Speaking at his press conference on Monday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo claimed he was going to have a great holiday season, adding, “Santa’s going to be very good to me; I can tell. I worked hard this year.”
Cuomo’s blithe statement triggered a blunt reply from Fox News meteorologist Janice Dean, whose husband lost both of his parents to the coronavirus as they were located in nursing homes or assisted living facilities. Dean fired back, “Worked hard to help kill seniors, jobs and New York State in general?”
Worked hard to help kill seniors, jobs and New York State in general?
— Janice Dean (@JaniceDean) December 21, 2020
At the press conference, Cuomo stated:
In general, what we’re doing is what most states are doing; we’re just a little bit ahead of it. It’s a footrace between increasing vaccines and slowing the spread. That’s all this is. We’re in the midst of the holiday season. And the number one spread, overwhelmingly, is small gatherings, living room spread, 75% of the spread is coming from that area. …
He turned to the holiday season:
And we’re in the heat of the holiday season, right? I said before Thanksgiving you think about it as Thanksgiving; I don’t think about it as Thanksgiving; I think about it as day one of 37 days of holidays, which is a totally different socialization pattern from any other time of the year. And the socialization pattern is what determines the spread of the virus. Thanksgiving was our first test, and what you’re seeing from the data is we did not have the spike that other places had.
And interesting, it looks like there were more gatherings, more air travel in other parts of the country, and where there was more air travel and more gatherings there was more of a spike in terms of Thanksgiving cases, which suggests all the admonitions about celebrate, but celebrate safely, if you don’t have to travel, don’t travel actually had an effect here in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut. So that’s good news.
After arguing that the Biden team and the Trump team were on the same page regarding the vaccine, Cuomo asserted, “Stop the politics and actually save lives. Save lives. You see those high infection rates? High positivity rates? High hospitalization rates? You know what they translate into? High death rates. And that is going to be inarguable.”
Seemingly unconscious of how many New Yorkers have died from the virus during his tenure, he stated:
There’s going to be a time when people turn around and say, “Why did 57 people die and why did we have more people die than anywhere else?” You don’t want to answer that question, and the answer can’t be because we played politics.
Then he turned to how great his holiday was going to be, boasting; “So. A healthy holiday, and I’m going to have a great one. Santa’s going to be very good to me; I can tell. I worked hard this year. Social distance; wear a mask; be smart. Be smart.”