Governor Cuomovirus resigns (satire)

Cuomo Resigns To Spend More Time Sexually Harassing Family | Babylon Bee: 
August 10, 2021 - "In a stunning press conference, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has announced he will be resigning from his term as Governor.... 

"'It has been an honor to serve as Governor,' said Cuomo, 'But all the groping of beautiful young women and killing of senior citizens has taken my focus away from where it needs to be: on my family. Starting next month, I will retire to focus on only harassing my dear family, and killing the elderly in my own community -- something I have neglected for far too long.' 

"The speech was universally praised as 'powerful' and 'maybe even presidential' by the media, with some suggesting the disgraced governor deserves an Emmy for his powerful performance.

"To help make ends meet, Cuomo will secure a side gig running for president, now that he has harassed enough women to qualify for the position."
Read more: https://babylonbee.com/news/cuomo-resigns-to-spend-more-time-sexually-harassing-family

Cuomo Scandal A Somber Reminder That Leaders Bad At Job Can Have Dark Side Too | The Onion:
August 10, 2021 - "Andrew Cuomo’s sexual harassment scandal and subsequent resignation reportedly served as a somber reminder Tuesday that leaders who are bad at their job can have a dark side too. 

"'You wouldn’t think someone who’s had accusations of corruption dog him throughout his political career would have this seedy personal side as well,' said New York resident Harold Barnes, adding that apparently even the career politician son of a prominent governor who got everything he ever wanted could end up being someone who apparently lacked a moral compass or sense of ethics.... 'It just goes to show ... he ... lets thousands of elderly people die needlessly — all while writing a self-aggrandizing book touting his ability to manage a pandemic that even at that very minute he is mismanaging — and yet you have no clue that he could be such a bastard behind the scenes.' 

"Sources added that the governor’s fall from grace ought to sound a note of caution to anyone venerating a manifestly awful and careless politician, lest they turn out to be an awful and careless person underneath."
Read more: https://www.theonion.com/cuomo-scandal-a-somber-reminder-that-leaders-bad-at-job-1847459208

After Resigning For Sexual Harassment, Cuomo Immediately Hired By CNN - Babylon Bee:
August 10, 2021 - "Cuomo has resigned in disgrace amid accusations of sexual harassment, but the sky is still the limit for his career, as CNN immediately hired him under a multi-million-dollar contract. As soon as CNN learned the man was credibly accused of sexual harassment, they scooped him up to be an on-air personality.

"'Between his ability to lie through his teeth, cover up atrocities, and sexually harass women, we think Mr. Cuomo will be a perfect fit for our company culture here at CNN,' said CNN President Jeff Zucker. 'What a find for our cable news channel! Plus, his brother already works here, and the two have intimate knowledge of each other's scandals. Mr. Cuomo will really hit the ground running here'....

"At publishing time, CNN had confirmed the Cuomo brothers will star in a new show called 'Super Cuomo Bros.' where they jump on seniors' heads to murder them."
Read more: https://babylonbee.com/news/after-resigning-for-sexual-harassment-cuomo-immediately-hired-by-cnn

New York's vaccine pass fails

New York's vaccine passport program is already failing | The Dossier - Jordan Schachtel:

April 5, 2021 - "The New York State 'Excelsior Pass'  vaccine passport system, which was created by IBM, has so many issues that I wouldn’t be surprised if the program was scrapped altogether before the end of the calendar year. It has massive security flaws, a shrinking customer base by design, it remains incredibly impractical, and it’s incredibly easy to manipulate.... Excelsior Pass sucks, thanks to the idiocracy 

"Say you want to attend a Knicks game this evening at Madison Square Garden, a partner to the Excelsior Pass program. It’s 9 a.m. and your event is at 7:30 p.m. If you don’t have the vaccine yet, that means you will need to obtain a negative COVID-19 test to receive your pass. Want to take that test this morning? Not so fast! The antigen test needs to have been administered within the last 6 hours, so you better plan your entire day around navigating that short window between your COVID test and the event this evening.

"Just received your second dose and you’re ready to hit the town? Not so fast! You must wait at least two weeks before your green check mark appears on your vaccine passport. Has it been more than 90 days since your last dose? Rejected! You only have a 76 day window (more than 14 days, under 90 days) to acquire a vax pass, which has to be renewed every 30 days.

"Received a vaccine or COVID test from out of state? Took a private at home test kit or a test from a provider that is not registered in the New York State central database? Looks like you’re out of luck. You will not be able to receive your prized Excelsior Pass, because your information never made it into the system.

"Are you an out of state resident looking to attend an event or enter an Excelsior Pass participating store? You’re out of luck! The New York system does not communicate with other databases, and other states plan on rewarding vaccine passport contracts to other companies.

"In order to download Excelsior Pass on your phone, you need the latest version of Android or iOS. For users of phones that are more than 4-5 years, this means you will not be able to access the application. If you have an iPhone 6 or earlier, you can’t download Excelsior Pass because it only runs on the latest operating system, which doesn’t work on these older phones.

"Users of the app are absolutely hammering it for its dysfunction. Of the 240 reviews for the application on iOS, over 100 reviews received 1 star out of 5....

"The IBM-New York vaccine passport system has incredibly lax security protocols, making it easy for a random individual to steal your identity and obtain Gov. Cuomo’s vaunted Excelsior Pass. In order to see if someone is eligible for an Excelsior Pass (and acquire their COVID-19 health records), all you need is a first and last name, a date of birth, and a zip code (yes, not even their address, just their zip code). If you’re eligible for the pass, you then get taken to a second screen where you have to enter more relatively easily obtained information to 'verify your identity.' Even if you get some questions wrong, it appears that you can go back in and answer an unlimited amount of times until you get the right combination. 

"Vaccine passports are inhumane, discriminatory, and will lead America on a direct path to a China-like social credit score system that restricts our unalienable rights. The good news for you New Yorkers is that the Cuomo Administration and IBM are the dream team of incompetence. Excelsior Pass will almost certainly fail, because a legacy governor and a legacy tech outfit are not sophisticated enough to produce a working totalitarian product for their COVID Safety Regime."

Read more: https://dossier.substack.com/p/new-yorks-vaccine-passport-program

Cuomo's office altered care home deaths report

Cuomo Aides Rewrote Nursing Home Report to Hide Higher Death Toll | New York Times - J. David Goodman & Danny Hakim: 

March 4, 2021 - "Top aides to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo were alarmed: A report written by state health officials had just landed, and it included a count of how many nursing home residents in New York had died in the pandemic. The number — more than 9,000 by that point in June — was not public, and the governor’s most senior aides wanted to keep it that way. They rewrote the report to take it out, according to interviews and documents reviewed by The New York Times.

"The extraordinary intervention, which came just as Mr. Cuomo was starting to write a book on his pandemic achievements, was the earliest act yet known in what critics have called a monthslong effort by the governor and his aides to obscure the full scope of nursing home deaths.

"After the state attorney general revealed earlier this year that thousands of deaths of nursing home residents had been undercounted, Mr. Cuomo finally released the complete data, saying he had withheld it out of concern that the Trump administration might pursue a politically motivated inquiry into the state’s handling of the outbreak in nursing homes. But Mr. Cuomo and his aides actually began concealing the numbers months earlier, as his aides were battling their own top health officials, and well before requests for data arrived from federal authorities.... 

"The central role played by the governor’s top aides reflected the lengths to which Mr. Cuomo has gone in the middle of a deadly pandemic to control data, brush aside public health expertise and bolster his position as a national leader in the fight against the coronavirus.... The aides who were involved in changing the report included Melissa DeRosa, the governor’s top aide; Linda Lacewell, the head of the state’s Department of Financial Services; and Jim Malatras, a former top adviser to Mr. Cuomo brought back to work on the pandemic. None had public health expertise....

"The tension over the death count dated to the early weeks of the pandemic when Mr. Cuomo issued an order preventing nursing homes from turning away people discharged from the hospital after being treated for Covid-19. The order was similar to ones issued in other states aimed at preventing hospitals from becoming overwhelmed. But by late spring, Republicans were suggesting that the order had caused a deadly spread of the virus in nursing homes. Mr. Cuomo disputed that it had. Still, critics and others seized on the way the state was publicly reporting deaths: Unlike other states, New York excluded residents who had been transferred to hospitals and died there, effectively cloaking how many nursing home residents had died of Covid-19....

"Health officials, nursing home operators and even some of Mr. Cuomo’s aides expressed bafflement at the governor’s apparent insistence on delaying the release of the data for so long, as none of the information released so far has changed the overall number of Covid-19 deaths in New York — now more than 47,000, including more than 15,000 nursing home residents. 

"But the July report allowed Mr. Cuomo to treat the nursing home issue as resolved last year, paving the way for him to focus on touting New York’s success in controlling the virus. ''I am now thinking about writing a book about what we went through,' Mr. Cuomo said four days after the report’s release.... By that point, he was already seeking formal approval from a state ethics agency to earn outside income from book sales, according to a person with knowledge of his planning at the time."

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/04/nyregion/cuomo-nursing-home-deaths.html

Inaccurate modelling led to care home deaths

How the Gates Foundation seeded America's COVID-19 policy catastrophes | The Dossier - Jordan Schachtel

February 16, 2021 - "New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is finally facing the heat for his botched and criminally negligent coronavirus response policies, yet no one seems to be asking why Cuomo and select governors made the fateful decisions that led to the excess deaths — and the coverup campaigns — of tens of thousands of senior citizens in New York and elsewhere across the United States.... Cuomo ... is far from the only governor who executed the 'nursing home death warrants.' Governor Cuomo was accompanied by the governors of California, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and elsewhere.

"The common thread seen in the United States is the delegation of state policy to prediction modeling forecasts from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), a Washington State-based institution that is wholly controlled and funded (to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars) by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. In March and early April, politicians were informed by the modeling 'experts' at Gates-funded IHME that their hospitals were about to be completely overrun by coronavirus patients. Modelers from IHME claimed this massive surge would cause hospitals to run out of lifesaving equipment in a matter of days, not weeks or months.... 

"On two separate April 1 and April 2 press conferences, Cuomo made clear that his policy decisions were based off of the IHME model. 'There is a group that is funded by the Gates Foundation. Thank you very much Bill Gates,' Cuomo said on April 1 in discussing ICU needs and how he was using Gates models to make other healthcare policy decisions. 'There's only one model that we look at that has the number of projected deaths which is the IHME model which is funded by the Gates Foundation,' Cuomo said on April 2, adding, 'and we thank the Gates Foundation for the national service that they've done.'

"In an April 9 briefing, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer referred to the IHME model in order to project deaths and the PPE resources needed for the supposed surge. It was the same story with the government of Pennsylvania. The PA Health Department exclusively uses IHME models to forecast coronavirus outcomes. Governor Phil Murphy, another nursing home death warrant participant, used IHME models to navigate the state’s policy response. 

"It wasn’t just state governors relying on this data; federal bureaucrats Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx, both of whom have substantial ties to the Gates network, used the IHME COVID-19 forecasting models (which Birx endorsed specifically as the best prediction modeling outfit) to make policy recommendations to states. In her White House briefings, Birx, who simultaneously had a seat on the board of a Gates-funded institution, almost exclusively relied on IHME models to project outcomes.... 

"These models, and the policy decisions that were made by relying on them, set off a chain of events that led to indefinite lockdowns, complete business closures, statewide curfews, and most infamously, the nursing home death warrants. States across the nation went to extremes, resorting to full bunker mode while waiting for bodies to start dropping in the streets, but the IHME modeling never panned out. Hospital capacity was never threatened. Most states that had created 'surge capacity' pop-up health care centers never even used these facilities. 

"IHME, for its part, regularly 'adjusts' its models, and has never acknowledged their routine failures to forecast outcomes. Gates has never discussed the catastrophic failures of his prized 'health metrics' forecasting organization.... Instead, he has seamlessly washed his hands of COVID mania, and has moved on to demanding that the western world sacrifice itself in the name of the latest 'crisis' that is climate change."

Read more: https://dossier.substack.com/p/how-the-gates-foundation-seeded-americas

Aide admits Cuomo regime hid care home deaths

Cuomo aide Melissa DeRosa admits they hid nursing home data so feds wouldn’t find out | New York Post - Bernadette Hogan, Carl Campanile and Bruce Golding:

February 11, 2021 - "Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s top aide privately apologized to Democratic lawmakers for withholding the state’s nursing home death toll from COVID-19 — telling them 'we froze' out of fear that the true numbers would 'be used against us' by federal prosecutors, The Post has learned. The stunning admission of a coverup was made by secretary to the governor Melissa DeRosa during a video conference call with state Democratic leaders in which she said the Cuomo administration had rebuffed a legislative request for the tally in August because 'right around the same time, [then-President Donald Trump] turns this into a giant political football,' according to an audio recording of the two-hour-plus meeting.

“'He starts tweeting that we killed everyone in nursing homes,' DeRosa said.... In addition to attacking Cuomo’s fellow Democratic governors, DeRosa said, Trump 'directs the Department of Justice to do an investigation into us.... Because then we were in a position where we weren’t sure if what we were going to give to the Department of Justice, or what we give to you guys, what we start saying, was going to be used against us'.... 

"After dropping the bombshell, DeRosa asked for 'a little bit of appreciation of the context' and offered what appears to be the Cuomo administration’s first apology for its handling of nursing homes amid the pandemic. But instead of a mea culpa to the grieving family members of more than 13,000 dead seniors or the critics who say the Health Department spread COVID-19 in the care facilities with a March 25 state Health Department directive that nursing homes admit [Covid-positive] patients, DeRosa tried to make amends with the fellow Democrats for the political inconvenience it caused them....

“'So we do apologize,' she said. 'I do understand the position that you were put in. I know that it is not fair. It was not our intention to put you in that political position with the Republicans'....

"Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Queens), who took part in the call, told The Post on Thursday that DeRosa’s remarks sounded 'like they admitted that they were trying to dodge having any incriminating evidence that might put the administration or the [Health Department] in further trouble with the Department of Justice.... Kim, whose uncle is presumed to have died of COVID-19 in a nursing home in April, also said he wasn’t satisfied with DeRosa’s apology....

"In addition to stonewalling lawmakers on the total number of nursing home residents killed by COVID-19, Cuomo’s administration refused requests from the news media — including The Post — and fought a Freedom of Information lawsuit filed by the Empire Center on Public Policy. Instead, it only disclosed data on the numbers of residents who died in their nursing homes.

"But after state Attorney General Letitia James last month released a damning report that estimated the deaths of nursing home residents in hospitals would boost the grim tally by more than 50 percent, Health Commissioner Howard Zucker finally released figures showing the combined total was 12,743 as of Jan. 19. Just a day earlier, the DOH was only publicly acknowledging 8,711 deaths in nursing homes. In a Wednesday letter to lawmakers, Zucker said the total number of nursing home residents killed by COVID-19 had increased to 13,297. That number jumps to 15,049 when assisted living/adult care facilities are factored in.

"The controversy generated by James’ report led to an infamous news conference at which Cuomo callously dismissed the matter of where nursing home fatalities actually took place. 'Who cares [if they] died in the hospital, died in a nursing home? They died,' he said."

Read more: https://nypost.com/2021/02/11/cuomo-aide-admits-they-hid-nursing-home-data-from-feds/

Guess who wants to reopen his state?

Andrew Cuomo Makes an Infuriating Declaration for Those Living in His COVID-19 Dystopia | PJ Media - Stacey Lennox:

January 11, 2021 - "Governor Andrew Cuomo delivered his annual State of the State address on Monday. He has overseen some of the most draconian COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions in the country. Some of his more chilling moves were threatening to close churches and synagogues, yanking the licenses of business owners who defied his ridiculous orders, and covering up his own culpability in forcing COVID-19-positive patients into nursing homes. More recently, he has led what might be the most botched vaccine rollout in the country. Originally he had set strict rules about who would have priority to receive the vaccine, and threatened to levy fines of up to $1 million if a healthcare provider gave it outside of his specified hierarchy. When doses, which have a short shelf life, expired, they were thrown in the trash.

"Meanwhile, businesses are dying in the state, especially in New York City. As of August, the New York Times reported that up to one-third of the state’s small businesses were closing for good. In-person schooling has been an on-and-off affair thanks to the teachers’ unions insisting on a ridiculous 3% positivity rate to trigger closings.... Supposedly, according to Cuomo and many others, the vaccine was going to save us all, and everyone could get back to normal when a sufficient number of people were vaccinated. That was before the Electoral College vote was certified.

"Today he said: 'We simply cannot stay closed until the vaccine hits critical mass. The cost is too high. We will have nothing left to open. We must reopen the economy, but we must do it smartly and safely'.... I predict he will be the first of many lockdown governors to say this.

"Here’s how I think things will go: Joe Biden will be inaugurated in nine days and make some proclamations about how he will defeat COVID-19 in the next 100 days. A national mask mandate and some other useless moves, like another “30 Days to Slow the Spread,” will be announced.

"During that time, the National Center for Health Statistics will change the way COVID-19 deaths are reported to mirror how influenza deaths are tracked. This will cause the death rate to fall. The cycle threshold on the PCR tests will be lowered to indicate active illness and the ability to transmit the disease. According to a New York Times analysis in August and a study by Jaafar et al., this means positive tests will gradually fall to about 10% of what we see now.

"I predict it will be underreported and ignored that states that ignore the national mandates, like Florida and South Dakota, will fare just as well, if not better. Governor Ron DeSantis has already said he will not lock Florida down again and Governor Kristi Noem has said she would not enforce any national COVID-19 mandate. Other governors whose states are open, like Georgia and Tennessee, will face backlash if they follow the mandates.

"Then Cuomo and the other governors — who did the Democrats’ bidding by crushing their economies and keeping people isolated and miserable and blaming it on President Trump — will get their due. Remember how Mitch McConnell and President Trump said they were not bailing out years of mismanagement in states like New York, California, and Illinois?.... With complete Democrat control in Washington, leaders in the state are looking for that bailout with renewed hope. In his speech, Cuomo said: 'Washington has savaged us for four years.... We expect basic fairness from Washington. Finally'....

"New York ... got the same resources from the federal government to manage the pandemic that are available to every state. Cuomo’s projected deficit comes from decreased tax revenue from business closures, people fleeing the state in record numbers, and unbridled spending. New York’s budget for 2020 was $177 billion. Florida, with a similar and slightly larger population, spent $93.2 billion.

"Cuomo is sure his deficit problems are solved now so he can 'safely' open. Meanwhile, the rest of the country will pay off New York’s debts with our tax dollars and higher inflation caused by the additional money we will print. That’s just  'fair,' according to Governor Cuomo. You have to wonder how the New York business owners and parents whose children have lost nearly a year of education will view it."

Read more: https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/stacey-lennox/2021/01/11/andrew-cuomo-makes-an-infuriating-declaration-for-those-living-in-his-covid-19-dystopia-n1331601

Lockdown resistance building in USA

Americans Are in Full Revolt Against Pandemic Lockdowns | Reason - J.D. Tuccille:

December 16, 2020 - "Echoing New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio warned city residents this week to prepare for a 'full shutdown' as part of ongoing efforts to slow the spread of COVID-19. The two elected officials better not hold their breath waiting for compliance. Evidence from around the country shows that many Americans are thoroughly sick of impoverishing, socially isolating lockdown orders, and are revolting against the often-hypocritical politicians who issue them....

"The mayor commented following Cuomo's ban on indoor dining at New York City restaurants. That was issued a week after Staten Island residents cheered bar owner Daniel Presti, who was arrested for defying pandemic restrictions. Days later, Presti ran his car into a sheriff's deputy who sought to rearrest him for continuing to serve patrons. Both of the deputy's legs were broken. While Presti's level of violent resistance against lockdowns is much too extreme, he's not alone in his opposition. From coast to coast, businesses and individuals are ignoring restrictive rules that threaten their livelihoods, stifle social contact, and threaten to strangle the necessary interactions of everyday life.

"'Another shutdown just isn't an option for us,' the Seven Sirens Brewing Company of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, announced last week on its Facebook page. 'We, and thousands of other small businesses throughout the country simply will not survive'... The brewery is only one of many businesses listed by Pennsylvania Opening Businesses/Defying the Governor, which has over 43,000 members on Facebook as I write. The group encourages the public [to] patronize anybody who bucks state rules to continue offering goods and services to willing customers....

"The ReOpen Minnesota Coalition similarly represents hundreds of businesses defying closure orders and raises money for legal defense against state enforcement actions.... It calls for stripping Gov. Tim Walz of his emergency powers and for ignoring restrictions so that people can decide for themselves when and how to interact.

"On the West Coast, many restaurants also open their doors to customers despite state orders to the contrary. 'While some of the larger chains and corporations are following the orders, many of the mom and pop shops say going to takeout only would put them out of business,' ABC News reported last week.

"The city council in Solvang, a tourism-fueled community in Santa Barbara County, recently voted to ignore shutdown orders that threaten locals' livelihoods. Officials 'directed that the City of Solvang will not actively enforce these latest State shutdown orders, and that the City request the County and State regulators to prioritize education and that they also not enforce the orders within the City limits,' according to a letter from Mayor Ryan Toussaint....

"None of this should be a surprise.... Americans 'are far less willing to comply with shelter-in-place advice today than they were in the early weeks of the coronavirus pandemic this spring,' Gallup reported last month. Forty-nine percent 'say they would be very likely to stay home for a month if public health officials recommended it due to a serious outbreak of the virus in their community. This contrasts with solid majorities in the spring who said they were likely to comply with such shelter-in-place advice, including a high of 67% in late March/early April.'

"Politicians actively fanned the flames of resistance with their 'rules are only for the little people' flouting of their own orders. Amidst a flurry of high-profile examples, California Gov. Gavin Newsom's expensive gathering with other officials at The French Laundry stands out for its arrogance. Why should regular people driven to the brink of poverty and despair pay any attention to the dictates of such creatures?

"In distress and after due consideration, many Americans have decided that they shouldn't comply. Individually and in organized groups, often with the support of their communities, people are pushing back against lockdown orders that they find more threatening than COVID-19."

Read more: https://reason.com/2020/12/16/americans-are-in-full-revolt-against-pandemic-lockdowns/

New lockdowns in US; Border closings in Australia

Oregon, New Mexico order lockdowns, other states consider options | Fox News - Peter Aitken:

November 15 - "Oregon and New Mexico governors issued orders for tighter measures in the face of spiking coronavirus cases, including near-lockdown conditions.

"New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham closed statewide in-person services for non-essential activities starting Nov. 16. It will last for two weeks, although that may be extended.

"Oregon Gov. Kate Brown issued a similar order, called a 'Two-Week Freeze.' Starting Nov. 18., most indoor facilities, such as gyms and restaurants will close, and indoor capacity for essential services such as grocery stores and pharmacies will be limited. 'Since I announced a Two-Week Pause one week ago, we are seeing an alarming spike in both cases and hospitalizations,' said Brown. 'The virus is spreading in the community and, every day, it is infecting more and more Oregonians'.... 

"North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum announced a mask mandate that would take effect immediately and run through December.... Burgum ordered all bars and restaurants to limit capacity and suspend service between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo embraced the overnight curfew for dining services, a move the governor said aligns with New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy. 'We did that with New Jersey on bars and restaurants, with the closure of 10 p.m.,' Cuomo said during a Friday conference call with reporters.... Nevada Democratic Gov. Steve Sisolak repeatedly argued that containing the virus is largely up to individuals." 

Read more: https://www.foxnews.com/us/oregon-new-mexico-order-lockdowns-other-states-consider-options

Australia back on COVID-19 alert as cases jump in southern state | Al Jazeera:

November 16, 2020 - "The Australian state of South Australia has reported 14 new coronavirus cases, a dramatic increase from the previous day, prompting other states to tighten internal borders amid concerns of a new virus hot spot. South Australia ended a months-long streak of no COVID-19 infections on Sunday, reporting three locally-acquired coronavirus cases after a worker from a quarantine hotel infected family members, the authorities said....

"Since the neighbouring state of Victoria came out of a lengthy lockdown earlier this month, Australia has had several days of no new coronavirus infections. The country has only recorded near 28,000 coronavirus infections and just over 900 deaths due to strict measures such as international and state border closures, lockdowns, mandatory social distancing and widespread testing and tracing....

"Western Australia, which borders South Australia, ordered new arrivals from the state to undertake mandatory tests and self-quarantine for 14 days; the island state of Tasmania ordered immediate self-quarantine for people who had arrived from South Australia in the past week and the Northern Territory ordered people arriving from the state to enter supervised quarantine. Local media reported passengers arriving from South Australia being in tears when told they would have to go into 14-day quarantine when touching down in Western Australia on Monday morning."

Read more: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/11/16/australia-back-on-covid-19-alert-as-cases-jump-in-southern-state

UPDATE: According to today's Guardian, the current South Australian outbreak was begun by a care worker who contacted the disease in a quarantine hotel and spread it in the community. Note that the other Australian states' response has been to start packing people, infected and non-infected indiscriminately, into their own quarantine hotels. Good luck with that strategy, Australia. - gd  

New York City goes back into lockdown

New York City plans to reinstate some lockdowns as Covid surges | Financial Times - Billy Nauman:

October 4, 2020 - "New York City mayor Bill de Blasio on Sunday proposed reinstating the lockdown for nine neighbourhoods in Brooklyn and Queens in which there had been a surge in coronavirus infection rates.... The plan for New York, which still needs approval from governor Andrew Cuomo, would require schools and non-essential businesses to close in the affected areas beginning on Wednesday.... .  

"Mr de Blasio said the city government was keeping a close watch on other areas with increasing infection rates ... that could be added to the lockdown These areas were not subject to the same restrictions as the other nine at this time, he said, but restaurants would be forced to cease indoor dining. Gyms and pools would also be closed. 

"For each day from September 29 until October 3, New York state recorded more than 1,000 new cases of coronavirus. It had not previously seen multiple consecutive days with more than 1,000 positive tests since June." [Deaths are averaging 12 per day as of October 3, up from 9 per day a month earlier - gd]

"Mr Cuomo ... announced separately on Sunday that the state would begin an 'aggressive enforcement' campaign to deploy personnel in hotspots to improve compliance with coronavirus prevention rules."

Read more: https://www.ft.com/content/96aa45e9-feb9-41e0-8744-040087539d91

[De Blasio announced the city's first lockdown on March 17, but Cuomo stopped it, declaring: 'No city in the state can quarantine itself without state approval. And I have no interest whatsoever and no plan whatsoever to quarantine any city.' Cuomo doubled down on his comments the next day - 'That is not going to happen, shelter in place, for New York City. For any city or county to take an emergency action, the state has to approve it. And I wouldn't approve shelter in place" - before approving the state's first shelter in place order two days later, on March 20. - gd]  

Update, October 6: 

New York Sets New Lockdown Restrictions Where Coronavirus Has Resurged | Wall Street Journal - Melanie Grayce West: 

October 6, 2020 - "New York will reimpose lockdown restrictions in parts of the state that have seen recent surges in new coronavirus cases, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday, and he warned of wider limitations if infection rates continued to rise. The restrictions will affect large swaths of New York City, as well as nearby Rockland and Orange counties, with closures of nonessential businesses and limits on mass gatherings in certain hot spots. They are the first lockdown impositions since the state began to emerge from the pandemic in May and started regional reopenings of its economy.

"The measures take a tiered approach with hot spots identified by the colors red, orange or yellow. Hot spots with the highest positivity rates are designated red zones and face a near total shutdown. In those areas, schools are closed, worship is limited to 10 people and mass gatherings are off limits. The restrictions also only allow essential businesses to operate and limit restaurants to providing takeout....

"Local municipalities have until Friday to enforce the state’s new tiered approach. Restrictions will be in effect for two weeks and then reviewed, said Mr. Cuomo."

Read more: https://www.wsj.com/articles/new-yorks-mayor-prods-state-to-approve-business-closures-in-covid-19-hot-spots-11602005344

Dying and lying over New York's COVID19 failure

COVID-19 death rates reveal the states that failed the test: New York and New Jersey | New York Post - Betsy McCaughey:

August 12, 2020 - "It’s hard to know what’s worse — the dying or the lying.

"More than 32,000 New Yorkers have died from the coronavirus, a toll higher than any other state. New York also ranks second to the worst out of all 50 states, in deaths per million residents. Only New Jersey did worse. You wouldn’t know it, listening to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who brags that his administration 'tamed the beast.' Or the media that praise him and chide states with much, much lower death rates.

"Cuomo is doing everything he can to cover up the errors. He’s stonewalling bipartisan efforts in Albany to investigate the deaths of thousands of elderly in nursing homes ravaged by the virus. Legislators need to persevere, and in fact broaden their investigation to include the poor performance of many hospitals in the state. 

"On March 2, one day after the first coronavirus case in New York was disclosed, Cuomo told New Yorkers not to worry because 'we have the best health care system on the planet.' That’s a whopper. Patients treated for COVID-19 in hospitals here died at more than twice the national average. California has had more cases of coronavirus than New York, but less than a third as many deaths....

"Cuomo ... and the department of health spent years stripping New York City’s outer boroughs of sufficient hospital beds and equipment. There are five hospital beds for every 1,000 residents in Manhattan, but only 1.8 beds for every 1,000 Queens and Brooklyn residents. The result? When the pandemic struck, those hospitals were overwhelmed fast. The death rate for COVID-19 patients at Mount Sinai hospital in Manhattan was 17%. At Coney Island Hospital, 41% of COVID-19 patients didn’t make it....

"New York state stacks up even worse in protecting elderly nursing home residents from COVID-19. Florida and Texas, both more populous states, have had only one quarter of the number of nursing home fatalities.

"Numbers don’t lie. New York didn’t crush the coronavirus. The virus took thousands of New York lives needlessly, because of the Cuomo administration’s mistakes."

Read more: https://nypost.com/2020/08/12/covid-19-death-rates-reveal-ny-and-nj-are-states-that-failed-the-test/

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New York City is dead

NYC is Dead Forever... Here's Why |  JamesAltucher.com - James Altucher:

 August 14, 2020 - "NYC has never been locked down for five months. Not in any pandemic, war, financial crisis, never. In the middle of the polio epidemic, when little kids (including my mother) were becoming paralyzed or dying (my mother ended up with a bad leg), NYC didn’t go through this.... 

"In early March, many people (not me), left NYC when they felt it would provide safety from the virus and they no longer needed to go to work and all the restaurants were closed. People figured, 'I’ll get out for a month or two and then come back.' They are all still gone. And then in June, during rioting and looting, a second wave of NYCers (this time including me) left.... I was a little nervous when I saw videos of rioters after curfew trying to break into my building.... Now a third wave of people is leaving....

"Businesses are remote and they aren’t returning to the office. And it’s a death spiral — the longer offices remain empty, the longer they will remain empty.... 

"Broadway is closed until at least the spring. The Lincoln Center is closed. All the museums are closed. Forget about the tens of thousands of jobs lost in these cultural centers. Forget even about the millions of dollars of tourist-generated revenues lost by the closing of these centers. There are thousands of performers, producers, artists, and the entire ecosystem of art, theater, production, curation, that surrounds these cultural centers. People who have worked all of their lives for the right to be able to perform even once on Broadway, whose lives and careers have been put on hold.... 

"Around late May, I took walks and saw that many places were boarded up. OK, I thought, because the protesting was leading to looting and the restaurants were protecting themselves. They’ll be OK. Looking closer, I’d see the signs. For Lease. For Rent.... Yelp estimates that 60% of restaurants around the United States have closed. My guess is more than 60% will be closed in New York City.... If building owners and landlords lose their prime tenants (the store fronts on the bottom floor, the offices on the middle floors, the well-to-do on the top floors, etc.) then they go out of business.... 

"There are almost 600,000 college students spread out through NYC.... I don’t know of any college fully coming back right away.... Let’s say just 100,000 of those 600,000 don’t return to school and decide not to rent an apartment in New York City.... That’s a lot of landlords who will not be able to pay their own bills..... So now it ripples back to the landlords, to the support staff, to the banks, to the professors, etc.... 

"Everyone has spent the past five months adapting to a new lifestyle. Nobody wants to fly across the country for a two-hour meeting when you can do it just as well on Zoom. I can go see 'live comedy' on Zoom. I can take classes from the best teachers in the world for almost free online.... You can live in your hometown in the middle of wherever. And you can be just as productive, make the same salary, have higher quality of life with a cheaper cost to live.... 

"It will be cheaper for businesses to function more remotely and bandwidth is only getting faster.  Wait for events and conferences and even meetings and maybe even office spaces to start happening in virtual realities once everyone is spread out from midtown Manhattan to all over the country. The quality of restaurants will start to go up in all the second- and then third-tier cities as talent and skill flow to the places that can quickly make use of them. Ditto for cultural events. And then people will ask, 'Wait a second, I was paying over 16% in state and city taxes and these other states and cities have little to no taxes? And I don’t have to deal with all the other headaches of NYC?'.... What reason will people have to go back to NYC? 

"I love my life in NYC. I have friends all over NY.... I could go a few minutes by Uber and meet with anyone or go play PingPong or go to a movie.... I could go out at night to my favorite restaurants and then see my favorite performers perform. I could go to the park and play chess, see friends. I could take advantage of all this wonderful city has to offer. No more."

Read more: https://jamesaltucher.com/blog/nyc-is-dead-forever-heres-why/

NY lockdown may have spread coronavirus, Cuomo admits

Cuomo wonders if coronavirus quarantine may have backfired in some cases | New York Post - Bernadette Hogan and Aaron Feis:

March 26, 2020 - "Sweeping statewide quarantine orders may not have been the most effective strategy to combat the coronavirus, Gov. Andrew Cuomo conceded on Thursday.... 'We closed everything down. That was our public health strategy,' said Cuomo during an Albany press briefing. 'If you re-thought that or had time to analyze that public health strategy, I don’t know that you would say "Quarantine everyone."'

"Cuomo has publicly mused about quarantines and how best to eventually restart the Empire State’s shattered economy. But Wednesday, Cuomo’s answer during an hour-long news conference about quarantines — which are backed by city and state health officials — took a new turn as he speculated it might have spread the disease.

"'I don’t even know that that was the best public health policy. Young people then quarantined with older people, [it] was probably not the best public health strategy,' he said. 'The younger people could have been exposing the older people to an infection'....

"Cuomo’s office said the governor was referencing a study by a Yale professor, who wrote a column that appeared in the opinion section of the New York Times last week. They pointed the Post to nearly identical comments Cuomo made about the topic during a press conference Monday, when he explicitly named the piece’s author, Dr. David Katz.

"'There’s a theory of risk stratification that Dr. Katz who’s at Yale University is working on, which is actually very interesting to me,' Cuomo told reporters then. 'Isolate people but really isolate the vulnerable people. Don’t isolate everyone because some people, most people, are not vulnerable to it.'

He added: 'And if you isolate all people, you may be actually exposing the more vulnerable people by bringing in a person who is healthier and stronger and who may have been exposed to the virus.'"

Read more: https://nypost.com/2020/03/26/cuomo-admits-that-quarantine-may-have-backfired-in-some-cases/

How the Cuomovirus ravaged New York

Andrew Cuomo's Coronavirus Response Has Been a Failure | Reason - Billy Binton:

July 17, 2020 -"New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo ... has been the subject of several fawning media interviews over the course of the last few months, many of them conducted by his own brother, CNN's Chris Cuomo.... This past Monday he appeared on Jimmy Fallon's first night back.... Fallon praised how 'honest' and 'smart' Cuomo is. 'We're just worried the infections are going to come from the other states now, back to New York, and that would be a tragedy," Cuomo said....

"Passing the buck to other states is a savvy political move. But it obscures Cuomo's own response to COVID-19. As of today, New York has seen more than 32,000 of its residents die from the disease. That's more than seven times the deaths in Florida, about nine times the deaths in Texas, and more than four times the deaths in California.... Of the state's total, more than 22,000 deaths came from New York City....

"Cuomo certainly isn't to blame for all of the state's troubles. Plenty of politicians performed poorly, from President Donald Trump down to New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, and some factors were outside any official's control. But the governor did plenty wrong....

"In late March, when COVID-19 measures were still in their nascent stages, not much was known about the virus. One thing that was known, though, was that the elderly were significantly more at risk to die should they contract it. Yet Cuomo issued a mandate requiring nursing homes to accept residents who had tested positive for COVID-19, including those who were still at risk for spreading the disease to others. Since then, around 6,500 people in those facilities—about 6.5 percent of the state's nursing home population—have died of COVID-19.... Cuomo has declined to share which nursing homes were affected. The directive was not reversed until May 10.

"Earlier in March, the governor adopted a blasé attitude about the virus. 'This isn't our first rodeo,' he said at a March 2 press conference, after the state's first known case was announced. 'We should relax.' The governor assured everyone that he was implementing a robust contact tracing program that would track down everyone on the patient's flight from Iran. That never happened.

"Once the outbreaks became more widespread, hospitals across the country began depending on their state governments for oxygen supplies.... An over-reliance on Cuomo proved to be a fatal mistake. According to an investigation by The Wall Street Journal, many ventilators sent from the state and city, as well as some from the federal government, were old and faulty, and many patients died on them. A spokeswoman for NYC Health + Hospitals told the Journal that many such machines "were not 'ready to go' when they came" and often required additional maintenance. Several health care workers claim that patients assigned those ventilators often worsened with collapsed lungs or similar complications as the machines were not able to provide proper support.

"What's more, Cuomo's near-exclusive focus on ventilators neglected to address other hospital needs, such as the demand for supplemental oxygen and oxygen monitors.... The lack of vital-signs equipment proved detrimental as well. Health care workers detailed stories of patients pulling off their oxygen masks while alone. Without monitors, they died.

"Meanwhile, Cuomo got drawn into a public power struggle with de Blasio. The mayor announced a city-wide shelter-in-place on March 17; Cuomo squashed that on March 18; then Cuomo issued his own stay-at-home order on March 20. Something similar happened when de Blasio announced that the city's schools would remain shuttered through the academic year: Cuomo declared that only he had that authority.... And that back-and-forth may have had consequences beyond prompting confusion. The Journal reports that patients in New York City were often transferred between hospitals without the relevant medical and treatment information, even when those patients were not in stable condition. The city blames the state and the state blames the city.

"But mixed messaging defined Cuomo's initial response to COVID-19, which teetered between cavalier and dismissive. Though he's said he wishes he 'blew the bugle' sooner, he has spent considerably more time blaming the press, the experts, and the president.

"New York's crisis moment has passed for now, with the curve flattened and daily deaths bottoming out.... But if the government's response hadn't been so incompetent, that landmark may have come a lot earlier."

Read more: https://reason.com/2020/07/17/andrew-cuomo-coronavirus-response-new-york-failure/

COVID-19 patients sent to nursing homes in NY

Was Governor Cuomo Responsible for the Death of Thousands of Nursing Home Inhabitants? American Institute for Economic Research - Ethan Yang:

June 19, 2020 - "The 56th Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo,... has enjoyed a sky-high approval rating due to his leadership during the ongoing [COVID-19] crisis. However, his record is far from stellar. He may have easily committed one of the greatest atrocities of the crisis: Mandating the transfer of over 4,500 COVID-19 patients to nursing homes full of vulnerable and elderly individuals which eventually saw over 6,000 deaths....

"On March 25th, Governor Cuomo issued an executive order forcing nursing homes to receive patients from overflowing hospitals. The order mandates that 'During this global health emergency, all NHs must comply with the expedited receipt of residents returning from hospitals to NHs'.  As a result over 4,500 COVID-19 patients were forcibly transferred from hospitals to nursing homes regardless of their capacity to accept them.

"According to the Associated Press, 'New York has not mandated testing in its more than 1,150 nursing homes and long-term care facilities'. In fact, the executive order went further to forbid the required testing of COVID-19 within the facilities. The language was as follows: 'No resident shall be denied re-admission or admission to the NH solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19. NHs are prohibited from requiring a hospitalized resident who is determined medically stable to be tested for COVID-19 prior to admission or readmission'....

"Cuomo himself had said protecting nursing home residents was the state’s top priority, once calling the threat “fire through dry grass. Cuomo was correct about the vulnerability of nursing homes, as the weeks following the executive order saw 6,000 deaths out of the 100,000 New York citizens inhabiting nursing homes.... Nationwide, more than 45,500 residents and staff have died from coronavirus outbreaks at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, according to a running count by The Associated Press. That’s about 40% of more than 115,000 total deaths. Nursing home residents are less than 1% of the U.S. population....

"On May 10, 2020, the executive order was thankfully rescinded, but the Governor and his officials have certainly mounted a defense of their decision. Pro Publica writes that the state Health Department was lax if not completely uninvolved in monitoring what happened after patients were sent to nursing homes. There are also disputed claims on whether or not the state was even recording deaths in nursing homes until late April....

"Pro Publica states that 'The Cuomo administration would not say who conceived of the order or answer the question of whether it believed the order had led to additional deaths. The administration said the Health Department was conducting 'a thorough review' of COVID-19’s impact on nursing homes....

"During a press conference on May 20 Governor Cuomo ... stated that 'anyone who wants to ask, why did the state do that with COVID patients in nursing homes? It’s because the state followed President Trump’s CDC guidance'.... Politifact determined this statement to be 'mostly false'.... CDC guidance did not call for the mandatory transfer of patients to nursing homes nor did it prohibit further testing for COVID-19. An official at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services cited a March 13 document that clarifies 'A nursing home can accept a resident diagnosed with COVID-19 and still under Transmission Based Precautions for COVID-19 as long as the facility can follow CDC guidance for Transmission-Based Precautions.'"

Read more: https://www.aier.org/article/was-governor-cuomo-responsible-for-the-death-of-thousands-of-nursing-home-inhabitants/

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