term or Newsome in his election.
VeniceRiley
@MisterForkbeard: I think we are in 1C. But if IT in clinic settings may be 1B
https://states.aarp.org/california/covid-19-vaccine-distribution
Tazj
Andrew Cuomo is speaking now and says they’ve only been allocated vaccines for half of the healthcare workers in the state so far. He has criticized some hospitals in the state for doing a poor job of vaccinating their workers, and also says some have done a good job.
Roger Moore
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
This is not quite literally true. Steve Poizner won as insurance commissioner in 2006, the same time as when Schwarzenegger won reelection as governor. Still, it’s true that the past couple of decades have been a dry spell for Republicans in the state, and they lack anyone with Arnold’s charisma. Even if they can get their signatures and they can convince a majority of voters to toss Newsom, they still need to find a candidate who can beat whomever the Democrats put forward. I think it’s far more likely that the Democrats would be able to coalesce around a single strong candidate, while every ambitious Republican in the state will try to get on the ballot and split the vote.
Dirk Reinecke
Here in South Africa the government doesn’t even seem to have a shadow of a plan, and apparently started quite late with negotiating with the pharma companies. The only negotiations that have been concluded have been with Covax (the WHO distribution org) but the government missed the payment deadlines 2.
The South African vaccination drive is going to start in April 2021, with around 1,2 million doses. In a country with 60 million people.
So there is significant room to do worse.
sab
@Ohio Mom: Ohio Agency on Aging just sent spouse and me 8 free masks. How nice.
catclub
@Matt McIrvin: I suspect cross-contamination is MUCH more of a concern than in the years before AIDS-HIV. Also, the vaccine might require IM versus SubQ injection. I bet those airguns are all subQ.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Roger Moore: What he said; Arnold was a Black Swan like Trump in that Arnold used his fans to roll up the split Republicans and have the most votes in a split election
I assuming this San Diego guy thinks he is popular because it’s San Diego but for the rest of the state, “we’re not quite as disease ridden as Imperial Valley” isn’t much of record to run on.
catclub
I think the first few immunizations were easy, but after that it gets much harder. If the supply is erratic, you do not know whether/how many to save for second shots versus first shots. Then you have to figure out how many people come back for second shots.
oldster
Does your title refer to this tune? One of my favorites from back in the day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-zONX6zQMU
catclub
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: as a helpful BJ pedantry reminder.
A ‘black swan’ event is not something that is very unlikely, or a coincidence of a few unlikely events. It is something that is considered impossible. A black swan election is: neither candidate running is elected and somebody else is, instead.
You can also ask me about steep versus shallow learning curves.
Hint: which takes longer to achieve mastery?
J R in WV
@germy:
I have no doubt that the congresswoman, having had the first vaccine shot, felt immune, even though she was obviously not at all yet. She probably went to New Year’s Eve parties to schmooze and raise money, and quit wearing a mask at all.
No wonder she caught the ‘rona… pig ignorant of how the vaccine works, expected instant immunity, did not get that.
Did no one tell her how long it would take to achieve immunity? That she needed a whole ‘nother shot in 3 weeks? Maybe she just didn’t listen, Republican congresscritters appear to be a lot like that, you can’t tell them anything, they’re kings of the world!
Ruckus
@patrick II:
Not for things that need to be injected into muscle. Like the current vaccines. I got several air gun injections as well as several needles in boot camp. Good times.
Ohio Mom
Sab @57:
That’s um, interesting. And a bit of a puzzle. Why now, almost a year in? You’d think this grand effort would have been publicized, but this is the first I’ve heard of it.
I wonder if I’ll get some.
sab
@Ohio Mom: I just looked it up on Ohio Department of Aging. They mailed 2 million masks in December to Golden Buckeyes age 65 or older.
J R in WV
Does anyone even suspect Trump used the Defense Production Act to order 700,000,000 syringes, which is the ball park for the most we would need to vaccinate everyone? I sure don’t.
I think everyone should be given a choice, get a vaccination, or go home and stay there as a public health risk unless public health doctors verify that a vaccination might be fatal to the individual in question…
Your freedom ends at the beginning of the other person’s nose, whether we’re talking swinging you arms and fists around or breathing viral particles out.!
Typhoid Mary was quarantined because she was a carrier and quite contagious, and wanted to make a living as a cook/chef, transferring her disease to everyone who ate her food. These fools aren’t much different.
Topclimber
@schrodingers_cat: Thread is dead but amen.
GrueBleen
@catclub: Whereas in some parts of this universe, it’s white swans that are considered impossible.
Joseph
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix: That’s fair. I think Cuomo’s emphasis on press conferences is problematic, however.
I’d put it this way:
-The feds should be taking the lead and governors have had to make do with inadequate information and resources. Fault lies with the Republicans primarily.
-Cuomo has done better than the median US governor, given the situation NY faced in early March.
-Cuomo also made many mistakes, and hasn’t always prioritized fighting Covid, especially recently with the 2nd wave. It’s important that we criticize him for that if we hope to see the government’s response improve, while keeping in mind that it could have been a lot worse.