Gov Andrew Cuomo New York COVID-19 Briefing April 3: NY Passes 100,000 Cases

Andrew Cuomo: (12:42)
Good morning. Good to see most of you. No, good to see all of you. New state seal. That’s right. This seal of the State of New York, the legislature passed the modification to the seal. You see in the middle of the seal two words, excelsior, the state motto, ever upwards, aspirational. We can be better. We can lift ourselves, excelsior. And we added e pluribus unum, which is actually more appropriate today than when we started this process. E pluribus unum, out of many, one. Out of many, one. It was our founding fathers’ fundamental belief for this nation. Adams spoke to it. Madison spoke to it. Jefferson spoke to it. Although they had a lot of different opinions while they were doing the Constitution, the one thing they agreed with was e pluribus unum, out of many, one.

And it was good advice then. It’s even better advice today. The curve continues to go up. The number of tests has reached a new high. We did over 21,000 tests. Thank you to our great health department. We have over 10,000 new cases. 102,000 total tested positive, 14,000 hospitalized, 3,700 ICU patients, 8,800 patients discharged. That’s good news. Number of deaths, highest single increase in the number of deaths since we started, 2,300 to 2,900 deaths. You see the totality for New York State, 102,000. New Jersey, California. Remember, when this started New York had-

…started. New York had airports that were designated entry zones. This is an international destination, international hub. We have people coming from across the world sooner and at a higher rate than anyone else. Total hospitalization, 1400. That’s also a new high. Daily ICU admissions is down a little but, but you had more deaths. You have more people coming into hospitals than any other night. Also more people going out, which is obviously the ebb and the flow that’s coming in and out of the hospital system. The hotspots we now track on a nightly basis, how many people go into what facility so we can track the increase in what’s happening. You see an increase in New York City as we knew.

Certain communities, frankly more in New York City than other communities, but you also see an increase on Long Island, which is something we’re concerned about. Long Island does not have as elaborate a healthcare system as New York City. We don’t have the same amount of resources on Long Island and we see an increase in the number of cases on Long Island and that has this very concerned. Supplies, PPE are in short supply as they are across the country. We need companies to make the materials. It is unbelievable to me that in New York state, in the United States of America, we can’t make these materials and that we are all shopping China to try to get these materials and we’re all competing against each other.

These are not complex materials and we will work with New York manufacturers. We’ll finance the transition necessary to make these materials. I mean we talk about them as if they’re very complicated. This is an N95 mask. This is it. It was 70 cents before this started. It’s now as high as $7 but this is all that an N95 mask is. It’s fabric, it’s material. The FDA has the specifications and then it’s two pieces of elastic cord. It can’t be that we can’t make these. This is a gown we call them gowns. This is a gown. There’s nothing sophisticated about the manufacturing of this garment, not to degrade the garment. There’s nothing sophisticated about the material.

It can’t be that companies in this country and in this state can’t transition to make those supplies quickly. Again, I understand if there’s a financial burden, we will address that and we will work with you so please contact us. Javits is going to be converted to a COVID facility. The original plan was to use Javits. Javits is a state convention center. It was retrofitted by the Army Corps of Engineers to hold 2,500 people. The original plan was that it would not take COVID positive patients. It would take non-COVID patients and it would be an overflow for hospitals.

As it turned out, we don’t have non-COVID people to any great extent in the hospitals. Hospitals have now turned into effectively ICU hospitals for COVID patients, so we wanted to convert Javits from non-COVID to COVID. It’s federally run. Frankly, the federal agencies were not eager to do that. FEMA was not eager to do that. I called the President, I spoke to him about it yesterday morning. Yesterday afternoon the President called me back, said he spoke to the task force. They would grant the request to transition the Javits Center to COVID only. That adds 2,500 beds. So that is a very big deal and I thank the President for doing it. He did it despite the fact that the federal agencies were not eager to do it and he did it quickly. So I thank him for that. It’s a big deal for us.

We still have the challenge of ventilators. We don’t have enough, period. The situation is very simple now. People come in, they’re almost all COVID people. Ironically, the number of non-COVID cases has dropped because so many things are shut down that you don’t have the same number of automobile accidents. So people getting hit by cars, you don’t have the same crime rate, so you don’t have the same number of trauma cases coming into a hospital. They are COVID cases and many of them go right to the ICU. In the ICU you need a ventilator and if you don’t have a ventilator, the process stops and we don’t have enough ventilators. We’re doing everything possible, splitting of ventilators, using BiPAP machines by this new protocol, using the anesthesia ventilators. We’re talking to the federal government to be as helpful as they can from the federal stockpile, but in truth, I don’t believe the federal stockpile has enough to help all the states because you can’t buy the material at this point.

We’re still trying to buy from China. We’re working with Alibaba, which has been very, very helpful to us. I spoke to Jack Ma and Mike Evans who is the president and they have been personally gracious and very, very helpful in trying to get us through source material from China, but we’re going to have to redeploy ventilators from across the system. In other words, there are hospitals that have ventilators. There are hospitals that have PPE equipment. There are private sector companies that have PPE equipment that they are not using that we’re going to need to redeploy to the places in the hospitals where we need them. I had a conversation with a hospital administrator yesterday. I understand they don’t want to give up their ventilators. Ventilators are expensive pieces of equipment. I understand that even if they’re not using them, they are reluctant to see them go out the door.

The theory is if the government gets them, they’ll never get them back. I understand that, but I don’t have an option and I’m not going to get into a situation where we know we’re, we are running out of ventilators and we could have people dying because there are no ventilators, but there are hospitals in other parts of the state that have ventilators that they’re not using. I’m just not going to allow us to go there. I think would be wholly irresponsible. So I’m going to sign an executive order that says the state can take ventilators and PPE from institutions that don’t need them now and redeploy them to other parts of the state and other hospitals that do need them. Those institutions will either get their ventilator back or they will be reimbursed and paid for their ventilator so they can buy a new ventilator.

I can’t do anything more than that, but I’m not going to be in a position where people are dying and we have several hundred ventilators in our own state somewhere else. I apologize for the hardship to those institutions. Ultimately, there is no hardship. If you don’t get the ventilator back, I give you my personal word, I will pay you for the ventilator, but I’m not going to let people die because we didn’t redistribute ventilators. The National Guard are going to be deployed to pick up these ventilators, which are all across the state and deploy them to places where we need them. State budget passed last night, 3:00 AM as you know. The state budget was extraordinary. First, it passed a lot of major policy initiatives that we should all be very proud of, the nation’s first domestic terrorism law. It improved bail reform. It addressed this child vaping scourge that is going across this nation.

We banned fentanyl, a ban against repeat subway sex offenders, campaign finance reform, paid sick leave, middle class tax cut, a very aggressive airport construction program and accessible renewable energy siting. I understand we’re all consumed with the coronavirus situation, but you have to be able to walk and chew gum. We have to move forward at the same time and that’s why passing the budget and these pieces of legislation were important because these issues are still important and child, vaping, etc., surrogacy, these are major issues for people and they passed last night and congratulations. The budget was difficult because the state has no money and how do you do a budget when you can’t really forecast revenues? And we came up with a somewhat novel budget that actually is calibrated to future revenues or losses. So we really start with an assumption and then what we’re saying is when we see how much revenue the state makes, how fast the economy comes back, what the expenses are, we’ll cut, we’ll calibrate accordingly.

We are heavily reliant on the federal aid legislation that gets passed. The federal government has passed a couple of pieces of legislation. They’re planning to pass another piece of legislation. It’s very important that whatever legislation they pass helps state and local governments. When you deprive a state government, all you are actually achieving is that that state government has to turn around and not fund the programs that were dependent on that state government. We fund education, we fund healthcare.

I spoke to Speaker Pelosi today, she’s working on the program for the next piece of legislation. She understands fully the need of state governments. She understands fully the need of local governments. She understands my position on how New York was shortchanged in the past bill and she said she’s going to do everything she can do to help New York. I’ve worked with the speaker many times. I’ve known her for 30 years and I believe her and her credibility and her competence is unparalleled in my opinion. So I’ll be working with the speaker and the rest of the congressional delegation going forward, but we need federal assistance. Depending on how much federal assistance we get will be that calibration of the budget going forward.

Coronavirus response in general. There’s a lot of conversations about how we should respond to this governmentally or from an intergovernmental perspective. People want to say, “Well, this is a state’s rights question versus federal interference.” Who should decide what’s done on a state level? There is no governor who is arguing that their state’s rights are being trampled. Right? So it’s not a state’s rights issue. No one is standing up saying, the federal government is trampling my rights. I’ve said that on other occasions, but no governor, Democrat or Republican, is saying that here. Every state is saying the same thing. I need help. I need assistance. So I don’t consider this a situation where the federal government is interfering with the state’s rights. This is a situation that is a, by definition, a national disaster emergency situation where the states need and welcome the federal assistance.

I was in the federal government as you know. I worked on scores of federal emergencies. The only operational model that I see that could potentially work here at this stage where we are today with the realities we’re facing where no state can get the supplies they need. No state can get the PPE they need. No state can get the ventilators they need. The market has literally collapsed. The only operational model that I see is you have curves. We’ve been talking about our curve. You have curves in different parts of the country, and those curves occur at different times. It depends on when the outbreak started in that region, how quickly it spread. So you have different curves in different parts of the country occurring at different times. I think the only practical solution at this poi-

I think the only practical solution at this point is focus on the emergency that is in front of you, focus on the emergency at the place and time that is in front of you, and then read redeploy to the next situation. So New York is the tip of the spear, so to speak. We have the high numbers, we have the first major encounter. Deploy resources to New York. We’ll hit that curve, we’ll be at the top of the curve. 17 days, 21 days, we’re on the other side of the curve and we’re coming down and then I don’t need the ventilators that we’ve amassed and split and the BiPAP machines. We can redeploy what we have, personnel, equipment, to whatever locality is next. Now, it’s not a perfect sequential timing, but if you look at the projected curves, when it’s going to hit Michigan, when it’s going to hit Illinois, when it’s going to hit Florida, you’ll see that there is a timing sequence to it.

Why not, or what is the alternative, to now saying, let’s help each other? Let’s focus on each situation as it develops and let’s move our resources and personnel as it develops. What is the alternative to the crisis that we see looming nationwide? You do not have enough. The federal government does not have enough material to sit there and say, “Whatever you need, I can get you. Don’t worry California, don’t worry Michigan, don’t worry New York, don’t worry Florida.” They can’t. They can’t. They have essentially said, “I don’t have enough in my stockpile to handle all of this,” and then you get into a blame game. Should it have been in the federal stockpile? Should states have had stockpile? Forget that. The reality is, how do you handle this operationally, unless you go from place to place, with the proviso that you say and then each state has to help every other state as we go along?

There is a simple analogy to this that we live all the time. When we have minor emergencies or disasters, when we have a minor hurricane that’s regional in nature or a minor flood, power goes out, what do we do? All the power and utility companies from all across the country, descend on that region that needs help. Right? After a hurricane, power lines are down, you look at the highways, you see all those trucks coming in from different States; Arizona trucks, Colorado trucks. When Florida has a hurricane, what do we do? We get in the trucks, everybody drives down to Florida; personnel, et cetera. When Puerto Rico got into trouble, what did we do? Con Edison, New York, Rochester Gas, they all went down to Puerto Rico. Why? Because help the place that has the crisis.

This is that on a macro scale. New York is in crisis. Help New York and then pick up, decamp, and then go to the next place, as this rolls across the country. There’s not a perfect timing. There will be two parts of the country that hit an apex at the same time. There will be three parts of the country that hit an apex at the same time. But I do not see any operational practical alternative to dealing with this going forward. And by the way, this is all operational. There is no concept, there’s no abstraction, there’s no philosophy to this. This is, a person walks in the door, do you have a bed? Do you have a staff person? Are they wearing PPE and do you have a ventilator? And are they all present, at that moment when that person walks in that door? That’s all this is. That’s all this is.

Forget testing, vaccines, that’s a separate project. That’s not where people are going to die in the near-term. People are going to die in the near-term because they walk into a hospital and there’s no bed with a ventilator, because there’s either no bed, or no staff, or no PPE or, no ventilator. That is what is going to happen. And I think this is the only way to avoid it.

Look, I believe the American people are there. How many times have we seen a disaster across this country and how many Americans just show up to help? I mean, it’s in the American DNA to say, “We’re here to help one another.” It is E pluribus unum. I didn’t have to put that on the seal. That’s just a reminder, out of many one, we’re community, we’re Americans, we’re a family, we’re brothers and sisters. There’s a commonality. Well, I’m a New Yorker. You’re from California. I know those are lines on a piece of paper. We are the same. We’re the same and we know that here in New York. I asked for people to come help New York, health officials, health professionals, 20,000 people volunteered in a matter of days, to come help New York, in the middle of a pandemic. 20,000 people, think about that. 20,000 health professionals said, “I’ll leave my home and come to your state.”

Systematize that volunteerism, systematize that generosity, that charity and that expertise, and that’s how we beat this damn virus, as it marches across the country. We just deploy in front of the virus as it works its way across the country.

In any event, when our curve is over, that’s what we’re going to do. New Yorkers are going to take what we’ve amassed, we’re going to take our equipment, we’re going to take our personnel, we’re going to take our knowledge and we will go to any community that needs help. We’re learning things that fortunately, no other community had to learn because we’re first and because of the intensity of the situation here. When our urgent need is over, we will help any community in this nation that needs it because that outpouring has been there for us.

I remember post-9/11, without asking anyone for anything. The people who showed up in New York just to help; tradesmen bringing tools, people bringing food, people bringing trays of cookies, whatever. They just showed up. Nobody asked. They just showed up and said, “I’m here to help,” or stood on a corner helping people. That’s America at its best. And at this time when we’re dealing with our worst, let’s deploy America at its best, and we know what that is and that can help us. Questions, comments?

Speaker 5: (38:42)
[crosstalk 00:38:42] Should all workers where face coverings?

Dr. Zucker.

Dr. Zucker: (38:48)
There’s no data to support the effectiveness of face masks. And I understand that usually we’d like to base things on evidence and unfortunately, in difficult times like this we have to go with expert opinion and right now there isn’t data to suggest whether masks, except for those who are ill and those who are healthcare workers, and that’s why we’re reserving those for healthcare workers.

Speaker 5: (39:13)
[inaudible 00:39:13] said he was pointing to a study that showed that there is evidence of that.

Dr. Zucker: (39:16)
Well, the evidence, like I was saying, that there’s no clear evidence to suggest that face masks, whether made out of cloth or even whether general public using face masks, but we continue to look at the data all the time that’s coming in, and we’re examining that right now.

Let me ask the doctor for a qualified opinion. I think it’s fair to say the masks couldn’t hurt unless they gave you a false sense of security. When a doctor talks about a mask, they’re talking about a form-fitting mask that goes around your nose, that doesn’t allow any other air to come in. That’s really what a mask is. So to ask a doctor, does a bandana help? I said to the doctor inside, I said, I’ll just get the bandanas that I wear when I ride my motorcycle.” And he was like, “That’s not going to help.” This is what the doctor thinks of as a mask. Right? But could it hurt? Might it help? I think it’s fair to say, yes, but don’t get a false sense of security that now you don’t have to social distance and you don’t have to take the normal precautions because you’re wearing a bandana. Is that fair to say?

Dr. Zucker: (40:36)
That’s absolutely fair to say.

Speaker4: (40:40)
[crosstalk 00:40:40] Governor-

Mary: (40:40)
How many ventilators do you expect to seize from upstate hospitals and how are you going to decide if the curve hits in upstate, as the same time New York City still needs those ventilators, how do you decide who gets them?

First of all, don’t use the word seize. I didn’t use that word. That’s a harsh kind of word. It’s sharing of resources. We’re going to share resources. We’re not going to have any part of the state that doesn’t have the resources they need because we didn’t share resources. We are tracking every night, every hospital, who comes in, what they have, what they need, and we’re just sharing and shifting resources, which is the only intelligent thing to do among one group of people. Right now the numbers in upstate New York are lighter than the numbers in downstate New York, but that is going to change. It is in New York City. Now you’re seeing Long Island start to light up. We had Westchester light up. Numbers are growing in Erie. You’re going to see that wave move through the state. You’ve been watching it every day on that map, as every state, every county is now colored in.

We’re going to shift resources all across the state, to whatever place has that need at that time, and we’re going to make sure every hospital has the resources they need to do the normal business. What is fascinating is the normal business has dropped off dramatically for a hospital. Why? We canceled all elective surgery, so elective noncritical surgery is not happening, and when we closed down most of society and people are staying home, less people are getting hurt; less bicycle accidents, less crime.

Hospitals who are not dealing with COVID, are seeing very low activity. And it’s not that we’re going to leave any healthcare facility without adequate equipment, but they don’t need excess equipment now. Most of these hospitals put together stockpile. You’ll have 50,000 masks. Well, 50,000 masks, how long does that last you? Five months, it lasts me. Okay, you don’t really need a five-month supply right now. Keep a one-month supply. Give me four months and God forbid you need it because there’s a problem, I’ll redeploy it the other way. Otherwise, I owe you four months’ worth of masks and I will pay you for them.

Jesse: (43:39)
To follow Mary’s question, how many ventilators are we talking about, going from Upstate to Downstate?

We have to see how many… We haven’t done that calculation, Jesse. You have to go hospital by hospital, how many do you have? How many do you need for the immediate future?

Jesse: (43:59)
But ideally, how many would you draw down?

There could be several hundred excess ventilators in hospitals that don’t have a COVID response right now.

Jesse: (44:10)
And are you still anticipating or projecting that you’ve basically got six days worth of supply in New York City, or would this fiddle with that number a little bit?

Several hundred could represent several hundred lives. So am I willing to deploy the National Guard and inconvenience people for several hundred lives? You’re damn right I am. Several hundred ventilators doesn’t fix the problem, obviously, but it’s a significant number of ventilators when you can’t find ventilators anywhere else, and you’ve done everything else that you can do.

Jesse: (44:49)
We’re still at six days, basically?

Yes. [crosstalk 00:44:53] Well, let’s do it this way. Let’s do it this way. The burn rate is about 300 ventilators per day. If you…

-ventilators per day. If you find 300 excess ventilators, you found another day.

Speaker 6: (45:12)
Are you planning to release the ventilators if the states ask for them?

well, look it’s human nature. “Let me borrow your equipment.” “No. I’d rather keep my equipment here.” Government is going to take it. How do I know I get it back? How do I track it? It’s an expensive piece of equipment, by the way. Ventilators now, well now it’s like $50,000. When we started, it was about $20,000. So it’s not like asking to borrow a cup of sugar.

John: (45:39)
Are you confident that this order would stand up in court? Certainly these private hospitals could make a Fourth Amendment argument.

Yes. You think they might sue me?

John: (45:48)
Possible.

It would be a slow day if I didn’t get sued five times, John. But if they want to sue me for borrowing their excess ventilators to save lives, let them sue me.

John: (46:03)
But do you think it’ll stand up or are-

Yes, it’ll stand up.

Speaker 7: (46:08)
Governor, the Javits Center is now becoming a COVID unit, is that-

Excuse me one second. I’ll borrow them. I will return them or I will pay you for a new one. You want to hope I don’t return it, so I pay you for a new one. Lend me your drill. I will bring it back to you or I will buy you a new drill. How do you lose?

Speaker 9: (46:36)
But what if that [inaudible 00:46:36]

I’m not taking your last drill. You have five other drills in your tool box. You’re not going to use five drills between now and then. And if something happens where you go on a drilling frenzy, call me and I will bring you more drills. Go ahead. I’m sorry.

Speaker 7: (46:57)
The Javits Center now being converted into a COVID unit. Is that going to house people who need less intensive care or does that also have ICU beds?

It will have ICU beds?

Speaker 7: (47:07)
How many?

I don’t know the mix between the… Well, ICU bed. For all intents and purposes in this conversation, it’s a ventilated bed. So how many ventilators will be in Javits? It’s federally staffed. They’re going to have to find the ventilators for it. So it’s going to be up to them.

Speaker 7: (47:30)
Do you find the ventilators in the stockpile? How does that-

That would be from their stockpile, yes.

Bernadette: (47:35)
The number of sick cops in the NYPD continues to rise. Is there going to be a percentage of how many cops that would make you potentially, I don’t know, take over the NYPD with either the state police or is there something that you’re considering there?

Look, we have this situation all across the board. We have TWU workers, transit workers who have a very high rate of illness and who by the way are doing heroic work and I want to thank them very much. John Samuelson, the transit workers union. To run those trains, run those buses every day. Talk about social distancing. You’re a bus driver. It’s hard to social distance. Your train conductor pulling into the stations all across the city.

So they’re doing heroic work. Very high rate of illness, that’s a problem. It’s a problem in the NYPD. It’s a problem in the FDNY. It’s a problem all across the board. It’s a problem, serious problem with healthcare workers, nurses and hospital staff. So it’ll be on a case by case basis, Bernadette. We’ll look to the localities. We have the same situation in Nassau and Suffolk by the way. We’ll look to the locality. What do they think is a level where they need backup and then we’ll do everything we can to provide backup.

Bernadette: (49:03)
But is there a point that you would require a state takeover at the NYPD ?

No. You couldn’t do a state takeover of the NYPD. I would be of assistance to helping the NYPD. We have to perform a policing function. That’s state constitution. Provide public safety. The NYPD, if they have a serious staff shortage, then I would work with them to figure out how we remedy that. But the NYPD is something like 30,000 employees. There is no replacing 30,000 employees.

Speaker 10: (49:45)
Governor, [crosstalk 00:49:46] number of COVID patients in the New York City area who have been transferred to upstate hospitals, especially in the capital region.

Does anybody know that?

Speaker 8: (49:54)
We have transferred over the course of the last two days several dozen patients back up to this area and we’re working closely with the hospitals down there.

Speaker 11: (50:03)
Governor, have you spoken with federal authorities about the situation on the Comfort? We reported last night that there were only 20 patients there. That seems to be a vast underutilization of that [crosstalk 00:50:14].

Yeah, I did not speak to the president about the Comfort in any depth. The original agreement on the Comfort the ship was, it was for non-COVID people. I think the Navy, I’m going to speak to the Secretary of Defense. The Navy’s position is they don’t want to put COVID people on the ship because it would be too hard too disinfect the ship afterwards. That’s my rough interpretation of what they’re saying.

Speaker 11: (50:50)
But it also seems the other types of patients that they’re rejecting as well, right?

I’ve not heard that. Well, we only have COVID and non-COVID patients, and the need is really for the COVID patients. I know they’re not taking COVID positive patients, but they said that from day one, in fairness. Now I don’t know the science of ship disinfecting to know whether or not they’re being overly dramatic. So, I’ll take their word for it.

Zach: (51:24)
Can we return to the slide with the total confirmed cases of coronavirus.

But that tests my technological ability, Zach which is a little… Which one did you want?

Zach: (51:37)
This county breakdown of the confirmed cases.

The County?

Zach: (51:42)
Breakdown.

Can you do that? There must be some better way of doing this. There’s got to be a better way.

Zach: (51:52)
Do you have the update on any measures taken by the administration to lessen crowding and state prisons where cases continued to grow?

We have no measures to lessen crowding in state prison. We have put in a number of regulations and rules to reduce the risk, but reducing the prison population, we don’t have any way to do that right now. Is this the slide you were talking about, positive cases?

Zach: (52:22)
Have any of those measures in state prisons been any different than those at nursing homes or other facilities?

Yeah, I can get you a full list of both.

Speaker 12: (52:30)
There’s been an uptake of domestic violence cases from people having to co-shelter together. Is there any way or any assistance the administration can provide for people?

Speaker 13: (52:38)
So the state has a 1-800 number. It’s 1-800-942-6906. That’s our domestic violence hotline. Women should know that they don’t have to stay in those situations. We will help them relocate. We will help them find safe shelter. And if there is an issue where you’re in immediate harm, call 9-1-1 immediately. I spoke to the state police this morning. There is a reported uptick as you said, some reports as high as 15 to 20%. it’s unacceptable on any day, and I wanted people to know that if single case that’s reported the state police is going to investigate fully and bring the full air of the law behind it.

Let’s take one more. How come you always ask the last question? I’m always curious.

Speaker 14: (53:23)
Because I’m French and [crosstalk 00:53:23].

Is that a French thing?

Speaker 14: (53:25)
I’m sorry.

It’s French, you think. You don’t want to get in this scramble with these aggressive Americans? Please.

Speaker 14: (53:33)
Okay. My question is you didn’t talk about your brother today, so I’d like to know how he is. And I also have a question about your father. What is the thing your father taught you that helps you dealing with this crisis?

You also ask the hardest questions. Is that a French thing that you ask the most difficult questions? My brother, the question of my brother is easy. He’s doing okay. This is going to be a great public service that he winds up doing. It will have been a miserable personal experience because this virus is no joke at any age. And he’s relatively young. He’s in good shape and he’s had malaria before. He’s not a crybaby by and large.

But this is tough. It’s tough. I talk to him several times a day. Obviously it’s tough. He’s doing fine, but it’s tough to deal with. But he’s going to wind up doing a great public service because all these questions, all the mystery about coronavirus, what if this, what if this, what happens? He is a living example of living with coronavirus. And he’s up there and he’s talking about it. So God bless him. And it demystifies it. He can talk you through it. So I think that’s going to wind up being a great public service at the end of the day. And as a journalistic contribution, I think it’s going to be great.

What did my father teach me that is most helpful in this situation? He told me so many things on so many levels that it’s hard to say. But he had tremendous stamina. He loved the Winston Churchill. Never give up, never give up, never give up. That’s where we are. He taught me to trust in love and love’s triumph over anger and hate and selfishness, and we need love now. We need love as a people.

Am I seizing ventilators? No, I’m taking excess equipment to save lives. It’s about doing the right thing. It’s about love. And people will respond to that in this state and in this country. And I think those are the two greatest things.

This is hard personally. It’s hard to go through this all day and then it’s hard to stay up all night watching those numbers come in on the number of deaths tick up and know that you’re in charge of the ship at this time. And I don’t shirk that responsibility at all, but I went through a lot of hard times with him, and eventually you go through the darkness and you find the light and we’re going to find the light. Thank you guys.

Gov Andrew Cuomo New York COVID-19 Briefing April 3: NY Passes 100,000 Cases

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