Beginning Jan. 20, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo acquired a new problem. He cannot very well blame President Biden for his performance on the coronavirus, so he now lacks a federal scapegoat toward which to deflect blame for his own shortcomings.
As a consequence, both Cuomo and his erstwhile cheerleaders in the media have been forced to come to grips with the utter incompetence underlying his ostentatious, self-indulgent behavior. The pandemic has caused more death in his state than in any other, and a higher rate of death than in any other save New Jersey. And there is now ample evidence that Cuomo’s specific policy decisions brought this tragic situation about and also that he tried to cover it up.
What’s new now is that, as Cuomo bungles the distribution of vaccines, the media are suddenly noticing that most of his public health staff gradually resigned beginning last summer, feeling devalued and frustrated at the governor’s incompetent micromanagement of matters they could have handled more capably.
But wait, there's also good news: As long as you’re not Cuomo and you’re not living in his New York, your public officials are probably doing a lot better. New York’s death toll outstrips that of even much larger states, including some that have done far less damage to their economies with lockdowns.
Perhaps the best example of a large state succeeding amid this crisis is conservative Gov. Ron DeSantis’s Florida. Florida is larger in population than New York, more disproportionately elderly, visited by more potentially infected tourists, and (as of the last census) its population is more concentrated in urban areas. Yet somehow, in spite of all these disadvantages, Florida’s death rate from the coronavirus is roughly half that of the Empire State. (Before you leap to attribute this to the sunny weather, note that Arizona, Louisiana, and Mississippi are all in the top 10 for death rate, whereas frigid Vermont, Idaho, Maine, and Utah are near the bottom.)
If the goal were to minimize coronavirus deaths while also maximizing the openness of one’s state, the numbers bear out DeSantis’s success. In addition to having a much lower death rate, Florida had 25% fewer hospitalizations and 25% fewer new cases as of the end of January. In contrast to Cuomo’s heavy-handed vaccination policies, which had hospitals doing all the heavy lifting and resulted in many doses being thrown out rather than given to the “wrong” people, DeSantis has created drive-thru testing and vaccination sites and expects to administer more than 300,000 shots this week.
In contrast to Cuomo, DeSantis was unendingly crucified and vilified by the media for his far more targeted approach, which focused on protecting the most vulnerable while letting society and the economy function to the extent reasonably possible.
The media threw a fit over his keeping beaches and schools open, as though they were certain this would result in mass die-offs. They also promoted a bogus conspiracy theory about the state manipulating the number of deaths. They were all just plain wrong.
Meanwhile, the openness has paid dividends in helping Florida’s economy stay afloat amid the crisis. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, New York had lost 2.5 times as many jobs as Florida as of December, year-over-year. That’s more than a million jobs, seasonally adjusted, compared to Florida’s 400,000. New York also just lost another 37,000 jobs in December as Florida added more than 15,000, and Florida’s unemployment rate, at 6.1%, was 2 points lower than New York’s as of Dec. 31.
Someone is doing something right. So far, credit has not gone where it is due, but you can’t hide a success story like this one forever.
