After presiding over 20,000 more COVID-19 deaths than any other state in the country, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo decided to take a victory lap over the virus during the disastrous first day of the virtual Democratic National Convention.
“COVID is the symptom, not the illness,” a triumphant Cuomo said of what he deems the “European virus.”
“In many ways,” he added. “COVID is just a metaphor.”
For Cuomo, who has been feted by the media as the delectable Love Gov hero of the pandemic and “the control freak we need right now,” it may very well feel like the coronavirus was a mere metaphor. With his speech, it’s clear that Cuomo has reveled in the meme of his dispassionate, patronizing press conferences, eager to extend them as he auditions for the Biden administration cabinet.
But far more galling is this horrendous notion that not only did New York succeed overcoming the coronavirus, but that Cuomo did not actively exacerbate the crisis.
Consider this: Cuomo was one of the only governors in the nation to force nursing homes to readmit COVID-19 patients, primarily the sorts primed for fatal complications, who tested positive for the coronavirus. Furthermore, Cuomo unleashed the virus on the rest of the country, refusing to initiate travel restrictions or travel guidance out of New York or even shut down travel.
The man who deemed New York’s handling of a pandemic that unnecessarily killed thousands of seniors a monumental success clearly doesn’t care about the actual lives lost more than the narrative casting him as some paternalistic thought leader of the Democratic Party. But that he’s willing to call a pandemic that destroyed hundreds of thousands of lives and tens of millions of jobs a mere “metaphor” simply goes to illustrate the gross callousness of a man who should not be anyone’s hero.
