New York coronavirus deaths hit 7,000: A far cry from the arrogance of Cuomo and Blasio

New York coronavirus deaths hit 7,000: A far cry from the arrogance of Cuomo and Blasio

Sawako Utsumi and Lee Jay Walker

Modern Tokyo Times

The coronavirus (Covid-19) crisis hitting New York is extremely brutal. Of course, many parts of America are also suffering because deaths are just below 19,000. However, in New York, this city accounts for 7,000 deaths alone.

Yet, in early March, despite the warnings of China, Iran, South Korea, and the gradual encroachment in parts of Europe in terms of confirmed cases in Italy; the political elites in New York betrayed the people of this city. This applies to the arrogance of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Astonishingly, Cuomo, knowing full well that many people had already died in several nations, came up with ridiculous New York clichés. On March 2, he arrogantly said, “Excuse our arrogance as New Yorkers — I speak for the mayor also on this one — we think we have the best health care system on the planet right here in New York. So, when you’re saying, what happened in other countries versus what happened here, we don’t even think it’s going to be as bad as it was in other countries.”

He continued the New York angle by stating, We have been ahead of this from day one. It was a big break when the federal government allowed us to do our testing because now we are actually in control of the system ourselves. And as New Yorkers, we like control.” 

Of course, nothing is further from the truth because 7,000 deaths over one month later are testimony to this. Hence, from New York clichés to pinning the blame on others would soon become his mantra. Thus, for ordinary people and the most vulnerable in New York, Cuomo’s arrogance and clichés meant death based on being unprepared.

Cuomo downplayed the coronavirus crisis on endless New York clichés and a sense of superiority. Hence, he was overconfident like a petty nationalist and focused on his own trumpet.

He uttered, “Also, one general point – there is no mystery to how this is – how contagious this is or how it transfers, right? This transfers like the common flu. So, for health care workers, yeah, you take the right precautions, but it’s not like we’re dealing with something that we haven’t dealt with before. Actually, we’ve dealt with worse, right? The Ebola Virus, that was really a much more difficult, more frightening situation than this.”

Of course, with 7,000 people already dead from coronavirus by April 10, then clearly his words were blatantly untrue. Likewise, health care workers have died because of a lack of protection. Therefore, New Yorkers were betrayed by the ego and unprofessionalism of Cuomo when real concentration was needed.

Blasio also overplayed the New York theme. He said, “Also, if I have one difference with the Governor’s remarks it’s that we don’t think we have the best health care system in the country or in the world, we know we do…”

He continued, with the superhuman New York angle by stating, “By the way, crucially important – the message to New Yorkers from the beginning has been, this is something we all can handle together, go about your lives, go about your business. People are doing that consistently. New Yorkers do not scare easily, do not intimidate easily.”

In other words, New Yorkers are somehow not scared or intimidated by a virus. It sounds too childish to imagine but Blasio and Cuomo were arrogant from the beginning and over-focused on espousing the New York angle. However, just over five weeks later and you have 7,000 dead people in this city.

Equally disturbing, the entire world is watching how the poor and isolated are buried in mass graves. This is a far cry from the over-hyped New York and the downplaying of the deadly coronavirus that is impacting the world.

https://www1.nyc.gov/office-of-the-mayor/news/108-20/transcript-mayor-de-blasio-governor-cuomo-hold-media-availability-the-first-confirmed-case-of

PLEASE DONATE TO HELP MODERN TOKYO TIMES

Modern Tokyo News is part of the Modern Tokyo Times group

DONATIONS to SUPPORT MODERN TOKYO TIMES – please pay PayPal and DONATE to sawakoart@gmail.com

http://moderntokyotimes.com Modern Tokyo Times – International News and Japan News

http://sawakoart.com – Sawako Utsumi personal website and Modern Tokyo Times artist

https://moderntokyonews.com Modern Tokyo News – Tokyo News and International News

PLEASE JOIN ON TWITTER

https://twitter.com/MTT_News Modern Tokyo Times

PLEASE JOIN ON FACEBOOK

https://www.facebook.com/moderntokyotimes