By Michael Hernandez
ALBANY, NY— “My brother, Christopher, has tested positive for the coronavirus. He has a fever and chills,” said New York Governor Andrew Cuomo today during his morning press conference. “Anyone can get this disease. There are no superheroes who are immune. They can be a New Yorker, a Texan, a Californian. No one can be protected. I couldn’t protect my own brother.
“This scared me. It frightened me. This is my little brother, my best friend. I’ve spent my whole life with him. There is nothing I can do. Yes, I am worried about my brother; as you worry about your family.”
Chris Cuomo is a CNN primetime news anchor. “I just hope I didn’t give it to the kids and Cristina. That would make me feel worse than this illness!” he wrote on Twitter. The announcement came just one day after Chris Cuomo had interviewed his brother, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), about the state’s ongoing efforts to combat the coronavirus especially in New York City, the nation’s hotspot with over 38,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and 914 deaths according to data released Tuesday by Johns Hopkins University.
On Tuesday, Gov. Cuomo unveiled what he called Matilda’s Law (named after his mother):
- Remain indoors
- Can go outside for solitary exercise
- Pre-screen all visitors and aides by taking their temperature
- Do not visit households with multiple people
- All venerable persons should wear a mask when in the company of others
- To the greatest extent possible, everyone in the presence of vulnerable people should wear a mask
- Always stay at least six feet away from individuals
- Do not take public transportation unless urgent.
“We know what we have to do. We just have to do it. This is about individual discipline,” said Cuomo who shared two different health official models: the first model requires 110,000 covid-19 beds and 37,000 ventilators (due to low adherence to social distancing) and the second model requires 75,000 covid-19 beds and 25,000 ventilators (for high adherence to social distancing of six feet).
According to Gov. Cuomo, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington has projected 93,000 deaths nationwide and 16,000 in New York (16 percent of the total) while earlier this week, Dr. Anthony Fauci, of the White House Coronavirus Task Forces had said that current modeling projects American deaths between 100,000 to 200,000.
“In this war, we must look forward for the next battle—the apex,” said Gov. Cuomo. “We have been behind from day one. The virus has been ahead of us from day one. The next battle is on the top of the mountain (the curve). Where is it going? Will the enemy overwhelm our healthcare system, or will we be able to handle the onslaught on the mountain top? This is what we are planning for every day.
“Our young people must get the message. We still see too many with too much density. They can get the coronavirus. It can kill young people. They can get infected. They can give it to someone else.”
All New York City playgrounds will now be closed to battle the problem of young children ignoring the social distancing guidelines. “You can’t play basketball on the city playgrounds. No close contact.”
Michael Hernandez, Co-Founder of the Citizens Journal—Ventura County’s online news service; editor of the History Makers Report and founder of History Makers International—a community nonprofit serving youth and families in Ventura County, is a former Southern California daily newspaper journalist and religion and news editor. He worked 25 years as a middle school teacher in Monrovia and Los Angeles Unified School Districts. Mr. Hernandez can be contacted by email at [email protected].
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