Cuomo talks reopening in contrast with saving human lives
New York State Gov. Andrew Cuomo revisited plans for reopening the state in his daily press briefing today, emphasizing his uneasiness to reopen by posing the question, “How much is a human life worth?”
“To me, I say the cost of a human life is priceless, period,” he said. “Our reopening plan doesn’t have a trade-off. Our reopening plan says you monitor the data, you monitor the transmission rate, you monitor the hospitalization rate, you monitor the death rate. If it goes up, you have a circuit breaker: you stop. You close the valve on reopening.”
In order to begin reopening starting May 15, Cuomo said that each region of the state would have to meet certain criteria — criteria that the western region of the state is not meeting.
Despite this region not meeting the standards, New York is doing better overall in terms of COVID-9, or the novel coronavirus, as the hospitalization rate and death rate are decreasing.
The state’s hospitalization numbers have declined significantly, with a decrease in net hospitalizations and intubations and total hospitalizations at 9,600. The number of daily deaths related to the virus have been in the 200s for five straight days — much less than the apex of 799 deaths in one day.
Unfortunately, however, this trend is not shown nationwide, with other states actually going in the opposite direction, especially in projections for the future.
Cuomo said the reason for this is that other states are reopening or partially reopening when they weren’t actually ready to, a point he used to underscore his hesitancy to reopen New York.
“There’s a cost of staying closed, no doubt. Economic cost, personal cost,” he said. “There’s also a cost of reopening too quickly. Either option has a cost. The faster we reopen, the lower the economic cost, but, the higher the human costs, because of the more lives lost. That is the decision we are really making. What is that balance? What is that trade-off? Because it is very real.”
Read more about this in this article: The Buffalo News
De Blasio calls out Trump for “stabbing his hometown in the back”
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio called out U.S. President Donald Trump today at his daily press briefing over the president’s rhetoric surrounding coronavirus aid.
In an interview yesterday with a reporter from The New York Times, Trump said that it would be unfair to Republicans for Congress to pass coronavirus bailouts, since the money would be going largely to Democrat-run states.
Trump said that Republican-led states like Texas and Florida as well as the Midwest are doing “phenomenal,” and thus do not need the funding as much and will not get to receive any.
De Blasio spoke out against this, saying that Trump “seems to enjoy stabbing his hometown in the back” and is hurting New York, among other states that would benefit from the added funding.
“The president is playing politics while people are suffering,” he said. “Who cares who runs the states? The people need help. There are Americans that need help right now. Do you not care about that firefighter, that EMT, that paramedic, that police officer, that health care worker because they live in a state run by a Democrat or a city run by a Democrat? Does that make them less American in your view Mr. President?”
He also said that it is hypocritical for Trump to talk about withholding aid from blue states and cities “given how much money he’s put in the hands of the corporations and the wealthy.”
Additionally, de Blasio also held up a letter signed by 111 Texan mayors — including both Democrats and Republicans — asking for more federal coronavirus aid.
Read more about this in this article: NBC News
Three Brooklyn men arrested for refusing to disperse and follow police orders
credit: Wikipedia
Videos of members of the New York Police Department forcefully arresting three men in East New York for failing to social distance have been circulating the internet since the incident occurred at around 8:30 p.m. on Saturday night.
Officers found a gathering of men near the corner of Fountain Avenue and Blake Avenue and instructed them several times to disperse.
One of the men refused, so an officer attempted to take him into custody, but the man then resisted the officer’s attempts to put him in handcuffs.
Another man then approached the officer from behind “in an aggressive manner” to try to interfere with the arrest taking place, while a third man also refused to disperse and “became boisterous,” according to police, causing a crowd to gather.
The three men were eventually arrested and taken into custody.
The first man now faces charges including obstructing governmental administration, unlawful assembly, violation of local law, disorderly conduct and harassment.
The second man is expected to be charged with similar charges, in addition to criminal possession of marijuana, tampering with physical evidence and resisting arrest.
The third man is expected to be charged with obstructing governmental administration, disorderly conduct and violation of local law, according to the NYPD.
Read more about this in this article: Pix11 News
