New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo COVID-19 Press Conference Transcript December 18

Governor Cuomo: (00:00)
… to you. From my far right, Mr. Gareth Rhodes, Chancellor Jim Malatras, Director of Operations, Kelly Cummings, Dr. Zucker, Melissa DeRosa, Robert Mujica. Today’s day 293. That’s incredible, isn’t it? 293 days. Numbers for today. Statewide positivity without the micro-clusters, micro-clusters are the intense zones, 4.6. Positivity with the micro-clusters, five. Positivity in the micro-cluster, six. 249,000 tests, highest number ever for us. And we test more than any state in the nation. So we have more facts. 120 deaths. Hospitalizations down, 66. Those negative signs are actually good news. 120 deaths are in our thoughts and prayers. And that is terrible news. Reduction in ICU, reduction in intubations. Those are good signs. What does it mean? We’ll find out if it continues tomorrow, but it’s good news.

COVID patients hospitalized by percentage of population. Western New York down, knock formica, whatever good that does. Southern Tier, 0.03. Central New York, 0.05. Mid-Hudson, 0.03. City, 0.02, New York City. Long Island, 0.04. Capital Region, 0.03. Mohawk Valley, 0.04. Finger Lakes. Finger Lakes, Finger Lakes, Finger Lakes. Finger Lakes in red, which has been consistent over the past several days, growing for a couple of weeks. Positivity, Western New York down from where they were. And now the picture has changed. It’s Finger Lakes and Central New York, believe it or not. So this is not different than we’ve really seen. We’ve seen areas where the infection goes up. We then place a lot of attention, a lot of focus. We get the word out, people react, the number comes down. But Finger Lakes is really much higher. And Finger Lakes has a problem, significant problem. New York City 4.4. So Finger Lakes double the positivity of New York City. Just for a sense of balance. Double the North Country, almost six times the Southern Tier.

So Finger Lakes, it’s not just a situation of the times. It is particular to the Finger Lakes, and that’s how you should understand it and react. Positivity in New York City. Manhattan, 2.75. Staten Island, 5.11. And this is, again, it’s why is Staten Island higher than anywhere else? There is no explanation. If anything, Staten Island should be lower. There’s less missed transit, there’s less density. So it’s not a statement of times, it’s a statement of the particular circumstances in that area. And that’s just a matter of fact from the data. Right? There are still facts. New York is still at the bottom of the national curve, and that’s good news.

Big question. Will we have shutdowns? That’s the question everybody asks me. Nobody can answer that question today. People can have opinions, but it is purely up to us because it is a question of future actions. It will be determined by us by what we do over the coming weeks. I do not believe that we are destined to have a shutdown. There is no destiny here. Destiny is what we make it. The future is what we make it. It is totally in our control and a shutdown is totally avoidable. Totally. I believe New Yorkers can slow the spread and that hospitals can manage the increase. Those are the two variables. Can you slow the spread? And can the hospitals manage the increase?

On the hospitals, we’ve spent a lot of time working with the hospitals, their capacity, their communication, their ability to deal with a surge. And we’ve spoken with many of them. They have now shifted to crisis management. We have added capacity, especially in downstate New York. And we have about 31,000 available hospital beds now in downstate New York, which is after our Department of Health mandate saying add an additional 25% capacity. Northwell, which is the largest hospital system, and in Greater New York will back up, quote unquote, the independent systems plus New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation. We went through this in the spring, right? So look at the game tape and be honest about what you saw in the game tape. And what you see in this game tape from the spring is you see the same breaks in the wall in the same places. So fortify the wall where it broke before.

You have two types of hospitals. You have hospital systems. You okay? You have hospital systems where you have 10, 11, 30 hospitals in a system. And they have to work better amongst themselves, but they have other facilities in their system. Their question is challenges coordination, making sure they’re coordinated amongst each other and they’re not operating as separate independent countries. But they have backup inherent in that they’re a system. You have some systems that do not coordinate as well. That’s H and H, in my opinion. That’s where Elmhurst Hospital happened. That was the most dramatic problem we had in the spring. The other hospitals are coordinating with Health and Hospitals to back them up if there’s a problem. What does that mean, back them up? It means before a person walks into a hospital, we have an ambulance out front. And the ambulance takes the person to the neighboring hospital that has more availability. This is a phenomenal management coordination issue because the world doesn’t work that way for hospitals, but it has to work that way. And Greater New York Hospital Association, which is the representative of all of the hospitals, is going to work to backup H and H and the independent hospitals that don’t have a system to rely on. So Jamaica Hospital, Flushing Hospital, One Brooklyn that has fewer facilities. They will be backed up by the larger systems. So if they have a problem, the larger systems will help them with capacity. H and H has an issue like last time, the other systems will step in. The hospital systems are the predominance of the hospital beds in New York City. And they’re the predominance of the hospital capacity in New York City. So that’s all been in the works. We spoke to Erie County hospitals, Monroe, HANYS, which is the organization that represents the upstate hospitals. They are doing a very good job for the increased capacity and they’re coordinating and they feel good. The Department of Health regulation added 25% additional capacity and said if they had a capacity issue, they would have to cancel elective surgeries.

Now remember, the Department of Health law says, executive order is a law, says if a hospital believes, given the numbers, the rate of increase, they could hit 85% of their maximum capacity in three weeks, they must notify the state. It’s a little confusing. They’re looking at a rate of increase. Hospitalization is going up X percent a day. They’re predicting post-Christmas X may go to X plus one per day. Factor that out for three weeks. If you think in three weeks, hospital, you may be at 85% of maximum capacity, you have to tell us today. Why? Three weeks, so you have a three week buffer, three weeks, they think they’re at 85, you have an additional 15% buffer. So basically, it gives the state one month notice, at least. And at that point, we would shut down the economy. If that regional hospital system says, “We’re going to hit 85% in three weeks,” we’ll have a 15% buffer. That’s when we would shut down the economy.

That’s when we would shut down the economy. Now, no hospital in the state has given that three week notice, no hospital in the state, which means what? Three weeks from today is roughly January 8th. No hospital in the state believes they’re going to hit 85% by January 8th, no hospital in the state. That’s good news because you have no hospital in the state saying they think they’re going to hit 85% of their maximum by January 8th. So that is very good news. Ken Raske, who is the President of the Greater New York Hospitals Association, who was tremendous in the spring getting us through the spring crisis and is really one of the best hospital executives in the country, in my opinion, and I’ve worked with a lot of them, he issued this statement.

Ken is also a somewhat verbose person, uses a lot of words, but he said, he’s spoken to all the hospitals. They understand the consequences. They’re comfortable about handling the capacity. And if they’re not comfortable about the capacity or they’re concerned about the rise in hospitalizations, they would be the first one to call for an economic shutdown. I’m not kidding. I’m kidding about him being verbose, just looks like he’s verbose on this slide.

I believe hospitals are going to be able to manage this. We learned a lot in the spring. They worked together for the first time ever with that collegiality in the spring and that operational facilitation in the spring. And frankly, we’ve had more time to get ready and they’ve done more preparation now. And also, we’ve gone through this before. We did this before and I believe we can do it again. I also believe, so that’s the first factor, hospital capacity. I believe we can manage it.

I also believe New Yorkers can slow the spread. I believe New Yorkers can flatten the curve because I saw them do it. We went through the spring where I had every global expert telling me there is no way that we could flatten the curve that fast, no way, no government rules, no social action could reduce the curve that quickly. New Yorkers defied all the odds and New Yorkers did it. So I believe New Yorkers are totally capable of celebrating the holidays, celebrate Christmas, open the gifts. I actually think I’m going to get good gifts this year. I think I deserve good gifts this year. So open the gifts, enjoy, celebrate but be smart, be smart. It’s a virus. We know how to deal with it. Be smart. Take precautions. You know, they say happy and healthy holidays. They always say that in a card.

I wish you a happy and healthy holiday. Yeah, focus on the healthy this year. Right? Focus on the healthy. I believe New Yorkers are capable of doing that. I believe New Yorkers are seeing the numbers and the increase from Thanksgiving. And I think they’re going to learn from it. What happened after Thanksgiving? I sat right here, I said, “Thanksgiving, you’re going to see the numbers go up. People are getting on planes. We saw it in the airports, more airport traffic, more car traffic. We’re going to get together. We’re going to have a great turkey dinner. If we’re not smart, you’re going to see an increase.” You know what happened? Bloop. We saw an increase. New Yorkers get it. They see the numbers. New Yorkers are smart. I think they’re going to learn from Thanksgiving. And I think you’ll see a smarter response through the holidays.

So I believe we can avoid a shutdown. And I believe we will avoid a shutdown. I’ll go that far. I understand local officials, a warning of a shutdown if the growth increases, I understand why. The public needs to know the status and the consequences. I have said, if we don’t slow the spread, we could be headed for a shutdown. But we can slow the spread and the hospitals can manage it. And this is in our control and shutdowns are very, very harmful. They hurt a lot of people. They hurt businesses. They have mental health consequences. They hurt children. Shutdowns have many negative consequences. And this has been a long year, and the last thing anybody wants is a shutdown. So I’m working as hard as I can and hoping, and I believe that we can stay open and we will stay open.

We need a new mantra. Our mantra has to be slow the spread, stop the shutdown. Slow the spread, stop the shutdown. Slow the spread, stop the shutdown. It’s that simple. Focus on that. Focus on that. Holiday season, sitting at the table, slow the spread, stop the shutdown. That’s the consequence and the connection. At the same time, we have to accelerate the vaccine. This is now a foot race between the vaccine and COVID. The faster we vaccinate people, the quicker COVID comes down. They’re talking about a six to nine month timeline. That is all in our control. It’s how fast we do it, how many people do it. We had the first vaccination in the country. I believe because New York is mobilizing faster, I believe and more organized than any other state, we had the first superhero, nurse Sandra Lindsay. She is my role model. She took that shot and her face did not flinch. I respect that.

And she’s my role model. And at one point, I’m going to get this shot right here. And I want to keep my face as still as Sandra Lindsay kept her face. No movement in the eyes, no flinch. God bless her. I respect that.

Good news, FDA Advisory Committee has recommended Moderna. Now you have Pfizer vaccine and Moderna vaccine. Our clinical advisory task force approved Moderna this morning. So we talked about the skepticism about the federal approval process, which is nationwide. We said we were going to set up a New York panel to affirm the federal approval. Some people have said, “Oh, that’s going to slow it down. You’re suggesting that the federal approval isn’t trusted.” I’m not suggesting. 50% of the American people said they don’t trust the federal approval process. They did that to themselves when they all decided that hydroxichloroquine was going to cure COVID and cure male pattern baldness.

That’s when they lost their credibility. The New York panel was going to fortify that. They then said, critics, “Oh well, you’ll delay New York getting a vaccine. And maybe New York won’t get the vaccine because of the New York panel.” Yeah. The New York panel acted faster than the federal government. So there was no delay whatsoever. And now the people of this state know it’s not just trusting the federal government. The state government also affirmed it. And I will take the vaccine based on that affirmation. Next week, we receive 346,000 Moderna doses. Remember how this works. The state controls the dispersal and guidelines on the vaccine. They’re allocated regionally. The vaccines are going to be distributed medically, not politically. What does that mean? When we went to the COVID test, there was a whole question of who gets the test first. Do the rich and famous get to the front of the line?

I anticipate that with the vaccines also, who gets it first. Was there favoritism, et cetera. Did the politicians have their buddies get to the front of the line? This is not going to be done by the political system. It’s not going to be done by the county executive. It’s not going to be done by the town supervisor. It’s all being done by medical facilities. So there will be no politics in the distribution. We have distributed the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine to 292 sites across the state. We have what we call regional hubs that are the medical facility that is working on the distribution plan for phase two. These are those hub facilities, and this is how many vaccines they will distribute in that region. This combines the 170,000 from Pfizer and the 376,000 from Moderna.

Even better news, surprising news, a little bit of a mistake, but a mistake that turned good. The supply of vaccines is bigger than we thought. The initial shipment of Pfizer vials were supposed to have five doses in them. If you remember, when I showed you the Pfizer package here, I held up the vial and I said there were five doses in this vial. It turns out that there’s 40% more doses in the vial. When they’re measured in the syringe, there was more than five doses. The FDA has authorized using those doses. DOH is-

… Has authorized using those doses. DOH is authorizing them today. So there’s more than five doses. There can be six doses or seven doses and that is actually increasing the number of doses that we have. We’re still on Phase One, which are health care workers, nursing home congregate. Late January, we go to Phase Two, essential workers, priority general. 19,000 New Yorkers vaccinated so far. You want to know how to get a vaccine. You can go to that very attractive website, Vaccinate New York, arm, bicep, harkens back to New York tough, but doesn’t say it. New York state vaccinations are no cost to the public. That is not true in other parts of the country. In this state, you do not pay for a vaccination. Period. So there’s one less obstacle.

New York has been through hell, but the finish line is in sight and we just have to get there. Bump along the road, Washington is going to pass a bill with no late state and local funding, but it could have education funding, and it could have healthcare funding. That would be good. Short term options on the cities, on the state’s fiscal issues. Option A is to do the budget now. Do a tax increase and do the budget. Some legislative sources are talking about a tax increase of about 1.5 billion to $2 billion. Is that the right amount? Is that too low? And who would you tax and who would you give the money to?

We have overall, a $15 billion deficit. You raise 1.5. All right, where do you put that 1.5 in the scope of a $15 billion deficit? That is a budget decision. That’s why you have to do a tax increase as part of the budget. And where do you make up the 13.5 billion? If you only do a $1.5 billion tax increase, even if you did a $2 billion tax increase, the $3 billion tax increase, you still have to make up $12 billion in cuts. I would be open to doing the budget now with the legislature option, but it’s going to be ugly.

Option B, wait until we know what the federal aid is and do a budget in April. The state can advance 1.5, either from reserves or from borrowing, to make up for whatever you get with a tax increase, to allocate that funding on an essential basis and then let’s find out what Washington will give us to find out where we really are. We can’t do $13 billion in cuts. And if we cut 13 billion now in December, and then we get money restored in April, it would be totally disruptive. To do $13 billion in cuts, you have to lay off public employees. You have to lay off teachers. Why would you lay off teachers just before Christmas and then possibly rehire them in April? It doesn’t make sense to me.

Again, I would do either, but I prefer Option B, but I’m not going to do a tax increase without doing a budget because that’s just a political statement and we have to know how much and it has to be enough to be meaningful. Option B would avoid any disruption. The AFL-CIO supports waiting till April, and they were part of a coalition that called for the tax increase. Again, 1.5, $2 billion. That is a drop of water in the ocean. So that’s where we are on that. I spoke to the labor leaders who are most directly involved and they support waiting until April and doing it right.

We are also, we understand 100% the situation that the restaurants are in. We’re extending the sales tax deadlines for the New York city restaurants by waiving interest and penalties on sales tax due on Monday, December 21st; sales tax were due on the 21st. We’re going to waive that. I understand the fiscal pressures they’re under. I hope Washington actually provides relief to restaurants and we’re doing everything that we can.

The light at the end of the tunnel is insight. It’s a long tunnel, but there’s a light there. There’s a light there. And that’s a lot better than where we were. So just stay doing what we are doing and we’re going to be okay and we’re going to be the better for it. You know, generations have gone through tough times. Generations have gone through wars. They’ve gone through depressions. They’ve gone through a terrible disease outbreaks. They’ve gone through cholera. They’ve gone through typhoid. They’ve gone through TB, World War II. I missed by just a little bit age wise, going to Vietnam. I mean, every generation gets its test and it forges that generation and I think we’re going to be the better for it.

Questions.

Speaker 1: (28:20)
Thank you, governor. If you’d like to ask a question, please use the raise hand function at the bottom of your window. We’ll take a moment to compile the Q and A roster. Governor. Your first question comes from Allison Kaden at PIX11 News. Allison, your line is now open. Please unmute your microphone.

Allison Kaden: (28:44)
And good afternoon, governor. My question is related to city dining restrictions. Yesterday [inaudible 00:28:52] that diners would not be able to use bathrooms inside. They would not be able to walk through indoor spaces to get to a backyard garden or [inaudible 00:29:01]. That was quickly changed this morning after an uproar.

Allison Kaden: (29:06)
How did this happen in the first place? Who issued these options and what was the process realizing it wasn’t going to work?

Yeah, I don’t know the specifics, but there was never an intention to tell diners that you can’t use a restroom. That was never the intention of a state regulation. I don’t have any more specifics before that. I know the question came up. I know it was clarified. As soon as we heard about it, it was clarified. But does anyone know anything more on that, Melissa?

Melissa DeRosa: (29:41)
Yeah, so the SLA had previously done an FAQ when we instated the curfew, the 10:00 PM curfew, and so what happened was when they did the indoor dining restriction in New York City, they used some of the same language from that. And in that language it said, no one’s allowed inside after 10 o’clock. We thought it was common sense that when you said no one’s allowed inside, obviously that was for dining purposes and not for the purposes of the bathroom.

Melissa DeRosa: (30:07)
The city issued what they issued yesterday without consulting us or asking for clarification and then obviously we saw the news reports and as soon as we did, the head of the SLA, Evan Spradley, this morning, put out a clarifying statement and we made it extra clear online and the FAQ that of course, that was not talking about customers using the bathrooms.

Next question.

Speaker 1: (30:32)
Governor, you now have Nick Reisman from Spectrum News. Nick, your line is now open. Please unmute your microphone.

Nick Reisman: (30:39)
Hi governor. Can you hear me?

How are you Nick?

I’m well, thank you.

If you had to bet, do think New York will have another on-pause it’s like we had in the spring? And the second question is, I don’t know if you or someone on the panel can clarify the order of vaccinations in New York. When will nursing home residents and staff be vaccinated? Our understanding is they have not received those vaccines just yet.

Okay. The second question, the greater minds around me will answer. First question, if I had a bet. I’m not a gambling man, per se, but I would bet with you, Nick. I would bet, I make you two bets. I will bet you A, I know you’re a Jets fan. I will bet you, and by the way, I’m Queens. I’m a Jets fan. I’m a Giants fan. I’m a Bills fan. I will bet you the Bills make the playoff. That’s the first bet. You tell me what you want to wager, as long as it’s within the confines of ethics and the gaming laws, we don’t want to get into trouble.

I would wager New York does not shut down because I believe in New Yorkers and I would never bet against New Yorkers and the shut down is in the hands of the New Yorkers. New Yorkers have the shutdown in their hands. Celebrate smart, healthy holidays. Hospital management. We don’t shut down.

I bet on New York, I bet on New Yorkers, I’ll wager you, whatever you want, there’s no shutdown because I always bet on New York and I’ll bet you, the Buffalo bills. You set the terms.

The vaccine. Mr. Gareth Rhodes.

Mr. Gareth Rhodes: (32:46)
Sure. There are 618 long-term care facilities that have enrolled in this program, are Walgreens and CVS will administer the vaccine. That starts on Monday. We expect this will move as quickly as possible.

I will bet you up to, what’s the…

I will bet you up to… What’s the legal limit that you can bet without violating some gaming law? I’ll bet you up to $100 on each wager, assuming that doesn’t violate some gaming law and that would be bad. Let me have the answer again on the vaccinations please.

There are 618 long-term care facilities that have enrolled in this program, that were Walgreens and CVS staff go to the long-term care facility and they do a day or several days of administration. Then three weeks later, come back for shot number two. That begins on Monday at these facilities around the state.

So it hasn’t started yet anywhere?

No, it will start Monday.

It starts Monday. And do they say how long for the first phase to be completed, the first dosage phase?

I know CVS has done about half, CVS half, Walgreens. CVS expects all of theirs to be done within the first two weeks. And we’re still working with Walgreens, but I would expect a similar timetable.

Okay, good answer. Operator, next question.

Speaker 1: (34:12)
Governor, you now have Dennis Slattery from the New York Daily News. Dennis, your line is now open. Please unmute your microphone.

Hey Dennis.

Dennis Slattery: (34:20)
Good afternoon, governor. How are you?

Good sir.

Dennis Slattery: (34:27)
So two questions. First is, can you talk about the decision-maker and invention of the rent relief program and why an executive order was not issued during the two weeks announcement and last night’s guidance? And then secondly, these department of investigation reported to the NYPD response the George Floyd protests found the department had that lack a clearly defined strategy for engaging the protests and that officers engaged in the actions that were unprofessional and used unjustified excessive force, can you talk about that report? Have you had a chance to see it?

Yeah. On the rental relief, Dennis, we had a little trouble hearing you, but I’ll ask Melissa or Rob to answer that question. On the DUI, I haven’t seen the DUI investigation on the NYPD response to the protests, but it doesn’t surprise me that the, finding that the number of police who responded was low because we went through this at the time. I said this at the time, right? There was looting that went on. It was horrific. I said publicly that the NYPD needed more people on the street to respond. I said if the NYPD wouldn’t do it, the state would send in the national guard. The NYPD did increase the number of police. I think it was the third night. I think there were two bad nights. And then they increased the number police. But that doesn’t surprise me because I don’t believe they had enough police out. I forget the numbers, but we went through the numbers and they wound up almost doubling the number of police that they had out. And that actually proved effective. But I didn’t see the report beyond that. Do you want to respond to the, Rob?

Rob: (36:22)
Yeah. So the executive order on rent to extend the program is going to extend the eligibility for the program through February 1. We’re also going to go backwards and look at all the applications that have been received, which were about 90,000 applications. And since we are increasing the eligibility for those that weren’t burdened pre COVID, we expect to go into those applications that were already received. Some of those will be eligible and then additional people will be eligible for the new program and they’ll have all the way through February 1st. So that window will be open right for over six weeks, which is longer than the original period. So there is no one who will not be eligible for the program because of when the executive order was issued. It goes forward and then it also goes backwards as well.

Operator, next question. Operator, please do not take a question [crosstalk 00:37:22] from John Campbell.

Speaker 1: (37:23)
[inaudible 00:37:23] from Johnson newspapers. Kate, your line is now open. Please unmute your microphone.

Kate: (37:30)
Hello, governor. Can you hear me?

Yes.

Kate: (37:34)
Hi. Hope you guys [inaudible 00:37:36] good question. So I actually wanted to know two different things. Those extra doses [inaudible 00:37:41] how many more that [inaudible 00:37:44] those through the state. So how many more doses of Pfizer puts us up to and having? Also, I guess I wanted to know [inaudible 00:37:55]

Okay, I missed this. I think I missed the second part of the question. The first part of the question was how many more doses? Because there were more doses in each vial by Pfizer, instead of five there’s about six or seven. Rather than having 176,000 dosages, how many do we have? Good question. Do we know, Howard?

Howard: (38:26)
20 to 40% more. And so it just depends on how much each person would get out of each vial, right? So some may get a six dose and someone may get a seven. So I can’t give an exact number on that. But let’s say 20 to 40% more.

20 to 40% more. So…

Rob: (38:42)
If we had about 500,000 doses, which is where we were and potentially up to another 200,000 doses, but we’re not saying that they have to get six and seven more. It’s permissive. So if they get up to six or seven more then that could be up to 200,000 more from the original 500,000. Now those numbers obviously are changing. So going forward, we’ll revise the estimates to allow them to, we’re going to have the minimum of 500 of the minimum doses, which is five per vial, but they can also get between six and seven on top of that. And the numbers will be rolling and changing as you go. But they’ll be reporting back to us every day of how many doses they did administer. And then we adjust those calculations on a daily basis.

Operator, we’ll take one more question, but not from John Campbell. John Campbell mocked my Ford Bronco yesterday. And look, I understand as governor, I have a thick skin and people say a lot of things, but I think mocking the Ford Bronco is beyond the pale. It was unjustified factually without base. That Ford Bronco did better in the snow than the Suburbans that were used by the state police. It’s the last of the large Broncos. It is a collector’s item and I believe it will be one day. So I think there is a line that not even a governor has to go beyond. So mocking of the Ford Bronco is the line. One more question operator.

Speaker 1: (40:21)
Governor, your last question comes from Bill Mahoney at Politico. Bill, your line is now open. Please unmute your microphone.

Bill: (40:29)
Thank you, governor. Just following up on the comments made earlier about the Bills and the playoffs. Will fans be able to go? Are you going to eventually take that trip that you mentioned back in September to figure out a way to get people into the stadium?

You know, it’s a good question. We are still looking at it. After we had that conversation, Bill, the infection rate went wild in western New York, as you know. The infection rate is now coming down. I’m going to be curious to see where we are when the Bills are in the playoff. If they get a by like they’d be in the middle of January or something I think, but where we are that first week in January, January 9th, et cetera. And there are a number of stadiums that have allowed people, but it depends on the situation in Buffalo, right? It depends on where you are in that infection rate and where you are on that hospital capacity. I would love nothing more on a personal level than to see Buffalonians enjoy this moment. They’re playing great. It is exciting. And God bless, Buffalo deserves it.

The Buffalo Bills fans are like none others. They have really hung in there and it’s fun hanging out in the bar with you watching the Bills. But if we’re in the playoffs, if the infection rate is under control and the capacity rate is under control and we come up with a smart science-based way to do it, I would be all in favor. It’s going to be a health decision. So it’s going to be Dr. Zuckers health decision. I don’t know that he’s a football fan in general, but I’m going to communicate that if there’s any way to figure it out, we should try to figure it out. Thank you very much, guys.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo COVID-19 Press Conference Transcript December 18

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