NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo Teleconference Briefing Transcript October 20

Andrew Cuomo: (00:00)
Hello guys. I am joined by Jasmine [inaudible 00:00:04]. I’m joined by Luisa DeRosa, Robert Mika, Beth Garvey, Gareth Rhodes, Dr. Zucker’s on the phone. Let me go through the numbers and then we’ll take it from there. We track two distinct populations. We track statewide numbers, which we always have been doing, and recently we’ve been tracking the red zones. Red zones are micro clusters. Other states don’t track micro clusters, New York is unique in this regard, other States just give you a statewide number. We do so much testing and it’s so targeted that we can focus in on micro clusters, small areas that are generating higher rates of infection, so we can focus on them. Our micro clusters have the higher infection rate in our state, but the rate of infection in our micro cluster, our red zone is lower than most states’ statewide number. So the relativity is important here. What we consider a priority area, a high infection rate, other states do not consider a high infection rate. As a matter of fact, most states would welcome the infection rate in our red zones.

The positivity rate in the red zones is 2.9. That is down from where it has been, and down greatly from where it started. The red zones in Brooklyn, Queens, Rockland, Orange, as you know. The number in statewide without the over-sample and the red zones is 1.2. The positivity rate with the over-sample is 1.3. 12 New Yorkers passed away yesterday, they’re in our thoughts and prayers. 942 were hospitalized, which is about where it was 194 in ICU, it’s about where was 99 intubated, which is about where it was. The infection rate by region, New York, 1.3 Capital District 0.8, Central New York 2.1. But the County of Cortland had a 7% infection rate. And there is at least one micro cluster there that we are dealing with related to a Sunni school. Finger Lakes 1.4, Long Island 0.9, Mid Hudson 1.7, that’s with Orange Rockland, by the way, so that’s good. Mohawk Valley .4, North country. 1.3, Southern Tier 1.8, Western New York, 1.2. Orange County, 1.8, Rockland 2, Queens County 1.4, Brooklyn County 1.8. COVID is now the third leading cause of death in America.

COVID has killed more Americans than stroke, than lower respiratory disease, than Alzheimer’s, than diabetes or kidney disease. President said COVID affects virtually nobody and we shouldn’t be afraid of COVID, and it was a hoax. That was a lie. State enforcement is proceeding with local law enforcement. Cooperation of local law enforcement has been better and we thank them. Not universal, but better, and we thank them. We are going to extend the commercial eviction and foreclosure moratorium through January first. That will now align with our residential eviction and moratorium rule. So they both are extended until January one. As far as travel advisory, we are now in a situation where 43 states, or on our travel advisory. This is really a bizarre outcome.

New York had the highest infection rate. We now have 43 States on our quarantine list. It just shows you how different the situation is now. 43 states on the list, Connecticut and New Jersey have seen spikes in infection. I’m going to be speaking with the governors today about how we can help them with their spikes. There is no practical way to quarantine, New York from New Jersey and Connecticut.

There were just too many interchanges. There were too many interconnections. There are too many people who live in one place and work in the other. It would have a disastrous effect on the economy. And remember, while we’re fighting this public health pandemic, we’re also fighting to open up the economy. So we’re going to be working with Connecticut and New Jersey to see how we can help them with their spikes, and also talk to Connecticut and New Jersey about making it clear that to the extent travel among the states or between the states is not essential, it should be avoided. And I’ll have more to say on that tomorrow. The fall, as we said, you’re going to see the viral rate increase. That is where we are. Scientists said that, we have been prepared for it. We developed a more sophisticated strategy, more sophisticated testing. Our micro strategy has been developed in response to the anticipation of the increase in the fall. Many other states, federal government, disregarded the scientific community, we never have. Now they’re caught by surprise by the viral increase. And that’s why we have 43 States on our quarantine list.

We’ll see this through the fall, micro clusters will pop up. We will attack them. We will abate them and another micro cluster will pop up somewhere else, and we will attack it and we will abate it. And then another micro cluster will pop up. Welcome to the fall. That is going to be what is happening. The current micro clusters in Queens and Brooklyn we’ve been working with, not just in terms of analyzing data, which is what we normally did, but these areas are so small, we work in partnership with the local communities and organizations to find out exactly where the spread is coming from and abating it. And we’ve had good success with that. Tomorrow, we will be listing changes to those micro cluster slash red zones. Which will be a product of both analysis of the data and a coordinated strategy with those communities to bring the number down.

And we hope to have progress to announce tomorrow because you have seen progress in the numbers, which again, validates the approach. Nobody wants restrictions imposed. COVID fatigue, we want open, get back to normal, but the only way to stop an ember from becoming a flame is by affirmative intervention. That is a fact, and we have done it, I believe better than any other state, and I believe that is shown by the numbers. Highest infection rate to literally one of the lowest. And the interventions and the affirmative actions are welcomed by no one, because everybody wants to get back to life as normal, but we’re not in life as normal. And that is the painful reality of the situation. The numbers in New York, I mentioned this yesterday, what does 1% mean? Stories all say New York today is at 1%. And then people say to me, “What does that mean?”

And that’s why I say context is important. And I teased my reporter, friends, no context [inaudible 00:00:10:43]. The numbers don’t mean anything without context. And that’s why you’re going to receive today the list of infection rates in states, so there’ll be a context. But again, he started at the top States like Nevada, 45%, South Dakota 37%, Idaho, 28%. The bottom of the list is Maine at 0.3. Maine does a different testing protocol than we do. I don’t believe they do daily testing. I think they do periodic testing.

And then you have Massachusetts, New York, Vermont, which are all about 1.1. So that’s the relative context for the numbers. And the next chapter after the fall chapter is going to be the vaccination chapter. It is, I believe a challenge that the federal government doesn’t even realize. I believe they’re in denial, again. I believe it’s going to be much, much harder than they think. The federal government believes that their role is to have the scientific community develop a possible vaccine, stand up the rose garden, hold up a vial, say, “Here it is. Here’s rhe vaccine. We did it. We solved COVID.” That will be another lie. That will be, if anything, the beginning of the end. That vaccine then has to work. That vaccine then has to be trusted. That vaccine then has to be administered, 328 times in this country, possibly 650 times in this country. If it’s the vaccine that says two dosages are required. So it’s a long way, a long-

… acquired. So it’s a long way, a long way before this is over. And to give new Americans false hope about the expeditious resolution, it just plays into their denial, which has gone on from day one. And it’s why this virus has ravaged this country worse than most of our counterpart countries. Because denial doesn’t work. Lying doesn’t work. The truth always catches up to you. And the truth has caught up to the Federal Administration. And Americans are dying because of it. Let’s take questions.

(silence)

Operator: (13:58)
At this time, I would like to remind everyone in order to ask a question, press star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. Again, that is star, then the number one on your telephone keypad. We’ll pause for just a moment to compile the Q&A roster. Thank you.

Operator: (14:16)
(silence) Your first question comes from the line of Dan Clark. Your line is opened.

Dan Clark: (14:50)
Hi Governor. How are you?

How you doing, Mr. Clark?

Dan Clark: (14:55)
Very good thanks. Speaking of the vaccine. I’m just wondering if when it does come out, obviously, there’s some conflict the last two years over the measles vaccine and that legislation. Would you want to see the COVID vaccine be mandatory for all kids attending school in person learning in New York?

Dan, the vaccine, it’s going to depend on what our health professionals say about the vaccine. I believe the American people are skeptical about the vaccine. Why? Because I think they’re skeptical about the professionalism of this Federal Government’s health response. You have the President saying, “Mr. Fauci is a disaster.” Mr. Fauci is a nationally renowned expert on this, was working many administrations. He’s also the most credible voice for the American people when it comes to COVID. When the President says he is a disaster, that shakes public confidence. When the public knows that the President has politicized the CDC, and had his political operative manipulating the news out of HHS, which controls CDC.

When the public knows the HHS secretary is just not credible, but is a political operative. Before they put a needle in their arm, they’re going to have serious questions. And I don’t begrudge them that. Even if I passed a law saying, “You must get vaccinated.” This is a place we haven’t been before. People are not going to do something if they think it’s going to endanger their health. All through this COVID thing, one factor they never communicated successfully. “Well, government should announced this sooner or later. You should announced that you’re closing parks or closing schools or closing businesses sooner.” The government pronouncement means nothing unless the people are socially ready to accept it. This is a product of social action, not government action.

“I say, you must stay home. Here’s my pronouncement. I signed an executive order.” If the people don’t believe it and don’t believe it’s justified, what am I going to do? Send out 5,000 troopers to police 19 million people staying home? That’s not what this has been about. It’s been about communicating with the people of the state, the facts with credibility, so they arrive at that conclusion. Why do we have the highest mask compliance in the country? Because I mandated a by executive order? No. Because I communicated the facts to the people in the state. And they brought themselves to that conclusion. That’s why it’s so stupid for these analysis to say, “Well, if the government had done this sooner, it would have had this effect.” Stupid. Government can enforce any of these rules. It’s whether people will accept it. People have to be convinced that the vaccine is safe. And you don’t know what the news is going to be, what the findings are going to be about the first vaccine. If they roll out the first vaccine and people die, then the public is going to say, “I’m not taking the vaccine.”

If they roll out the vaccine and somebody gets sick the next week. They’re not going to take the vaccine. So I’m not going to mandate a law that first, I don’t know is in the people’s best interest. And I couldn’t mandate a law that is contrary to what people believe and expect it to be followed. So we have to see. But I’m saying you’re starting with a skeptical audience. That is true. So the burden of proof is going to be on the government. Prove to me it’s safe. “Well, the Federal Government says it’s safe.” That’s not enough. Prove to me that it’s safe. I think we’re going to help that in New York, because I’m going to say, “Forget what the Federal Government says. That’s nice. We also had these bonafide nonpolitical health experts look at it and they say, it’s safe.” I think that can help build credibility. But we’re going to have to see. And then if I don’t believe it’s safe, I’m not going to recommend it. Next question, operator.

Operator: (20:52)
Your next question comes from the line of [inaudible 00:07:54]. Your line is open.

Speaker 1: (20:58)
I’m going to assume that meant me, right?

Yes. I think that did. I’m not a 100% sure on any of these things. I’m not even sure when she introduces me, but I just started talking anyway.

Speaker 1: (21:10)
The thing is you could hear me. That’s a good sign, right?

Yeah.

Speaker 1: (21:17)
Governor, I want to ask you. The Mayor said today that he seemed confident that if there’s going to be an easing of restrictions, he’s looking towards Queens, that the numbers have really improved there. I’m wondering if you can comment on that. I also wanted to know if you could respond to the President, who’s tweeted quite a bit at you in the last couple of weeks. But in particular, he said yesterday that you were promoting a book, it was a bad time to do that because you’ve done, quote, a poor job with COVID and crime.

Okay. First, the Mayor of New York City has opinions about what we should do with the zones. County Executive of Rockland has opinions. The supervisor of Ramapo has opinions. The County Executive of Nassau County has opinions. Different mayors have opinions. We are consulting with them, but it’s solely a decision by the State of New York. So we’ll consult with everyone. But that’s only their opinion and they have no legal authority to make a determination. So the State will announce a legal determination before. And just to avoid confusion, people have to understand when I got a call from Nassau community that says, “Well, the County Executive told me X, Y, Z.” That’s great, but it’s not legally binding. And it’s just the County Executive’s opinion. And we’ll take the County Executive’s opinion into account, but it doesn’t mean anything legally, period.

The President made comments about the book that I produced. First, I don’t believe the President read the book. Because the President doesn’t read. And he says he doesn’t read. He doesn’t read memos that they send to him. He didn’t read the Peter Navarro memo in November. If the President read the book, I challenge him to point out anything that he believes is factually incorrect. Does he deny that he extorted the State of New York with the Trusted Traveler Program, and that he had Department of Homeland Security extort us for the list of undocumented drivers by canceling the Trusted Traveler Program, which is now under investigation by the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security, which is a case that was dropped by the U.S Attorney because they lied about it?

Does he deny extorting this country and this state over hydroxychloroquine? Let him deny any fact in the book. “The President says that.” Yeah, the President lies. That’s not my words. That’s the word of a former federal judge. A former federal judge who happens to be the President’s sister, who says, “He lies.” Who says, “He has no principles.” Who said, “He doesn’t read.” “Governor, how can you say the President doesn’t read?” I’m not saying it. A former federal judge, who happens to be a sister, said he doesn’t read. Also said, “He’s cruel.” Also said, “You can’t trust him.” So the comments I make about the President are based on the comments of a former federal judge who happens to be his sister. And what your family says about you tends to be relevant. President likes to attack my brother. I think it’s only fair that I can quote his sister. President says I didn’t do a good job. Oh, really? Well, he also said, “I’ve been dealing with Governor Cuomo, and we’re dealing very well together.” He also said, “I spoke with Governor Cuomo. He’s working hard.”

You also said, “I spoke with Governor Cuomo. He’s working hard. We’re all working hard. The relationship has been amazing.” He also said, “I’ve been watching what’s going on in New York. I applaud him. They’re taking strong, bold steps. I applaud them. We’re all working together. We’re working closely together.” He also said, “I spoke to Governor Cuomo. We had a great talk this morning. We’re both really doing a good job and we’re coordinating it. We’re on the same track.” Okay, he said that. He also said that, “I spoke with Governor Cuomo and Governor Murphy. They’re doing a great job. Great job. I want to thank Governor Cuomo, the relationship there for this whole thing. We’re building hospitals. It was very good. We built a little more than we needed and that’s good, as opposed to building a little bit less, that’s not good, but he’s worked very well with us.” He also said, “I want to thank Andrew, Governor Cuomo, for the statement.” He actually went even a little further when he ran my statement at his press conference. This is all what the President has literally said.

“I spoke to governor Cuomo. There’s been great coordination.” This is all President Trump, Zack. So he has said the exact opposite multiple, multiple times. “We’re working very well together. I want to thank Governor Cuomo and his representatives. We have worked really well together on this deal. It’s a big deal.” Those are all his quotes, which is now different, what he says at this time before the election. So you have months of positive quotes from the President and he has not refuted any fact that is in the book. And again, I challenge him to do that.

His comments about New York and people dying in New York. I hold Donald Trump responsible for every death in New York State from COVID, because Trump lied. He lied. And in combination with his lies, he was incompetent. It was his lie that said this was nothing to worry about. This was a hoax. It would be gone by Easter. It was a lie because he had the Navarro memo, and it was a lie because he had told Woodward he knew it was a lie. So it was a lie. Trump was patient zero in the United States for COVID. Trump is the number one super spreader, not just for the Rose Garden. He is the super spreader that brought the virus to America. It was never the “China virus.” It was the European virus. It wasn’t about the China travel ban, January 29th, it was the failure to impose a European travel ban until March 16th. It was the incompetence that said, “There’s no such thing as asymptomatic spread, which meant for months, Zack, for months, we thought only people with symptoms could be tested. That was either a lie or incompetent.

That’s how the virus walked into nursing homes, and walked into hospitals, and walked into schools because they said there was no such thing as asymptomatic spread. And they said this at the same time that you had doctors in Europe saying that the virus was being transmitted from people who were asymptomatic. Let him deny that, that’s written in the book, where I quote the European doctors and the Chinese doctors saying there’s asymptomatic spread back in January and February. And they never said anything to the United States, and at the same time he saying to Woodward, “Well, I don’t want to get people worried about this.” Yeah. You didn’t get people worried about it. People died because of it. Died. So I hold him attributable for all the deaths in New York State because New York State had that big burst because it came from Europe and not China, and they never did a European travel ban because he was lying to the American people.

And then I called him the number one super spreader in the nation, because what you now see in these other states, seven months later, why is the virus going up? Because they believed the President’s denial, which has been consistent. “Don’t worry about it. It’s a hoax. Don’t wear a mask.” Yeah. And now you have states that were not infected and had seven months to prepare if they were just told there was a threat, he said the opposite. There’s no threat. And now, people are dying through the rest of the country. And now, look at the great irony. When they write the history books, New York State, that was the first state victimized by his lying and incompetence now quarantines 43 other states. Why, Zack, did it have to happen to the other states? You had seven months. If he had just told them the truth, they had seven months to put precautions in place.

So yeah, he is not. He says he read the book. Has he denied a single fact in the book? Has Meadows denied that he extorted New York? Has he denied the quotes from the Chinese doctor saying from Wuhan that we know there’s asymptomatic spread. As he denied the European doctors saying there was European spread when they were still lying to the American people. He’s not denied a single fact. What does that say to you? What does that say to you? You’ve been around. Somebody read a book, they point out the very specific things that were false, not a single one. And now he says I did a bad job. Really? Then how come you said 47 times, “He did a great job.” How come you call him at your press conference? How come you use him in your campaign literature? How come you ran a video of him at your press conference? How come you said he did a great job? How come you said you guys are working together great? Come on.

Next question.

Operator: (34:55)
The next question comes from the line of [inaudible 00:34:59] from Six-Eleven. Your line is open.

Speaker 2: (35:05)
Hi governor. How are you?

How are you?

Speaker 2: (35:08)
Doing well. I wanted to ask you a little bit more about the deaths that we’re still seeing from COVID. I know the numbers have been roughly around the same over the last several weeks, but can you give us a clearer idea of the age range of those deaths? Are these people that have preexisting conditions? Is there some commonality amongst the deaths that we continue to see from COVID?

Yeah. I’ll ask Gareth to do that. One of the facts you should remember, when COVID hit New York, it was at the very beginning, and not only were they lying about it, but the legitimate doctors had no data. Since then, the mortality rate has gotten better because the doctors have developed better therapeutics, better treatments.

They now have remdesivir, which, by the way, another thing, I say in the book that we told them about remdesivir months before the administration came out and said remdesivir. Bill Clinton called me up and said, “I hear from experts in the medical community that remdesivir could be a benefit.” I call Dr. Zucker. I say, “Dr. Zucker, call the FDA and say if they ever heard of a drug called remdesivir, and have they looked into it?” Dr. Zucker calls the FDA and says, “Have you ever heard of remdesivir?” They tell Dr. Zucker, “Yes. We’re looking at it.” Nothing happens for months. Months later, HHS says, “We just discovered a drug called remdesivir.” And you know what they were wasting time on in the interval? Hydroxychloroquine. They knew about remdesivir.

They did nothing. They continued this hoax on hydroxychloroquine, which was picked up by Rupert Murdoch. Hydroxychloroquine, that’s the secret. That’s the secret drug, hydroxychloroquine. Manipulated the entire system for hydroxychloroquine. And then all of a sudden hydroxychloroquine turned out to be a bust. I’m still dying to figure out what the scam was about hydroxychloroquine. If there wasn’t somebody who owned some stock in some hydroxychloroquine company, I’m going to be surprised, but they wasted months on remdesivir. But anyway, you have remdesivir Now, you have the Regeneron therapeutics. You have the Eli Lilly therapeutics. So the recovery rate is faster and the mortality rate is down from where we were in New York. But having said that, Gareth, do you have data on the lost lives in New York?

Gareth: (38:41)
I will. I can give you the exact data that you’re looking for. I’ll just make one note to follow up on what the Governor said, we’ve seen a slight uptick in the average age of people going to the hospital, which is often tied to slightly an uptick in deaths. Because of course, people who are older are more vulnerable and the fatality rate is higher.

Gareth: (39:03)
… they’re more vulnerable and fatality rate is higher. We’ve seen a slight uptake in that, which has led to a very small uptick also in the number of daily deaths. But I can get you the exact number and the exact statistics for the fatalities and what the age ranges are.

Melissa, do you have anything to add on the deaths?

Melissa DeRosa: (39:24)
No. One thing I will just point out that I think is interesting and important for everyone to remember at this stage in the game, eight months into it, we’re still seeing roughly the same percentage of people in our overall death total that are dying from nursing homes. When you saw the percentage of people that were dying in nursing homes back in March, April, may when the overall number was much larger, even today when you see the death rate be between two people on certain days up to 13 people on other days, it’s still roughly the same percentage of people who we’re losing in nursing homes. I think that that’s something that’s important for everybody to remember.

Doctor Zucker, are you on the phone?

Dr. Howard Zucker: (40:04)
I’m right here. Right here.

Was my recollection on the remdesivir correct?

That is correct. That is correct. Can I just echo one of the key points that you raised regarding the fact that we are seeing improvements in outcomes?

Yeah.

It is the top of these treatments that the governor mentioned, but also there’s a use of steroids now, there’s the concept that people should be anti-coagulated, so they don’t get the clots, which was one of the problems that were occurring. People were getting strokes when they came into the hospital. The Regeneron drug is a monoclonal antibody. There are other companies that also are working on that. That is helping, we’ll see what the science shows on that. And just the overall understanding of how to treat a patient with COVID has changed as more doctors care for them, more nurses and more health professionals, not only here in the United States, but around the world. The medical community is tied in, I hear, and I’m on calls around the world, listening to these calls and learning from them. I think that’s helped us here in New York, and we’ve been very aggressive on the management, and that’s a reflection of the excellent health care system we have in the state.

Yeah. But, Zack, you get my point? These are all damning accusations in the book. Remdesivir, et cetera. Not one of them, not one of them, does he deny. One more question, operator.

Operator: (41:35)
Next question comes from the line of Jeff Kulikowsky. Your line is open.

Jeff Kulikowsky: (41:42)
Hi, Governor. How are you today?

Good. How we doing, Jeff?

Jeff Kulikowsky: (41:45)
Good. Could you elaborate a little bit more maybe what the other states are and what those conversations may be like with Connecticut and New Jersey in regards to their positivity rate for COVID and being on that travel advisory list now?

Yeah. They are not. Well, who has the numbers for Connecticut and New Jersey? Gareth, do you have those?

Gareth: (42:15)
Yeah, the positivity rate for Connecticut is lower, but that the threshold of new cases on a per capita basis is gone over what our numbers are.

How about Jersey?

Gareth: (42:31)
That’s the same issue with Jersey as well.

Could you explain that a little bit more?

Gareth: (42:37)
Our metric is either a positivity rate on the seven-day rolling average above 10% or 10 new cases per 100,000 on a rolling average as well. While we have required either hitting one of those, we’ve required previously that you would hit one of these two. If you hit both of them, sorry, I’m not explaining this perfectly, but we’ve required that you hit for the travel advisory either, is it 10? [inaudible 00:43:17] I’m sorry, I don’t have it right in front of me.

Speaker 3: (43:19)
Absolutely. So-

All right. Jeff, he’ll call you. Go ahead, [inaudible 00:43:24].

Speaker 3: (43:23)
The Connecticut positivity rate is still a little below 2%, and for New Jersey, still a little below 3%. But they do meet the metric of 10 cases per 100,000 over a seven-day rolling average. For Connecticut, it’s a little over 11 and New Jersey is a little over 10 per 100,000. You can hit either of those to qualify for the travel quarantine, and so both are being added this week.

Yeah. Pennsylvania, we have the same basic issue. But again, what’s happening is, it now applies to 43 States. Why? Because New York is doing so much better than the other states, that’s what’s happening. They are the norm. When you’re talking about 43 States, you’re talking about the norm in the country. The norm in the country is going up. We are not going up the way the norm in the country is going up. Hence, they’re quote unquote, “quarantined” from New York.

Now, quarantine is a new concept, right? States don’t quarantine other states. The only way we can enforce quarantine is really at the airports, somewhat at the train stations, because most other states, you fly in. Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, you don’t fly in. You drive in through hundreds of different routes. Right? There’s numbers of ways to come in from Pennsylvania and Connecticut and New Jersey. How would you even do it anyway if you wanted to do it? Number two, you have people coming in for work. You have people going back and forth for work. You have trucks coming in that are bringing basic staples all day long. It would be highly problematic and it would be really devastating for the economy.

We’re working with them, number one, on how to help them control their spikes. Look, I’m talking to states. I’m the chair of the National Governor’s Association. I’m talking to them about this micro-cluster approach all day long, all governors. It’s a fundamentally different approach. It says, stop looking at the statewide number and stop looking at a regional number. For those states I’d look at a regional number. Most States don’t look at a regional number. They just look at a statewide number. But you have to get more granular. When you see a little uptick in a small area, don’t dismiss it because it doesn’t affect your statewide number. Excuse me. Pounce on it. Pounce on it. When you see one slight lesion on your body, don’t say, “Well, it’s only a half-inch diameter lesion on my leg.” No, pounce on it, because that lesion could spread. That’s the theory of this whole micro-cluster approach.

Politically, some states are reluctant to get back into the quote, unquote “close-down” activities. It runs into the COVID fatigue. You have people that just don’t want to endure close-downs anymore. They’re tired. They’re angry. Politically, you have governors that just don’t want to impose close-down restrictions. Look, you all saw the heat I take for imposing close-down. Right? Threatens of protests. Everyone calls me bad names. Politically, it’s hard to do. I get it. But if you don’t do it, then it spreads and you have a bigger problem. I believe that. But what we’re living through in New York, we’re taking actions that the other states are not taking. That’s not spoken as the governor of New York beating the New York drum, look at the numbers of the other states and look at the growing quarantine list and look at our low infection rate vis-a-vis the other states. They are numbers. They are numbers. And that’s why context is important. Okay. Thank you very much. Have a nice day. Fight the good fight. Stay safe. We’ll talk to you tomorrow. Thanks, guys. Bye.

Operator: (49:13)
This concludes today’s conference call. You may disconnect.

NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo Teleconference Briefing Transcript October 20

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