Jun 17, 2020

NY Governor Andrew Cuomo June 17 Press Conference Transcript

Andrew Cuomo Press Conference
RevBlogTranscriptsAndrew Cuomo TranscriptsNY Governor Andrew Cuomo June 17 Press Conference Transcript

Governor of New York Andrew Cuomo held a press briefing on June 17. Cuomo gave updates on New York reopening amid COVID-19. Read the full news briefing speech transcript with all updates here.

 

Follow Rev Transcripts

Transcribe Your Own Content

Try Rev for free and save time transcribing, captioning, and subtitling.

Andrew Cuomo: (00:02)
Good morning. Change seats, trying to confuse me. I know who you are, I know who you are not. This is one of the best days for New York since we have started this long journey into a dark night. Day 109, since we started this a life-changing journey, day 24 since the civil unrest started after Mr. Floyd’s murder. We have the New York State reform and reinvention collaborative. I believe this is going to be transformational for the state of New York. I believe it is the single best chance for real change, real reform. Seize the moment carpe momentum people have said, we have to change our police departments and our public safety strategy. Now is the time to do it and they happen to be right. We have April 1 is the deadline. 288 days and counting for local governments to enact real reform and we mean real reform.

Andrew Cuomo: (01:19)
We mean start with a blank sheet of paper and come up with your vision for your public safety department in your community. What do you want it to be? And what do you want it not to be? What is the use of force policy for your department? What is the staffing level? What does demilitarize the police mean in your community? People talk about defunding the police. What is the budget that you want for the police? Which you can only arrive at after you determine what staffing you want for the police? What is your transparent disciplinary process? How do you want your police department to work in your community, in your city, in your county? The collaborative means elected officials, police officials, community activists, put everybody at the table and answer the questions. What we have determined from this period of unrest and demonstration from the beginning of which I said, I stand with the protestors.

Andrew Cuomo: (02:34)
We need to change. We need reform. Good. Second question. What change, what reform do you want and how do we do it? That’s the intelligent progression of this moment towards action. And this moment without action is a wasted moment. Make change, when you can make change. Make change, when the planets line up to change. After the Sandy Hook massacre, pass sensible gun control. The nation saw children massacred in the classroom. They were outraged. They should have been, turn the outrage into action. How do you turn outrage into action in society by actually coming up with a new policy and making it a reality. But that starts with leadership and it starts with the leadership on the local level. Somebody stand up and lead. Mayor stand up and lead, city council president stand up and lead, city council person in charge of public safety, stand up and lead. 288 days who has the paper, who has the pen, who’s calling the meeting.

Andrew Cuomo: (03:52)
Ask that question to every one of the 500 communities in this state that have a police department. Who’s doing it in your city? Who’s doing it in your County? Only 288 days and a lot of work to do in 288 days. Everyone says what they were against. Great. What are you for and how do we do it? That’s the question. Show some leadership. Friday is Juneteenth commemorates, emancipation of slavery in the United States. It is a day that we should all reflect upon. It’s a day that’s especially relevant in this moment in history, I’m going to sign an executive order today. Hence, all my pens, recognizing Juneteenth as a holiday for state employees. I’m going to propose this legislation next year to make it an official state holiday. On the reopening we’re continuing to follow the data and the metrics are number of hospitalizations, lowest level since we started amen, 1400.

Andrew Cuomo: (05:07)
Number of deaths, 17 deaths in the state of New York, 17 lowest number since we started. The only way I could feel better is if that number ever becomes zero, but 17 we remember in our thoughts and prayers, the 17 lives lost. But this is great, great news compared to where we’ve been. Lowest level on the three-day rolling average. That is the mountain. There it is. We always were wondering about the configuration of that mountain. What did it look like? How high was it going up? When would it crest? What was the plateau? How do we flatten the curve? How long would it take us to get down? And then to add to the good news, we almost have too much good news. We did about 60,000 tests yesterday.

Andrew Cuomo: (06:14)
Put that in context, 60,000 tests on one day, no state in the United States is doing that 60,000 tests across the state. Number who tested positive less than 1%. That is the lowest percentage of positive that we have had since we have started, period. That is one of the lowest levels in the United States of America. We once again have demonstrated that we’ve gone from the worst infection rate in the country to the best infection rate in the country. Just think about that for a minute. Those are not words. Those are powerful facts. We had the worst infection rate. The rate of transmission was the highest. We now have the lowest rate of transmission. Just think about what this state accomplished, what the people of this state accomplished. If I told you 108 days ago, we will go into accomplish that. What would we have said? What would I have said?

Andrew Cuomo: (07:31)
I would have said, I didn’t believe it. I would’ve said I didn’t believe it was possible, but facts are facts. You look at these facts and I am telling you today, the federal government is making a mistake and it is making an historic mistake and that is not a political comment. That is a fact based objective comment that this federal government is making a mistake on the way it is handling this COVID crisis and how it is now advising states and the people of this nation. On the facts it is a mistake. We had the political debate. How do we reopen? We should just reopen immediately. This is all overblown. It’s fine. That was theory A, right?

Andrew Cuomo: (08:36)
There was a partisan divide to it. More conservatives argued that government should just get out of the way, let the free market do it, right? That was the Wall Street Journal, New York Post conservative theory just opened the doors. And then there was another theory let’s reopen based on data. Let’s not just reopen blindly as a expression of political ideology. We’re dealing with a virus. The virus doesn’t have a political ideology. No doctor ever said to me, “Oh, we did a COVID test, found out it was conservative, found out it was liberal.” It’s a virus. It moves as a matter of science. But there were two theories, we tested the two theories. We went into the laboratory, we tested the two theories. And now you have numbers and numbers don’t lie. You have 20 states where you have the COVID virus increasing as a matter of numbers, fact look at the headlines facts. The COVID virus is increasing in 20 states across the country.

Andrew Cuomo: (09:58)
This states without the smart reopening plans are going up. That is a fact. It’s not a democratic fact. It’s not a Republican fact. They’re no Democratic facts and Republican facts. They’re just facts. There’s Democratic opinion, Republican opinion, but there are no Democratic facts or Republican facts. That is a fact. Well, what’s the new York’s interest in the rest of the nation. First of all, we’re Americans and we care about other Americans. Secondly, on a parochial level, if those states are going up, they could spread the virus to New York. They have a higher rate of infection than New York. What happens when those people get on planes and fly to New York? That’s how we got here in the first place, right? People landing on our airports.

Andrew Cuomo: (10:54)
So we do have a selfish interest, same interests that so many states expressed when we were at the beginning of this and they were worried about New Yorkers going to their states, right? We live through that. Well, now it’s the inverse. Now people are getting on planes, they’re traveling. They could actually be bringing the virus to New York. Well, you hear from the federal government, the numbers are going up because we’re doing more testing. That is just not true. As a matter of fact, as a matter of mathematics, as a matter of the data, that is just not a true statement. Forget the testing, hospitalizations are going up. The number of people going into hospitals is going up. How do you explain that? Are they pretending to be sick? Are they not really sick?

Andrew Cuomo: (12:03)
… could be sick. Are they not really sick? You see the number of hospitalizations going up in those places where the percentage is going up in testing. First, their argument on testing doesn’t make any sense because not only is testing going up, but the percentage of positive is going up. Even put that aside because it’s complicated for people. People walking into the hospitals are going up, which by definition means more people are getting sick. Otherwise, more people don’t go into hospitals. That’s Arizona, that’s Texas. By the way, it tracks with the increase in the testing, but it is undeniable but that more people are getting sick when more people are going into hospitals. New York, the number of people going into hospitals is going down. The percent testing positive is going down. These are facts, this is undeniable. When I say the federal government is making a mistake, these policies have real consequences. This is a moment in history where it’s not going to be about the partisan divide when they write the books, they’ll talk about the absurd politics. There’s going to be real life and death consequences to this.

Andrew Cuomo: (13:45)
They are now projecting by the model that the White House uses, they have increased their projections to show almost 90 thousand more people are going to die by August, 90 thousand. What these projection models do is they change their projection when the facts change. In other words when they see numbers going up in states, they increase their projection. They watched today’s numbers, they see more hospitalizations, they then increase their projected deaths because they see more people going to the hospitals, so they increase their projected deaths. In April, they projected 60 thousand deaths by August. May, they projected 134 thousand deaths. Now, they’re projecting 149 thousand deaths. Why? Because, they’re seeing the virus increase and they’re seeing the hospitalizations go up. This federal policy has increased the number of people who they project to die by almost 90 thousand. It’s not a democratic projection, it’s not a republican projection. It’s the projection of the model funded by Gates, which is relied upon by the White House. 90 thousand people. Think about that, 90 thousand people.

Andrew Cuomo: (15:49)
Well, that’s the cost we have to pay to get the economy back up and running. Really? That hasn’t helped the economy. When the virus goes up, the financial markets go down. When the virus goes up, consumer confidence goes down. When the virus spread goes up, people get more nervous and less confident about government and about the plan and about their future. Feel good, invest in America. Oh, more people are dying. We’re reopening, but it’s actually increasing the spread of the virus, but feel good, come out and shop. People aren’t stupid, they’re not. People are smart and New York, we stay smart. Being smart, Westchester/Rockland are to enter phase three. Long Island it on track for Wednesday. New York City is on track for Monday. New York City will have been in phase one for 14 days. You look at all the numbers, all the numbers are good. Look at the number of tests, the positive tests. You look at it from the point of reopening, the numbers are good. Hospitalizations since reopening, the numbers are good. New York is on track to enter phase two on Monday.

Andrew Cuomo: (17:50)
The same metrics we use in New York City are the same metrics we’ve used in every region across the state. They have all shown to be accurate and effective. We don’t change the rules for New York City, we don’t change the rules for Long Island. It’s one set of rules for everyone. They have worked everywhere in the state. They work when we are responsible in what we’re doing. New York City, do what every other region has done thus far. Employers have to be responsible, store owners have to be responsible, employees have to be responsible, local governments have to be responsible and do their job. They have to have their testing in place, their testing has to be ramping up. Part of the phasing is allowing the local governments to increase their capacity to handle the additional burden. They like to leave that out. The role for local governments, the responsibility for local governments has been going up. Every time you hit a new phase, they have to have more sophisticated tracing, more sophisticated testing, more sophisticated compliance because the number of people are coming up.

Andrew Cuomo: (19:19)
The phases are not just automatic. The phases are allowing the local governments to get their act together and they have to because this only works if the business owners are educated, if they’re ready, if they have the plans in place, if the employees are ready, and if the local governments are ready. Today, I’m going to be signing legislation to protect the rights of healthcare workers who speak out. “Whistleblowers” should be protected, but New York has climbed the mountain. It was the highest mountain in the state of New York. I’m going to declare the COVID mountain the highest mountain in the state of New York. It’s not really a mountain because it doesn’t exist, but it’s a mountain to me and it’s a mountain to many people. It’s a mountain that we had to climb, which was unlike any other climb because it went straight up and you couldn’t see the top because the top was in the clouds. The only strategy was every day to take the next step, take the next step, take the next step, take the next step. It’s hard, it was exhausting, it hurt, but you’ll find the top even if you can’t see the top through the clouds, just keep climbing, you’ll find the top. Almost blind faith.

Andrew Cuomo: (20:56)
We determined the top by flattening the curve. You flatten the curve, you create the plateau, you create the crest. We created the crest, but then we had to come down the other side. That was a long journey. It was about 42 days up the mountain, about 66 days down the mountain when you look back. Who’s counting? I was counting every day. We climbed a mountain and we’re on the other side. There are other mountains to climb and remember that we didn’t create this mountain, we didn’t create this crisis, this crisis was created because the virus did not come from China, it did not come from China, mistake, the virus came from Europe, the virus came from Italy, the virus came from France, the virus came from Spain. How did that happen? I never heard that. I know because nobody ever said that, nobody ever told us. The virus left China and went to Europe. That’s what happened this past January. Then, the virus came here from Europe, January, February, March. Federal government didn’t do a European travel ban until when? March 16th. January, February, March. How many flights flew into JFK and how many people came? Three million. Three million.

Andrew Cuomo: (23:08)
JFK, Newark International. Did we screen those people? Federal government didn’t screen those people because the virus was supposed to be in China according to them. That’s how the crisis was created in New York. That’s why New York had the high infection rate. It had nothing to do with New Yorkers, had nothing to do with a blue state, had nothing to do with anything about New York, it’s because we were mislead, we were misinformed, and the virus was coming from Europe. That’s what created the crisis. We had nothing to do with the creation and then we had the worst crisis in the nation. Then, we were left on our own by and large, but we managed. It is a-

Andrew Cuomo: (24:02)
It is a lesson that will go down in the history books and a lot of lessons for us to learn on many levels. But we did it, and in many ways we should be invigorated because of it. That which doesn’t kill you can make you stronger. We are stronger for it. I believe that. We’re stronger as a community. Now, we have other situations that we have to confront, other mountains to climb, but we have confidence after the last thing we’ve been through. We will climb those other mountains, and we will do it together because we are New York tough and smart and united and disciplined and loving. We are empowered to do that. I look forward to doing that. Now that we are on the other side of this mountain, we’ll climb new mountains together. There are many new mountains to climb.

Andrew Cuomo: (25:06)
For me, seeing those numbers back down … I mean, we went up, we came down, and we’re back where we should be. Means we have to move on, stay vigilant. Could come back. You don’t stay smart, it will come back. Could be a second wave. But we did what we had to do, my friends, and we did it together, and we did it every day. Now, we’re going to move on to other things.

Andrew Cuomo: (25:38)
These daily briefings, while fun, take a lot of time. I’m going to finish the daily briefings on Friday, and then we’ll do briefings as necessary. I’m sure they will often be necessary. But we’re going to turn the page on the immediacy of this crisis.

Andrew Cuomo: (26:03)
I hope people learn from what we accomplished here in New York. I hope people around the country look at New York and say, “How did they do that? How did they go from the worst situation in terms of transmission to the best? How did they do that?” I hope they look around and say, “How can all these states be going up, and New York is going down? How can that be? I thought New York had such a terrible problem. All that density, all that crowding. How is New York going down, and our states are going up? What’s the difference between what we’re doing and what New York is doing? Isn’t that peculiar? How can New York be going down, and we’re going up?” That would be the logical question to ask, and there is a logical answer. That answer can save lives. We have saved tens of thousands of lives in New York, and that is more important than any of this other stuff.

Andrew Cuomo: (27:35)
I signed the executive order. Questions?

Speaker 1: (27:40)
Governor, in terms of saving lives, there have been roughly now about 6,200 confirmed and presumed deaths in nursing homes. Talking to medical experts, specifically those that study nursing homes, they’ve said that perhaps that March 25th directive that we’ve all talked about at length potentially contributed to more deaths than might’ve been seen in New York had that directive not been implemented. This is also a question for you, Commissioner. Who advised both you, Governor, and you, Commissioner, regarding that March 25th directive? Do you regret putting that into play? I know now it’s been partially walked back. Do you regret it?

Andrew Cuomo: (28:19)
Let’s do this one more time. I understand the politics on the issue. I understand what the Republicans say on the issue. It’s not a coincidence that this is primarily an argument put forth by Republicans, right? That is a factual statement. Factually, it is. You look at the Congressional members that put it forward. They are Republican Congressional members. You look at the columnists who put it forward, they are primarily Republican, conservative columnists. That is a fact.

Speaker 1: (28:58)
What about [crosstalk 00:28:59].

Andrew Cuomo: (29:00)
Here is the fact to them. We followed federal CDC guidance. If they want to start with an analysis of, in retrospect, in retrospect, in retrospect, start with the first fact. Why did the federal government give that guidance to states? That’s the only relevant question if you want to go down that road.

Speaker 1: (29:39)
Well, Governor. Hold on. A have a followup, Governor.

Andrew Cuomo: (29:40)
Go ahead.

Speaker 1: (29:41)
But then why didn’t you listen to either the Health Department or other state medical professionals who could have advised? You just spent the past half hour talking about how the federal government was mistaken. Why didn’t you guys after [crosstalk 00:29:56] this?

Andrew Cuomo: (29:57)
We did. If you ask-

Speaker 1: (29:59)
Who? [crosstalk 00:29:59].

Andrew Cuomo: (29:59)
… public health officials … So first, you have the federal government that gave that guidance. Then if you ask public health officials all across the board, when a person, a senior citizen, no longer needs a hospital, is it intelligent and in that patient’s interest to leave them in a hospital bed for two weeks at a period of time where they’re probably no longer contagious, they’re just not yet testing negative? They will say to you, it is highly risky to leave that person in a hospital bed for two weeks while COVID is raging and they are susceptible, because the likelihood of negative consequences to them is much, much higher if they stay in a hospital bed. They will say a nursing home is a better environment if the nursing home can provide adequate, safe care, where they care for that COVID person in a way that protects the other people in the facility, even though that senior citizen may not be contagious at that point. The condition of the nursing home accepting that person was that the nursing home said, “We can take that person and treat that person and give that person the treatment they need, and we can do it in a way that protects the other people in our facility.” They will all say that was the best path for that senior citizen. They would all say, “Don’t leave a person in a hospital for two weeks. There are infections.”

Andrew Cuomo: (32:10)
You can get sick being in the hospital, believe it or not. Sepsis, etc. So get that person out of the hospital as soon as you can. The person is probably in a stage of the disease where the person is not contagious, they just haven’t tested below the antibody level to be negative, if the nursing home says we can take that person and protect the others. That was the system in every case, in every case. New York State is 35th in the nation, 35th in the nation in terms of percentage of nursing home deaths. 35th in the nation.

Andrew Cuomo: (33:08)
So Mr. [McManuses 00:33:10] of the world, Mr. Goodwins of the world find a different argument. Or start with the fact, if there is any facts left. It was guidance from Mr. Trump.

Andrew Cuomo: (33:24)
Go ahead, sir.

Speaker 1: (33:28)
But Governor, did you talk to anyone from the Medical Society of New York? Did you talk to the nursing homes?

Andrew Cuomo: (33:28)
Is that your medical opinion, Doctor? Or do you want to add anything?

Doctor: (33:33)
I think the Governor has crystallized this. I would add one point, is perhaps you should look at the Harvard expert who mentioned-

Speaker 1: (33:41)
I talked to him.

Doctor: (33:43)
… that this is from asymptomatic people who came into the nursing home, workers. But I think the Governor has crystallized that answer.

Speaker 1: (33:50)
I talked to him, actually. So he also has a problem, as do several other experts, with how the state Health Department has changed data. So on that, how come you guys stopped recording in the daily coronavirus death counts regarding nursing homes the people that were from nursing homes who died in hospitals? That disappeared from the tally. Why did you guys change that?

Doctor: (34:08)
That data is in the hospitalization data. It’s there.

Speaker 1: (34:11)
It’s not in the nursing home breakdown. [crosstalk 00:34:14]

Doctor: (34:15)
You can go online. You can see all the data that we have there.

Speaker 1: (34:17)
You guys also stopped including the top line number.

Speaker 3: (34:19)
[crosstalk 00:34:19].

Speaker 1: (34:19)
It’s not [crosstalk 00:34:21]

Andrew Cuomo: (34:21)
Yeah, I know. Or you can either understand. You can either talk to Harvard or you can talk to public health officials, like McManus and Goodwin.

Speaker 4: (34:30)
The other point that I’d just like to make is, when you actually look at the nursing home by nursing home breakdown, you see no correlation between the readmissions and the deaths, which is something that I think that the reporters … I know the AP has looked at the readmissions and [inaudible 00:34:44] are a number of hospitals where there have been no readmissions where there are up to 50 deaths. And then there are some hospitals, there are five readmissions, and there are 10 deaths. There’s very little correlation to no correlation between when you actually look at the individualized hospital data.

Speaker 4: (34:57)
Furthermore, the directive that came out on March 25th was not an executive order. It was done by the DOH. DOH did it in consultation with the CDC and CMS, as did a dozen other states.

Speaker 4: (35:09)
The thing that you referenced at the top, or that the Governor referenced from the Republicans in Congress, I find it interesting that it’s a handful of Republicans in Congress directed only at states with Democratic governors.

Speaker 4: (35:19)
So I think it’s important that we look at the actual facts and the actual data and we get to the bottom of this. Because as the Governor said, it’s likely that we see another wave. So what are we learning, how do we deal with it, and how do we go forward in a productive way? Part of that has to be relying on international and national experts, and that means the federal government has to know what it’s talking about.

Speaker 5: (35:37)
Governor, Mayor de Blasio wants to expedite the release of body cam footage, speed up the disciplinary process, and release disciplinary records of police officers online. Are you going to require the same for state troopers and other police departments across the state?

Andrew Cuomo: (35:53)
I don’t think we should be doing this piecemeal. You have all sorts of piecemeal proposals that are out there. I’m not commenting on Mayor de Blasio. I don’t know any of what these-

Andrew Cuomo: (36:03)
There. I’m not commenting on Mayor de Blasio. I don’t know any of these proposals that you mentioned, but all across the country, people are doing piecemeal suggestions, which are nice, but are not especially helpful. No tear gas, no rubber bullets, cut the budget a hundred thousand, cut the budget a billion, reduce staff 20%, demilitarized police. Okay. Let’s do with the most intelligent, effective way. Start with a blank piece of paper, and design your police force. This is 2020. We haven’t redesigned the police force fundamentally for decades. Let’s get all the stakeholders in the room, and let’s design it. What is the function of the police department? First question, what do we want it to do?

Andrew Cuomo: (37:08)
Second question, what do we want it not to do? How many people will it require to do that? What are the skills of the people required to do those functions? How much will it cost to put together that department? What lessons learned from these past episodes do we want to take to heart? What’s our use of force policy? When we say demilitarize the police, what do we mean? What equipment do we not want them to use? How do we want them to handle protests? You’ve seen terrible footage. How do we want police to handle protests? How do we want them supervised? What’s our disciplinary process? Do we have body cameras? How often do we publish the body camera footage? How do we handle complaints? Complaints come in. Who should review them? When should they go online? What should this position be?

Andrew Cuomo: (38:14)
That’s how to use the moment. To make one little change in the structure, my point is different. You have to start with the foundation and build up. But the foundation is the problem, because you know what the foundation is? You know what the foundation of the police department rests on? Two pillars, respect and trust. Those are the two pillars. Everything rests on those two pillars. And you know the problem? Those two pillars are cracked. [crosstalk 00:39:00] So start with the respect pillar and the trust pillar on the foundation. Then you build up what color uniforms there, how many cars, but start with the pillars. [crosstalk 00:39:15] Sir?

Speaker 6: (39:15)
I have a followup question because I have a specific question about, are you going to be requiring the state troopers to be releasing disciplinary records online, to comply with the new 58 Law?

Andrew Cuomo: (39:27)
Yes. We’re going to go through the same process. 58 applies to the state police.

Speaker 7: (39:30)
When you look at the existing holidays, as the state celebrates MLK Day, which is also about civil rights, why did it take so long for Juneteenth to be recognized, especially when you look at emancipation being the thing that spawned the Negro National Anthem, Lift Every Voice and Sing, for example? That indicates that it’s a pretty significant event. And related to that, the state has an MLK Day celebration every year. Would you also consider a Juneteenth celebration?

Andrew Cuomo: (39:56)
I would. Why? Look, live and learn, right? Society progresses. We change. We evolve. Hopefully, we change for the better. Through some periods in history, we do. Some periods in history, we don’t. Some periods in history, we go backwards. But I think this is a period where we could see monumental change. And I want to be a force for change. And I want to help synergize this moment, whether it’s reform on the police department, whether it’s an expanded racial understanding and sensitivity and progress. And if Juneteenth is part of that, and a recognition of what happened, and an understanding of what happened, and an acknowledgement of that, great.

Speaker 7: (40:58)
I don’t mean to… I’ll play the race card, so to speak. But I can tell you that the functional equivalent of July 4th for the country at large, is what Juneteenth is to the Black community as far as emancipation goes, because obviously, freedom is the topic of discussion. So would you say that up to this point, the general public and elected officials as a whole, haven’t recognized the importance of that?

Andrew Cuomo: (41:24)
I don’t think it has been recognized for the importance that it denotes, and that’s why I’m going to propose legislation to make it an official holiday next year. And that’s why this year I’m doing what I can. What I can do is by executive order, make it a state holiday for employees. And that’s what I’m doing. It’s the most I can do by executive order. And then next year, I’d like to pass a law to that effect, because I acknowledge exactly what you’re saying. And this would be a first step for the state. It may be a first step nationwide. I don’t know any other state that has recognized Juneteenth this way. I’m not fully informed. I’d have to go back and look, but off the top of my head, I don’t know that any state has done this. So I’d love to see New York as the first.

Speaker 8: (42:20)
[crosstalk 00:42:20] The Supreme Court is supposed to be making a decision on DACA here very shortly. Has the state thought of ways to possibly extend that program here in New York? Is that possible?

Andrew Cuomo: (42:30)
We have to see what the Court says. And if there’s any crack or light for state action, then we will take it. Let’s take one more question.

Speaker 7: (42:44)
[crosstalk 00:42:44] Teachers and districts are looking for clarifications that they can start preparing over this summer. Will schools open for fall of this year?

Andrew Cuomo: (42:54)
Yeah. We don’t know for sure yet. We have to see where the virus is. We are in very good shape on controlling the virus in New York right now. There are question marks nationwide. Globally, there are question marks. Is there a second wave? Is there a resurgence? There are national question marks. These other states are going up. Do people in Florida get on a plane and come here, and we see an increase? Question mark. Did the protests increase the spread of the virus, or hopefully, did they happen at a time where the infection rate was so low already, about 1%, that even though they violated social distancing, et cetera, it didn’t have an effect? Question mark. Will local governments do their job? Are they doing the tracing, and the testing, and compliance? Question Mark. So to say today, as we sit here in June, what is going to happen in September, nobody can tell you. Nobody can answer that question. And think where we are today to September, and think of the period in time backwards. All this transpired, that whole mountain, that’s a hundred days. That’s all that is, is 100 days. Three months the whole world changed. So September, let’s get some more information and facts. And then we’ll decide [crosstalk 00:08:40].

Speaker 9: (44:38)
Well, you’ve talked about the nature of that sort of standard nationally. It’s a big decision [crosstalk 00:44:48]-

Andrew Cuomo: (44:47)
We answered those questions, right?

Speaker 10: (44:49)
No. You didn’t answer. You fully [Crosstalk 00:44:51].

Andrew Cuomo: (44:49)
We did.

Speaker 10: (44:49)
What do you want our [inaudible 00:44:54] to do?

Andrew Cuomo: (44:49)
See you next time.

Transcribe Your Own Content

Try Rev and save time transcribing, captioning, and subtitling.