Daily Cuomo: We've 'made significant progress' because we've given people the facts

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo this week credited citizens in his state for listening to the facts he has offered so far about the COVID-19 pandemic, which has led the state to make “significant progress” in halting the spread of virus.

Donald Trump, by contrast, has been urging people to return to work quickly, ignoring experts’ advice and the facts at hand.

“Our country is not built to be to shut down. Our people are full of vim and vigor and energy. They don’t want to be locked into a house or an apartment, it’s not for our country,” Trump told Fox News in late-March, weeks before thousands more died from the virus.

At the time, experts were making it clear that such initiatives were — and still are — premature.

From an April 13 press conference:

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO: And we have flattened that curve by people’s actions, which remember is why those projection models were all wrong. The projection models were high — they weren’t wrong, that’s a bad word — what they were saying is this is where the infection will go if unabated.

 

What’s the question mark on whether you can abate it? Can you put forth a government policy, but more, will people listen to the government policy?

 

You have 19 million people in New York. I can stand up here all day long and say, “You must social distance. You must stay home.” If New Yorkers don’t believe it, if Americans don’t believe it, if they question their government, if I don’t have credibility, why do I stand here and go through all the facts?

 

I’m not asking any New Yorker to take my word for anything. I’m not asking any American, “Take my word for it.” Here are the facts. I’ll give you the facts. The good facts, the bad facts, the ugly facts, you get all the facts. You tell me what you decide. They decided on the facts that they would comply.

 

And they’ve done things I would have never dreamed that they would do. And they’ve actually made significant progress.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.