Andrew Cuomo New York COVID-19 Briefing Transcript April 21

Andrew Cuomo: (00:00)
Right, Gareth Rhodes who works with me in state government and who has been involved in this special effort from day one. To my immediate right, Dr. Jim Malatras, technically a doctor, but not a medical doctor, but still a doctor. To my left, Governor Kathy Hochul, my partner in state government who was been a true treasure to the people of the state of New York. And to Kathy Hochul’s left Dr. Candace Johnson from Roswell Park Cancer Institute, which is where we are today in Buffalo. Roswell Park is one of the leading cancer institutes in the United States and a real jewel for the state of New York and I thank her very much for their hospitality today.

Let me give you some of the facts today. One of the points we want to make today is we’re in Western New York, Buffalo. We’ve been talking a lot about New York City and the situation in New York City and Long Island and Westchester and Rockland, the suburbs of New York City. But just as we’re seeing of course the country, this virus presents a slightly different problem in different parts of the country. It also presents a different problem in different parts of the state.

Overall, the total hospitalizations are basically flat from where they were yesterday, and as you see the overall curve is on the way down and that is good news, certainly. The net change in hospitalizations is down, not as down as much as we would like. Change in intubations is down and that’s always good news, because intubations means a person is on a ventilator. 80% of the time when people are on a ventilator, they don’t come off the ventilator in a successful way. The number of new people in the state who walked in the door yesterday or were diagnosed with COVID is 1,300. That is down and that’s good news, relative to really bad news, which is what was happening up until then, right. We have to remember our calculus of good, our definition of good has changed here. Good is now not terrible, but on an absolute scale, 1,300 people walk in the door with COVID on a single day in the state of New York. That would not be good news in any other context besides the context we’re living in.

This is Erie County. Buffalo’s in Erie County, New York, and you see the numbers. We had a dramatic increase in Erie County, and then basically a leveling flat, little uptick yesterday. Number of total hospitalizations in the Erie three day average, again basically flat. These numbers, I would not take any of these one day numbers, even three day numbers as absolute. This is a new reporting mechanism that just was put in place. From a statistical point of view, I don’t know exactly what the margin of error is, with all due respect to the great statisticians doing this.

We’ve been watching this spread all across the state because this is like stamping out a brush fire. You need to run to where the fire is and put it out there. We were watching for a spread of the fire from Downstate New York towards upstate. Whenever we see a small fire starting, we jump on it right away, testing, isolation, etc. But that’s remained fairly constant and that’s also good news.

But the point that different regions of the country have different “curves.” The virus does not hit at the same time at the same rate. You hear about different states in the country and when they’re going to hit their apex, when they’re going to hit their top and when they’re going to come down, it’s different all across the country. It’s also different across the state. We’ve been talking about states like their uniform, homogenous entities. Some are more homogenous than others. When I was in the federal government, I worked in every state. You have a whole different variety of states.

This state, we have very different regions within New York. When you say New York, people think New York City. Yeah, one of the densest places on the globe. You also have Upstate New York, where in some counties you have more cows than people. People don’t think of New York that way. As you see variety, of course the concrete, we have variety across the state of New York and you have to watch each one of those individual curves. And when does that region hit a high point and where is that? Because depending on that region’s curve is how you have to calculate your strategy, and you’re looking at those curves. How long is the ascent up the mountain and then how long are we on that plateau? And then how long is the descent from the plateau?

Western New York, I believe we’re on the plateau. All right. Now the question is how long are we on that plateau and is it a plateau or might it still ascend? Downstate New York, it appears that we’re on the descent. And the question then becomes in downstate New York, well, how quickly do we descend?

The worst news, and the really ugliest part of my job these days is telling New Yorkers this news… in Erie County, we lost 7 hospital deaths yesterday, for a total of 125. In the state, we lost 481 people, 452 in hospitals, 29 in nursing homes. Again, nursing homes are a central focus and priority for all of us going through that.

Where are we today? We’re operating with two rules. First rule is do no harm. Second rule is start to plan the reopening. Planning the reopening is just that, plan the reopening. Understand it. Calculate it. Calibrate it. Nobody’s ever done it before. How do you do it? When do you do it?

But first rule, do no harm. We paid a tremendous price to get where we are today and make the progress that we have made today. We paid a tremendous price to control this beast. We closed down everything. People have worked tirelessly in the healthcare system and the first responders and the essential workers. You showed you can control the beast. Do no harm. Don’t go backwards. That’s the first point. And then plan the reopening. On the do no harm, you take a place like Erie County, any region in the country or in a state that is still on the ascent or on the plateau. Beware of a hotspot. Beware of an increased need. In this state, what we’ve said is any need anywhere in this state, the rest of the state will surge capacity and equipment and energy to help that part of the state. When Downstate New York needed help Upstate New York was there. If Upstate New York needs help or Western New York needs help with Central New York and the North Country needs help, the rest of the state will be there. And you have my word on that.

In these crises, pressure brings out the best and the worst in people. I believe that. Individually you get to really see how a person’s responds at a time of crisis. You get a little snapshot of their character and of their foundation. It’s also true of the collective. It’s also true of society. And when I say we have to move to help Western New York, yeah, there will be some places in the state where you hear a voice that says, “No, no, no. We have to worry about ourselves. We have to take care of us, and they’re on their own the way we’re on our own.”

Not in New York. That’s not how we operate. Nobody’s on their own. We are one state. We are one family. We are one community, and we’re there to help one another. Whatever Erie County needs, whatever Western New York needs, you have my word that the rest of the state will be responsive. Hopefully, we’re on this plateau and on the other side of the plateau is a dissent, so we can manage it. But if it’s not a descent and it’s an ascent anywhere in the state, the rest of the state will be there. And part of it is testing, testing, testing. I know it’s an granular topic, but it’s important.

We’re also going to have a regional calibration that we’re going to make on hospitals. You have many hospitals that are very quiet. Some hospitals are actually laying off people, believe it or not, in the middle of this.

Hospitals are actually laying off people believe it or not in the middle of this because they have no patients. We artificially stopped the number of patients going into a hospital because we ended what’s called elective surgery, elective treatment. Therefore, people can’t go into the hospital for an elective procedure. In those parts of the state and in those hospitals where the hospitals are laying off people because they’re so quiet and they have that capacity and capacity for the virus is not an issue, we’re going to allow elective outpatient treatment, which means the number of beds remain available because the number of people using those beds is still relatively minimal. We’re going to allow it in those hospitals and counties in the state that do not have a COVID issue or we couldn’t need the beds in case of a surge. This will not include Westchester, Rockland, New York City hospitals, et cetera, because we have a real COVID problem there. It won’t include Erie County or Albany County or Dutchess and several other counties where we still need to protect those hospital beds in case we need them for COVID.

On testing, people need to understand this issue because it’s going to be determinative. It’s complicated and it’s been somewhat politicized. Now you hear different arguments about testing. Here are the simple facts on testing. Again, testing is something that no one would have expected as an issue, right? Testing we do in this country and nobody really noticed. We have a whole system. It’s a private sector system. When you went to the hospital and the doctor said you have to have your child checked for this so you have to be checked with this, you go to a lab, you have your blood tested, that was the testing system. No one ever imagined this testing system was going to become hyper-relevant to survival and would need a capacity of 20, 30, 40, 50 times what the system was doing. This came out of the blue in many ways. It’s one of the lessons we will learn. But for us it came out of the blue.

How does it work? You have national companies that are private manufacturers of laboratory equipment. Their piece of equipment can operate their test kits. There are a number of these private sector companies. They make the machine. They sell that machine to labs, a network of labs all across the nation. We have about 211 labs in New York State. They buy these machines from these national companies and they then have that machine. Sometimes they buy a number of machines from different manufacturers and now they have a number of different machines. Some have higher outputs, some have lower output, but each one requires that you go back to that manufacturer to get a test kit and reagent that works for that manufacturer’s machine.

It gets very complicated quickly. There are different, what they call reagents, chemicals that you need for each manufacturer’s test kit and each manufacturer’s machine. The big labs will have bought a number of different machines from a number of different manufacturers. These are some of the big manufacturers, not all of them. You hear about Abbott, which has a new fast test. These companies are all working to come up with these tests now and who’s faster and who’s quicker, one-hour test, 20-minute test, 15-minute test, five-minute test. But every one of those manufacturers, you need to have their test kit and their reagents to operate on their machine. You have some labs that have five or six different manufacturer’s machines.

When you go to the manufacturers and you say, “I need you to increase capacity.” Many of the manufacturers are saying, “I can’t. I can’t get enough reagents. I can’t get enough swabs,” these cotton swabs. “I can’t get enough vials. I just don’t have enough material for my own test kits.” That’s the determiner of testing capacity. You’re asking a system that let’s say normally did 1,000 tests. You’re asking a system that did 1,000 tests, “By the way, I need 50,000 tests.” They didn’t anticipate this volume. Some of these manufacturers will say, “Look, I have a supply chain that is an international supply chain. I get my chemicals from China. I get my chemicals from here.” That ability to ramp up is what we’re all struggling with.

Every state is in charge of administering testing because the 200 labs in New York State are regulated by New York State. I regulate the 200 labs. It’s only appropriate that the state should be in charge of actual testing in this state. I agree with the federal government’s position on that. I have 200 labs. I should come up with a system that says how many tests in Buffalo? How many tests in Albany? How many tests in Manhattan? How many tests in Long Island? That’s my business. I should be held responsible. I should be held responsible for making sure those 200 labs actually deploy across the state in a smart way. Hold me responsible. Where it gets hard is when the labs that I regulate say, “The manufacturers are the problem.” Then I call the manufacturers and the manufacturers say, “I can’t do it because it’s an international problem.” That’s where we are now.

Last night I get home, I have my three daughters with me now, which is a joy 99.9% of the time. We’re sitting there, we’re watching the news. Governor Larry Hogan comes on the news, great guy, Governor of Maryland, Republican, chairman of the NGA, National Governors Association. I’m vice chairman so I work with the Governor. Governor Hogan says, “I bought 500 test kits from South Korea.” There’s a picture of Governor Hogan at the airport, South Korea airliner. Governor Hogan says, “I got 500 test kits from South Korea.” My daughter turns to me and looks at me and says, “Wow. That was really smart.” She just looks at me, doesn’t say anything else. She didn’t have to. I felt an immediate wave of guilt descend upon me.

One of my other daughters who is a little more pointed in life, a little more literal said, “Why didn’t you think of that, dad? Why didn’t you think of buying test kits from South Korea?” Now it was really just feeling de minimis as a governor. Larry Hogan is a better governor. Why didn’t I think of buying test kits from South Korea? Why didn’t I think of buying test kits from Korea, from China? It’s not what states normally are responsible for. God bless Larry Hogan. He really thought outside the box and was very creative.

But that piece is where the federal government can help us. Take that national manufacturer and that supply chain for the national manufacturers and let the federal government figure out South Korea and China and international supply issues, rather than have 50 states now figure out how to go be like Governor Hogan and figure out how to buy tests in South Korea. That’s where the federal government should help. That’s the intelligent distribution of responsibility on testing. The federal government’s right, the states should take the lead, yes. Partnership, federal government, you have to help us with this national manufacturer and the supply list. After you do the testing, states have a second big task. Put together an army of tracers who then trace each person who tested positive. Who did they contact? Then isolate those people who you contact.

Also, talking about reopening. We’re going to make reopening decisions on a regional basis based on that region’s facts and circumstances about the COVID virus. In other words, just like some states will reopen before other states because they have a different circumstance when it comes to the COVID and their status with COVID. It’s also true across the state. North Country has a totally different …

… the state. North Country has a totally different situation than New York City. Central New York has a different situation. We operate as one state, but we also have to understand variations, and you do want to get this economy open as soon as possible, and if a situation is radically different in one part of the state than another part of the state, take that into consideration. That’s what we’re going to be doing. The same logic that applies to the country applies to some states, this state where you have those varieties across the state, and we need to take that into consideration.

The way we’ve been working on the economy in general across the state where we recognized there’s one state, yes, but there are regional economies within the state, and we’ve been working with each individual regional economy. We’ll do the same thing on this phase. Let’s talk about reopening economies in that regional context and coordinate it regionally. That’s what we’re going to be doing.

Again, I’ve said this statewide, but I want all our regional partners to hear us. Let’s not talk about just reopening. Let’s not have gone all through this and all we’re going to do is go back to where we work. How do you use this as an opportunity to learn the lessons and to build back better? That’s what we have to do.

For Western New York, we have my partner, Lieutenant Governor Kathy Hochul, who, as everybody knows, is from Buffalo. We’re going to ask her to take charge of the Western New York, monitor the public health issues, make sure if there’s a problem in terms of public health, we’re marshaling all the resources from across the state to help us in New York and also to start to work on the reimagining and the reopening plan for Western New York. We’re also going to ask Bob Duffy, who worked with me in the state, to volunteer to be a special adviser to coordinate public health and reopening in the Finger Lakes, the Rochester area.

Last point, we’ve gotten through difficult situations before. Western New York, we went through seven feet of snow couple of years ago. That was fun. We learned from that. The state, we went through 9/11, which was a crushing experience, but we learned from that, and we’re different and we’re better. We went through Super Storm Sandy, and we are the better for that, and we’re going to be the better for this. I believe that. It’s the hard times in life that actually make you better and make you who you are if you’re intelligent enough to learn from them and to get the message from them.

That’s what we have to do here. We have to do it individually. We have to do it collectively. What did we learn about ourselves, about the world, about the country from this period that we’re in? You get knocked on your rear end in life. Yeah, that happens. You get knocked on your rear end. It’s going to happen. The question is do you get up, and if you get up, what type of person are you, and did you learn from getting knocked on your rear end? Sometimes, you get knocked on your rear end and you have nothing to blame. Things happen in life. Health issues happen, bankruptcies happen, things happen. You get knocked on your rear end. Okay. Get up. Get up. Have the strength to get up. Have the wisdom to learn from the experience and be a better person for it.

Michael Jordan documentary is on TV. I’m a big Michael Jordan fan. He doesn’t make the varsity team, Michael Jordan. Bad coach, maybe, but he got knocked on his rear end. He was disappointed. What did he do? He worked. He worked harder, practiced more. Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan wasn’t just born. God didn’t say, “Here he is.” He made himself the great player that he is, and New York, we make ourselves. This nation, we make ourselves, World War I, World War II, the Great Depression, some of the most tragic situations actually forge the character and the resolve of this nation.

New York State, the same thing, and we have to be smart enough to do the same thing here, and we will because we’re New York, tough, but not just tough. It’s easy to be tough. It’s hard to be smart and disciplined and unified and loving. That’s what’s harder than being tough, but we’re all of the above. That’s where we’re special. Let’s take a few questions. I have to go down to Washington, and everything is a little tight from a scheduling point of view today. Sir?

Speaker 1: (25:40)
On that White House visit, what do you see the focus being? Will it be a discussion about reopening with the president? What will the focus of that visit be?

Testing, and what does testing mean and how do we do it and how can the federal government work in partnership with the states. Just basically… because this is all new. Look, it’s a situation that is very difficult, and it is a situation where, however you do it, it’s going to be a blame game afterwards. I heard the President in his briefing the other day. He’s right. This is one of those thankless tasks. Trust me, it is one of those tasks where when you get to the end of it, everybody’s going to be able to say, “You didn’t do enough. You didn’t do enough. You didn’t do enough.”

I get the instinct to distance yourself from it, but it is a situation where you need everybody to work together and you need to understand quickly who’s in a better position to do what. From my point of view, I think the federal government has to take that national manufacturer supply chain issue. God bless Governor Hogan, but you shouldn’t expect all these governors to go run around and do an international supply chain while they’re trying to put together their testing protocol in their state, coordinating their labs, how many tests in Buffalo, how many tests in Albany, then I have to put together an army of tracers. That’s thousands of people. It’s never been done before. I’ll take all of that. Just don’t give me guilt and make me look bad to my family and my state when Governor Hogan goes to South Korea and buys all the test kits.

Speaker 2: (27:28)
In regards to reopening the state, it seems to be tethered to testing until yesterday. Merely symptomatic folks couldn’t get a prescription to get a test in Western New York. What can the state do in the short term, understanding you need federal government’s help, but what can the state do in the short run to ramp up testing here because this is an area that’s lagged behind.

We are testing as a state, just so you know, we’re testing more than any state in the United States, a multiple of other states, more testing per capita than any country on the globe. That’s what we’re doing in New York, so we are doing more faster than anyone else. I get the New York attitude, “I don’t care. That’s not enough.” I get it. We have to do better. We have to do more, and we need more tests, and that’s what we are talking about here.

The testing will educate you as you’re making your transition to reopening. How do you get across the swamp? Stone to stone across the morass. Stone to stone across the morass. One step at a time, and make sure you’re on firm footing, and then you look for the next stone, then you look for stone, then you look for the next stone.

The testing tells you where the stones are, and the testing tells you when to pause. That’s why you need the testing. You need more testing in Western New York. Yes. You need more in Rochester, Syracuse, Albany, North Country, Southern Tier, and New York City and Long Island. We needed more all across the board. That’s why I’m going to Washington. Mr. McCarthy?

Bob McCarthy: (29:10)
Governor. When you head down to the White House today… I think it’s been fair to say that you’ve had to walk a fine line in your dealings with him. There’s criticism that you have, and there’s praise that you have for him. How’s this going to continue when you can when you meet with him today? How are you going to handle this?

Bob, life is a fine line. Life is a fine line. Being in government is a fine line. Everything is a fine line. I’ll tell you how I negotiate the fine line. You tell the truth. Yes. Tell the truth. I said that to the president from day one, and by the way he’s done the same vis-à-vis me. He has no problem telling me when he disagrees, and he tells me when he agrees. I have no problem telling him when I disagree and when I agree, so fine line, and you can try to figure it out, or you know what, heck with it. Just tell-

You can try to figure it out, or you know what, heck with it, just tell the truth, and whatever it is, it is.

Speaker 7: (30:07)
[inaudible 00:30:07] talk to him today?

I think there’s been a lot of discussion about testing, but I don’t know that people have really, I think in many ways we’re talking past each other. I understand the federal government’s point that it’s up to the states and I believe it is largely up to the states, but then even the federal government will stand there and do a whole presentation on what they’re doing on testing. So then it’s not really up to the states if the FEMA people get up there and an admiral gets up there and talks about what they’re doing on testing. All right, so then let’s just coordinate who does what. What do the states do? What does the federal government do? What do you do and what do I do?

I’ll do whatever I’m supposed to do. Just tell me what I do and what are you going to do? And I’m going to ask them to take this piece of this national manufacturers getting the test kits and the vials and the cotton swabs and the chemicals. And if they get that done for the national manufacturers, and then the national manufacturers can feed my 211 labs, then the states can take it from there.

Ali Touhey: (31:28)
Governor, Ally Touhey from 7 Eyewitness News here in Buffalo. Thanks again for joining us. There’s continued frustration over unemployment. We have folks calling, emailing daily saying that 72 hour window where they were promised a phone call back has come and gone. What can you say to them to ease their frustration and what’s being done to smooth the process?

Yeah, they’re right. They are right. I’ll tell you the bad news and the good news. The bad news is, there were so many unemployment claims that it has collapsed the unemployment department’s system, their website system, their phone system. We have 1,000 people who are now working on that unemployment website and phone call system. It’s unbelievable, 1,000 people just to take the incoming unemployment calls. That’s how high the volume is. And they still can’t keep up with the volume. And there’s nothing worse than being unemployed and nervous about a paycheck and then you call for unemployment benefits and you can’t get through on the phone.

I get it. I get it. And we have 1,000 people working on it, we have Google working on it, we have all these experts working on it, but they’re trying to bring up a system again that did a much, much lower capacity. This is 100 times or whatever we’ve ever done before.

The good news is this. You’re going to get the same benefit anyway. It’s not like it’s costing you money. Right? I know it’s frustrating, but once you qualify, the qualification is retroactive, so you’re going to get the same benefit. It’s not costing you any money. It’s not because you couldn’t make the call today it means you’re not going to get the benefit. You will get the benefit, it’s just an annoying delay. And believe me, people are working seven days a week on it. Let’s take one more.

Speaker 3: (33:40)
Governor, as far as your regional committees go, have those regional committees started meeting yet? What is the timetable for that and what will it take for you to say, “Okay, we’ve got enough data, open up this particular region?”

Okay. There are no committees here. We’ve always talked about the economy of the state in terms of different regions, Manhattan is not Buffalo. Let’s use that same regional template when we talk about reopening. Let’s look at the numbers for that region on the COVID virus. Let’s look at the hospitalization rate. Are we on the ascent? Are we on the descent? Are we on the plateau for that region, hospital capacity for that region, infection rate for that region? And then, let’s make be open to making a region by region determination. Right?

So, look at that region. Who does that? The state does that working with the local governments. That’s it. There is no new committee here, there’s no new process. It’s just-

Speaker 4: (34:55)
Bob Duffy is leading up [crosstalk 00:04:56]?

Yes. Lieutenant Governor, Kathy Hochul in Western New York will be not just focusing on that decision, it’s more the when and the how. Right? Let’s take Western New York. When do you reopen it? All these governors in all these states are trying to figure out when. Well, look at the data, look at the hospitalization rate, look at the infection rate, and tell me where you are. Are you the ascent, the plateau, the descent? CDC has guidelines, you have to be stable or declining for two weeks. Look at the CDC guidelines, talk to the local officials. The when is data-driven. It’s not when do you want. The question’s when do you want, my answer is I want it yesterday. Okay, it’s not what you want. It’s data-driven.

All right, so look at the data. Kathy Hochul will coordinate that with the local officials. And then I think the better question is, and when we reopen, what did we learn and how do we reimagine Western New York to be the better for it? And what lessons do we want to take forward when we do the reopening? And then, on the reopening, how do we phase it? What businesses first? Do we do it by percentages? Let’s talk about all of that.

So it’s the when and the how, data-driven on the when. Not political pressure on the when. Well, people are yelling at me, “I want to open because I don’t want to take the political heat.” If you don’t want to take the political heat, you shouldn’t be in the political kitchen, which is called being an elected official in the state of New York.

I have to get to Washington. Thank you, guys. Thank you.

Speaker 5: (36:49)
Schumer said that a vote on the stimulus could come today. There’s no state money in that right now. Do you have hope that could change by the time they vote on it?

I think it’s a terrible mistake not to provide funding for the states. I get small businesses, I get airlines. How about police? How about fire? How about healthcare workers? How about teachers? We’re not going to fund schools? I don’t get it. I don’t get it. That’s why I’m not in Washington. Thank you very much, guys.

Speaker 6: (37:17)
[crosstalk 00:00:37:17]. Look at lawmakers saying you can start phasing in now. Is now the time?

Great job. Thank you very much.

Andrew Cuomo New York COVID-19 Briefing Transcript April 21

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