Apr 9, 2020

Gov. Andrew Cuomo NY COVID-19 Press Conference April 9

Andrew Cuomo April 8 Press Conference New York
RevBlogTranscriptsAndrew Cuomo TranscriptsGov. Andrew Cuomo NY COVID-19 Press Conference April 9

Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York held his daily press briefing on coronavirus for April 9. He said a “breathtaking” new record 799 New Yorkers died in one day from COVID-19 and he’s “not that confident” in federal government’s handling of the crisis. Full transcript here.

 

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Andrew Cuomo: (00:00)
… this situation that we are still in the midst of before people get complacent. The end of March, the White House task force, Coronavirus Task Force was still talking about 1.5 to 2.2 million deaths. Okay? Their best case scenario with quote unquote, “Mitigation efforts,” was 100 to 240,000 deaths in the United States, which is breathtaking. For New York, there were a number of models that we’ll put out that we are following. The most frightening was Columbia University, that said we could have 136,000 people in New York City only, who would be hospitalized, not infected.

Andrew Cuomo: (00:55)
We had the McKinsey model, which suggested 110,000 people could be hospitalized statewide. We had a second scenario from McKinsey, which is 55,000 people hospitalized. And then the Gates Foundation, thank you very much funded the IHME study, which said a high point of 73,000 statewide. Any of these scenarios are devastating for New York, because remember, we only have a 53,000 bed capacity system, statewide. 36,000 beds in New York City. So any of these scenarios are problematic. Luckily, the current trend, if it continues and if we continue the flattening of the curve, we’re at about 18,000 people hospitalized right now. We’ve increased the capacity of the system dramatically. We have moved pieces around the state like never before. Our healthcare system has done a phenomenal job in doing an insurmountable task. Our federal partners, the Army Corps of Engineers, they have just really all done a great, great job. And our theory, and I believe my job as governor, prepare for the worst, hope for the best, but prepare for the worst. Now, we’re at about 90,000 bed capacity in our overall system today, with everything we’ve done. Even the 90,000 beds, as you see, doesn’t compare with the most problematic scenarios. 90,000 beds, we can handle the McKinsey moderate scenario. We don’t make the McKinsey severe scenario at 110,000. I believe that 90,000 we have a plan to get to 110, converting dormitories, et cetera, et cetera. But it would be a massive undertaking and a massive scramble.

Andrew Cuomo: (03:11)
We do make the Gates funded projection model. The Columbia University model, we can never, that would just be a nightmare. That is the one that keeps me up at nights because you couldn’t get anywhere near that projection. But, all of the statisticians also said, “Look, we don’t know how effective you can be at closing things down and social distancing, because we’ve never done it before.” But they all said that’s the chance to, so-called flatten the curve, if you actually got people to comply with all these measures, and we have never seen it done before in this country, and we don’t know if you can do it. So that is the big if in the equation. And that remains the big if in the equation. You can flatten the curve. We are flattening the curve by what we’re doing and we’re flattening the curve so far. We should all be concerned, especially New Yorkers.

Andrew Cuomo: (04:19)
Well, we’re flattening the curve. That’s good news. It is good news. Well, now I can relax. No, you can’t relax. The flattening of the curve last night happened because of what we did yesterday and the day before and the day before that. This is all a direct consequence to our actions. If we stop acting the way we’re acting, you will see those numbers go up. And I show the projection models because we can’t handle the worst case scenarios. We can’t even handle the moderate case scenarios, with all we’ve done. So it is essential that we keep that curve flattened because we don’t have an option of handling the curve if it goes higher. The additional good news is the hospitalization rate does suggest that it’s coming down and we are flattening the curve. We had 200 net increase in hospitalizations, which you can see is the lowest number we’ve had since this nightmare started actually. Change in ICU admissions is the lowest number we’ve had since March 19th or so.

Andrew Cuomo: (05:39)
So all of this data suggests that we are flattening the curve so far. And the numbers are coming down, so far. Number of intubations is down, three day average on intubations is down. So far our efforts are working. They’re working better than anyone projected they would work. That’s because people are complying with them. There are always two questions. Can you enact these policies? And then can you enact the policies in a way that people will follow? We can enact a policy and people thumb their nose to it and continue doing what they’re doing. So there has to be a social acceptance and adherence to the policy. And New Yorkers are doing that. They’re acting responsibly and diligently. And we are saving lives by what people are doing today. Our expression has been New York Tough, because every day is tough on many, many levels.

Andrew Cuomo: (06:43)
I get it. But, every day that we are New York Tough, we are actually saving lives. And don’t underestimate this virus. I think that is a mistake we made from day one. We, as the collective we, we as the global community. This virus is very, very good at what it does. We lost more lives yesterday than we have to date. We understand and all the experts have said, Dr. Fauci said from day one to me, “You will see the deaths increasing after the hospitalizations because the deaths increase the longer a person is in the hospital, the longer person is on the ventilator.”

Andrew Cuomo: (07:31)
I understand the scientific concept, I understand the data, but you’re talking about 799 lives. The highest number ever. It’s gotten to the point, frankly, that we’re going to go into bring in additional funeral directors to deal with the number of people who have passed. If you ever told me that as governor, I would have to take these actions. I couldn’t even contemplate where we are now. And to put all of this in perspective, I lived through 9-11. 9-11 was supposed to be the darkest day in New York for a generation. We’ve done everything we can since 9-11 to make sure 9-11 didn’t happen again. We lose 2,753 lives on 9-11. We’ve lost over 7,000 lives to this crisis.

Andrew Cuomo: (08:38)
That is so shocking and painful and breathtaking. I don’t even have the words for it. 9-11 was so devastating, so tragic and then in many ways we lose so many more New Yorkers to this silent killer. There was no explosion, but it was a silent explosion that just ripples through society with the same randomness, the same evil that we saw on 9-11. What do we do? We move forward and we do the work that we need to do. We’re going to start an effort called New York Loves, which is going to be a coordination of all the charities and not for profits and foundations and people who want to help. There’s been a tremendous outpouring of support from organized, not for profits, et cetera. But also people just wanting to donate, people just wanting to help. The best effort is if we can coordinate all those resources to make sure there’s not duplication and we’re actually addressing the right need.

Andrew Cuomo: (09:51)
So the State Department of State, Rosanna Rosado, Secretary of State, and Fran Barrett who coordinates not for profits, we will coordinate all the people who want to donate and help and we’ll work with the local governments that need help. Also, let’s learn the lessons of what we’re going through now, because we haven’t finished going through it. Let’s learn how and why this virus kills, especially why we have higher fatality rates among African Americans and Latinos, and what we do about it.

Andrew Cuomo: (10:25)
Let’s understand it, but let’s also address it. We’re going to be doing more testing in African American and Latino communities. With more data, we’re going to open new testing sites, primarily in African American, Latino communities. With SUNY Albany, Department of Health and Northwell, collect the test results, but also collect the information that we need to come up with policies to fix this. Where do people live? Where do people work? What’s the socioeconomic status? Where do they socialize? What are their previous health conditions? Why do we have these higher-

Andrew Cuomo: (11:03)
… he has health conditions. Why do we have these higher rates and what do we do about it and let’s do that now. Rapid testing and testing is going to be the bridge to the new economy and getting to work and restarting, right? We’re not going to go from red to green. We’re going to go from red to yellow. Yellow is, let the people who can go back to work start going back to work. Well, how do you know who can go back to work? Test them? You have rapid testing capacity. We have to bring it to scale. We have to bring it to scale quickly and that’s something that this state is working on as well as the federal government.

Andrew Cuomo: (11:44)
Let’s also find the treatment for this disease. Convalescent plasma, which is plasma from people who were infected that can be then used to treat people who get infected. We need that plasma from people who were infected. We’re starting a blood drive and asking those who have recovered from the virus to contact us and to donate blood so we can develop the convalescent plasma treatment. And there’s a website on the screen that they can go to to help.

Andrew Cuomo: (12:19)
We also have to be prepared and stay prepared. We have to have the supplies, we have to have the right laws, we have to have the right procedures. Because remember the 1918 Spanish flu came in three waves. We’re on the first wave. Everybody is assuming, well, once we get through this, we’re done. I wouldn’t be so quick to assume that. This virus has been ahead of us from day one. We’ve underestimated the enemy and that is always dangerous, my friends, and we should not do that again. There’s an article in the LA Times that says the communities that have dealt with this before like Wuhan, Singapore, are now seeing a second wave of infection. There is a theory that this virus can mutate and change and come back.

Andrew Cuomo: (13:18)
We’re in a battle, right, but this is about a war. And we’re only on one battle here. Even once we get through this battle, we have to stay prepared for what could come down the road and we also have to start to repair the immense damage. Before you start talking about restarting the economy, you’re going to have to address the damage that is done to society today, which is intense. The economic damage. People who are now living in poverty. I mean, people have been without a check, without a job for weeks, and most people in this state live paycheck to paycheck. All of a sudden the paycheck stops.

Andrew Cuomo: (13:59)
We’re doing everything we can on the unemployment benefits and increasing the unemployment benefits, but you have families that are in true economic hardship and are impoverished because of this situation. What do we do with the housing market? Our healthcare system, we have pushed to the max. We have pushed people to the max. We have pushed facilities to the max. We have beds in lobbies, in conference rooms, in hallways. I mean, we did what we had to do to be ready. But we have done a lot of damage in the midst that has to be undone. So, that’s something that we’re working on immediately.

Andrew Cuomo: (14:45)
And we need the federal government to be responsible and we need the federal government to pass legislation that helps. We have to stabilize state and local governments across this country. New York State has had the highest number of cases by far and away. Our costs have been the highest in the country. They passed legislation that was enacted. We were told we’d bring $6 billion to healthcare. When we did our state budget a couple of weeks ago, we believed what they said and we thought we were looking at $6 billion in healthcare funding.

Andrew Cuomo: (15:24)
Turns out when we actually read the language, it was about $1.3 billion to the state of New York, which is much different than 5 or $6 billion and the funding disqualified one third of New York’s Medicaid recipients, which nobody said. And to our federal representatives, I spoke to Senator Schumer, I spoke to Senator Gillibrand. This is no time for politics. This is a time to enact the legislation that actually addresses the need. I was in Washington for eight years. I get how the political process works in Washington, not here and not now, my friends.

Andrew Cuomo: (16:13)
We also have a significant mental health issue that comes with what we’ve done; the isolation, the disorientation. It’s a growing problem. We have a growing problem with a number of domestic violence cases. If you need help during this highly stressful period, and I suspect more people need help, then acknowledge that they need help. We have a support hotline. We have thousands of people who have volunteered to help and people should reach out and ask for it.

Andrew Cuomo: (16:50)
We have to stay ahead of this virus. We’re watching Rockland, Nassau, and Suffolk. The numbers have come down in New York City. But you look at the concentric circles around New York City, the natural spread, the natural concentric circles are towards the suburban communities: Westchester, Rockland, Nassau, Suffolk. Westchester, we’ve had problems already. One of the first hotspots in the nation was New Rochelle in Westchester. Now we’re seeing numbers creep up in Rockland. Nassau and Suffolk, the numbers are creeping up so we’re watching those areas. Next, we sent additional equipment last night.

Andrew Cuomo: (17:31)
The overall point is, look, you stay at home and you save a life, period. Stay at home, you save a life. I know New Yorkers, I’m born and bred. The instinct is, well, this is good news. Now I can relax because, by the way, I’ve been dying to relax and get out of the house and end this groundhog day reality. Yeah, you’re not out of the woods and now is not the time to misunderstand what’s happening. We have done great things and we have saved the lives because we have followed these policies. The moment you stop following the policies, you will go right back and see that number shoot through the roof. And we are not prepared to handle the highest numbers in those projection models.

Andrew Cuomo: (18:31)
Whatever we do, you can’t take a 50,000 bed system and get it to 136,000 beds. It’s an impossibility. And I’m a person who never says no and believes New York can do anything if we try. I’m telling you, we have to keep that curve flat. Today we can say that we have lost many of our brothers and sisters, but we haven’t lost anyone because they didn’t get the right and best healthcare that they could. The way I sleep at night is I believe that we didn’t lose anyone that we could have saved. That is the only solace when I look at these numbers and look at this pain that’s been created. That has to be true and that has to continue and that is a function of what each and every one of us does.

Andrew Cuomo: (19:40)
So, New York tough? Yes, we’re tough, but tough means we’re smart, we’re disciplined, we’re unified and we’re loving. And if you don’t want to stay home for yourself, stay home for someone you love, right? That’s what the stay at home campaign is all about. You want to have a reckless disregard for your life, it’s not about your life. It’s about the healthcare worker who will have to treat you in the emergency room. It’s about the vulnerable person who you, in fact, who you could kill by your actions. Sometimes it’s not about you, right? It’s not about me, it’s about we, and that’s where we are. Questions.

Speaker 1: (20:21)
[crosstalk 00:20:21] nursing homes just for COVID patients?

Andrew Cuomo: (20:25)
I’m sorry.

Speaker 1: (20:26)
Can you have nursing homes just for COVID patients?

Andrew Cuomo: (20:28)
No, I don’t think we have. We’re not planning nursing homes for COVID patients.

Jesse: (20:32)
Governor, millions of people are applying for unemployment nationwide and hundreds of thousands here in New York. We’ve gotten consistent reports that they can’t get through to operators at the New York State Department of Labor. This has been going on for weeks. What sort of assurances can you offer residents that they can get these benefits, particularly in times of economic hardship?

Andrew Cuomo: (20:50)
Yeah. Look, the technology at the Department of Labor, the system just crashed because of the volume, right? It’s one of those unanticipated consequences of a situation like this. And again, Jesse, nobody’s been here before. We’ll learn for the next time. But yeah, you have a… government shuts down the private sector economy. You have millions out of work. The next shoe to drop is going to be millions of people call in for unemployment benefits crashing the system that handles the unemployment benefits because you’ve had a hundred fold increase, which is what has happened.

Andrew Cuomo: (21:35)
We have 1000 people who are now working on just personnel for that incoming system. Think about that. 1000 people who are working on processing applications for unemployment benefits. That was like the number we used to get of applicants. Now we have 1000 people processing applications. We’re working with Google to come up with an online mechanism…

Andrew Cuomo: (22:03)
Working with Google to come up with an online mechanism that bypasses any phone certification. The phone certification was important because you want to make sure that people who are applying are also qualified, so we’re doing everything we can. The good news is whenever you sign up, your benefits are going to be retroactive. You will not have received the check, I get that and that’s causing anxiety, but it’s not like you’re not going to get the same benefit because you didn’t get through on Monday and you didn’t get through until Thursday.

Andrew Cuomo: (22:40)
Melissa’s been working on the system. You want to give an update?

Melissa: (22:42)
Sure, so just to give everybody a little bit of context. These numbers will come out later today but last week there were 350,000 unemployment claims in New York. Going back to March 9th, we’re at 810,000 unemployment claims. So far, 600,000 of those claims have been successfully processed, so you’ve got over 200,000 that are still in partial status.

Melissa: (23:03)
What happens is you go online, you fill out the application. If you fill out the application in full, you’re done. If you leave any of the fields blank, what’s been happening is they tell you call the system. So you call the system to follow up. That’s what then caused the crash in volume and then the system goes down.

Melissa: (23:19)
As the governor said, we’ve been working with Google. Today between 5:00 and 7:00 PM, the system is going to go down to reboot. 7:00, the new application goes online. It’s streamlined, there are fewer questions. And once you get to the end of that, if you successfully fill it out, it’s going to say you’re finished with the application process.

Melissa: (23:37)
If there’s any information that’s left blank, it’s going to say, “Don’t call us. We will call you within 72 hours.” And DOL, as the governor said, now has a thousand people on the phone lines. They’re going to be reaching out directly to the people so that people don’t have to go through this infuriating process of calling and getting busy signals and thereby collapsing the system.

Melissa: (23:56)
So hopefully starting today, after 7:00, the system will be much better streamlined. But as the governor said, it’s a volume issue that we’ve never experienced.

Karen: (24:06)
Last night you acted to freeze the pay of state workers. Can you talk about why you decided to do that and also where do you derive that power to essentially break the union contract?

Andrew Cuomo: (24:17)
Yeah. I’ll ask Rob and he could speak about the financial stress that the state is under, but look, so many of these things we’ve never seen before. We’ve never seen the financial devastation done to the state budget the way it has happened here. Again, in my lifetime, we go back to 9-11 which was the catastrophic event. This is more devastating to the New York economy and New York budget, which is just a function of the New York economy than 9-11 by far, but Rob, do you want to speak to the question, Karen’s question?

Rob: (24:55)
Sure. Just look at it in the context that we’re talking about. We’re looking at a revenue shortfall of between 10 to $15 billion and those numbers are trending more towards the middle of that right now. Look at a context of where we have 50% of the workforce is staying at home just of the state workforce.

Rob: (25:14)
As Melissa just mentioned, over 800,000 new unemployment claims in the past three weeks and we frankly don’t have the money to make these payments. So we think at this time it makes sense to take a pause, the 2% raises don’t go in effect for at least 90 days. At 90 days, we’ll review it. Once we have a better picture of what the state’s fiscal picture looks like. We’ve been asking the Federal Government to provide assistance to the state. If you look at a lot of the labor unions recognized, the state only has a certain amount of resources, trying to prioritize those resources right now to fund the healthcare crisis. Between now and then, let’s take a break and let’s see if the Federal Government is going to step up, provide the state with more resources to deal with the revenue shortfall and then we can deal with those commitments.

Rob: (26:07)
To your question on where does the state get to have the authority, within the pay bills for each of these contracts when the legislature passes them, there are provisions in there to allow for withholds of these payments, so that’s what we’re relying on right now and again, we will re-look at it in 90 days once we have a better perspective.

Andrew Cuomo: (26:27)
Excuse me one second, let me follow up on the current … Look, life is options, right? You have a 10 to $15 billion shortfall. What are you going to do about it? I can’t just sit here and say I’m efficiently operating the state when I know we don’t have money to pay the bills that we’re incurring right now. The options are you could do layoffs of state workers, option A. Option B, you could buy some time with freezing the raises to state workers. I choose option B rather than laying off people, which would only add to the unemployment claims, the stress, the hardship. Let’s freeze the raises because that’s better than losing your job and let’s see if the Federal Government actually does what they said they’re been going to do for the past several weeks, which is pass legislation that understands the level of the crisis and gets the state some funding to stabilize our finances. Go ahead Nick [crosstalk 00:05:35].

Nick: (27:36)
Oh no, just for Rob, how many people or workers does this affect?

Rob: (27:40)
It’s about 80,000.

Speaker 2: (27:42)
And how much is it calculated that it’ll save? There’s been reports that it’s like three and a half million.

Rob: (27:47)
About $50 million for the 90 day period.

Speaker 3: (27:50)
Governor [inaudible 00:27:50] on the antibody test and you plan to share that once it gets approval with New Jersey and Connecticut to coordinate a testing protocol as part of your getting back to [crosstalk 00:28:00].

Andrew Cuomo: (28:00)
Yeah, we are doing the antibody testing as we speak. State Department of Health has an approved antibody test. It’s now about bringing it to scale. It’s all of these testing protocols, they all basically exist. None of them are at scale and that’s the next challenge. How do you get rapid testing, 15 minute test to scale? We need millions of them. We have roughly a workforce of about eight million people. You want people to go back to work. How many of those eight million can you test on the rapid testing? How many can you test on the antibody test to see if they were infected? How many can you treat on the convalescent plasma protocol, which we’re asking for blood donations? So all of them it’s a question of coming to scale. These are not government run programs. They are basically private sector run programs. So we’re reaching out and working with private sector companies who could bring these tests to scale in New York.

Andrew Cuomo: (29:07)
Whatever we do, I try to do with New Jersey and Connecticut. Again because this is not a New York centric situation, this is a national situation. The best I can coordinate is by doing it regionally with New Jersey and Connecticut. And we talk about the tri-state metropolitan area. The workforce comes in to New York City, New Jersey and Connecticut. There’s a lot of sharing among those three states. So whatever we try to do, we try to do together and we are doing this.

Speaker 3: (29:39)
[crosstalk 00:07:39].

Andrew Cuomo: (29:39)
Same thing, I spoke to Governor Lamont and Governor Murphy about it yesterday.

Nick: (29:45)
[crosstalk 00:29:45] some contributions from other states-

Andrew Cuomo: (29:47)
Hold on Nick Second. Go ahead. I’m sorry.

Speaker 4: (29:48)
How are the census efforts going with everything going on? Are you confident that New York State will have a complete count to speak?

Andrew Cuomo: (29:55)
I’m not confident that any state would have a complete count in this environment. I mean, just think about it. You’re doing a census in the middle of this environment. You’re knocking on doors trying to make contact with people after everything they hear is don’t make contact with a person who you don’t know. So it’s an extraordinarily difficult time to be doing the census and I don’t know what we’re going to get, but that’s not a New York issue really, that’s a national issue, but I think it’s highly problematic.

Speaker 5: (30:25)
And is there any theory as to why there are an increased number of cases on long Island and in Rockland County. A Lot of New York city residents, when this started fled out east to their second homes. Is that part of the reason why there’s an increase?

Andrew Cuomo: (30:38)
I think if you look at the numbers, forget the second home theory. It’s going to be people from Suffolk coming to work into New York city. People from Rockland coming to work in New York City and have been … It’s a suburban community, parts of Rockland and Suffolk are our bedroom community so to speak, for New York city. So that’s going to far outweigh any second home theory just in terms of numbers. Nick.

Nick: (31:07)
[inaudible 00:31:07] I know the state’s gotten some support from other states when it comes to ventilators and medical equipment, but is there anything new on that consortium that you had first discussed?

Andrew Cuomo: (31:15)
Look, when we talk about preparedness this was … and I don’t want to get into a retrospective when you’re in the middle of the game, because we’re still in the middle of the game. So it’s not the time to start to do a retrospective on how the game was played when you’re in the middle of the game. Let’s just play together. Let’s finish the game and then we’ll talk about what could have been done differently or should have been done differently.

Andrew Cuomo: (31:49)
Excuse me one second. We’re in the middle of a game and the game is going to go on for a period of time and there may be another game right after it if any of these rumors about second wave are true or the Spanish flu second, third wave. The supplies, the equipment is a real issue to address. Now, there’s different ways to do it. The Federal Government, the president said, Federal Government is not a shipping clerk for states. One theory is the Federal Government is the supply purchaser for states that states aren’t left to their own to scale up for a global pandemic. The Federal Government does it. That’s what FEMA does. I come from a strong Federal Government background, part of the Clinton administration. We were very active on disasters and FEMA was a really key player, so to me that’s a viable option. Yes, this is a federal emergency declaration.

Andrew Cuomo: (33:02)
Yes. This is a federal emergency declaration. It is a war. When you go to war, that’s a federal effort, right? It’s not state by state that declares war. It’s not state by state that you go out and you buy tanks. This is a global pandemic. It’s a national situation. Something like 98% of the countries under stay home orders, now. The federal government is the purchaser in chief, strategist in chief. FEMA buys the equipment distributes it to the states that need it. Okay? That’s option A. And I think that’s a viable option, but people can say, “Well, I don’t want to do that.” Option B, okay. Option B could theoretically be designed. We’ve never done this. If you’re saying the states have to be responsible for their own stockpile and their own purchasing of pharmaceuticals and medical equipment for a global pandemic, then the states have to do it in a way where they’re not competing with each other.

Andrew Cuomo: (34:09)
I mean, this was just crazy that I’m bidding on a machine that Illinois is bidding on and California is bidding on, and Florida is bidding on and we’re all bidding up each other. I’m trying to buy masks at the same time that everyone else is trying to buy masks. That is just, and I’m going through all of these efforts. I have to figure out how to do business with China where I have no natural connection as a state and every state has to scramble to find business connections with China. I mean, it was crazy. That can’t happen again. If the federal government doesn’t do it, then the states as a consortium, I would suggest do it and let the states create a national consortium of states to do the purchasing in lieu of the federal government. And then that consortium could work with each individual state for an allocation for that state or a purchasing agreement for that state.

Andrew Cuomo: (35:16)
I’m part of something called the National Governors Association, which is an association of all the governors. I’m what’s called the Vice Chairman. Now I become the chairman, but at something I’m going to focus on and work on. I become chairman in a few months. It’s a rotating cycles. If the federal government’s not going to do it, then the states have to do it and they have to know that they have to do it and they have to be prepared and they have to do it together. But what happened now can’t happen again. And it can’t continue to happen. Right?

Speaker 6: (35:51)
Governor, if you please comment on whether or not the state is providing any guidance to local jails, particularly in rural areas to stop the spread of the current virus?

Andrew Cuomo: (35:59)
Yes. DCJS on our state prison system and on the local jails. DCJS has provided guidance and new procedures and we can get that to you.

Speaker 7: (36:12)
[inaudible 00:36:12] Procedures, either directing them to release more jail prisoners or any further guidance to stop the spread? Any specific-

Andrew Cuomo: (36:15)
I would have to check. I don’t know if the DCJS has done recent guidance, but I can find out.

Speaker 8: (36:24)
Mayor De Blasio said that we might see some of these restrictions relaxed by May at some point, but you keep comparing this to 9/11 you say it’s taken a catastrophic hit to our state budget. Also the death toll. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Andrew Cuomo: (36:37)
I’m going to guess when the data will say we should change our practices. It’s a guess. Well maybe by Easter, maybe by May, maybe by June. Broadway thinks June and by the way, Broadway is a very important part of our economy. I get it. There’s a lot of jobs that’s a big economic engine, but how can you say that? Who can look forward and say, this is where we’re going to be in three to four weeks? You saw the projection models by the expert companies, which frankly were all off thus far, so I’m not going to say to anyone, this is where I think we’ll be in three weeks or four weeks or five weeks. I have no idea. I don’t know if that curve goes up. I don’t know if that curve goes down. It depends on what we do and we’ll know when we get there.

Andrew Cuomo: (37:37)
You know, we look at the data every day and every decision we make is in some ways very simple. As traumatic as they are. They’re all data driven by experts. You look at the numbers and the numbers and the data should drive the policy. It’s not what you politically would like. It’s not what you think. It’s not what you hope. You know, I have my own hopes, but make the decision on the data and I’m not going to tell you what the data, I think the data says in five weeks because I have no idea. And I’ve spoken to the smartest people on the planet for the past month about this. And I’m telling you, the smartest person will start by saying, “I don’t know.” And that’s to me, the sign of wisdom in all of this.

Speaker 8: (38:32)
[crosstalk 00:38:32] Your projections compare to what happened during 9/11?

Andrew Cuomo: (38:36)
Well this economy has been shut down tighter. Remember, 9/11 in retrospect, 9/11 was catastrophic emotionally and physically and culturally. And it gave us a sense of vulnerability that we never had before. But on the pure numbers for the economy. This has been more devastating because this was a complete shutdown for now over one month of everything. And on the numbers. This is much more consequential for the economy than 9/11. Thank you, guys. I’ll talk to you tomorrow. [crosstalk 00:06:29]. I’ll talk to you tomorrow. How confident am I in federal responsibility and action? Not that confident. I’ll talk to you tomorrow.

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