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‘Not My Responsibility’: New York Gov. Cuomo Dodges Blame For High Death Toll In State

   DailyWire.com
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 21: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo arrives with a face mask at a news conference on May 21, 2020 in New York City. While the governor continued to say that New York City is seeing a steady decline in coronavirus cases, he also mentioned that the number of countries reporting a mysterious illness in children believed to be connected to COVID-19 has nearly doubled in just one week. (Photo by S
Spencer Platt/Getty Images

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has been endlessly praised by the mainstream media, but by the numbers, his state has done far worse than any other in America in handling the outbreak of COVID-19.

New York state has the most coronavirus cases in the United States. As of Friday, there have been 28,743 COVID-19 deaths in the state, the fourth most populous in the U.S., with more than 19 million people. But California, the most populous state at nearly 40 million residents, has had just 3,604 deaths. Texas, second-most populous at about 29 million, has had only 1,461 deaths. And Florida, No. 3 on the list at 21 million and home to many elderly residents, comes in between the two, at 2,190 COVID-19 deaths.

In fact, New York has more deaths than the next five hardest-hit states combined, according to Johns Hopkins Center for System Science and Engineering.

But Cuomo said Thursday that none of that is his responsibility. The governor said that if “the country” — not his administration, the country — knew earlier, things could have been much easier.

“If this country knew more and knew it earlier, I think we could’ve saved many, many more lives,” he said. “I mean, if you think about it in retrospect, the virus is in China, November, December, everybody knows that.

“By the time you get to March 16 — starts in China November, December, you think we have January, February, March. We now know that the virus left China, got on a plane, and went to Europe. And from Europe, the virus got on a plane, came to the United States, and came to New York,” Cuomo said, noting that by then, 3 million Europeans had traveled to New York.

“If you — if you knew that the virus left China November, December and went to Europe, you would have done a European travel ban December 31. China travel ban December 31. How many lives could you have saved? So I think it’s actually — when you start to do Monday morning quarterbacking, I think it goes back before that,” he said.

Then he added: “Now, who should have known, it’s above my pay grade as governor of one state,” Cuomo said at his daily press conference. “But what federal agency, what international health organization? I don’t know. It’s not what I do. It’s not my responsibility. But somebody has to answer that question.”

Cuomo didn’t mention that New York state has seen more nursing home deaths from the coronavirus than any other state. Why? Cuomo enacted a state directive that required nursing homes to take in coronavirus-positive patients, which brought the virus sweeping through the most vulnerable population.

“New York has seen over 5,300 coronavirus-related deaths in nursing homes, which is about one-fifth of the nation’s total of nursing home deaths (about 26,000). The Associated Press reports an average of 20 to 25 nursing home deaths per day in the state of New York,” the AP wrote Monday.

How did Cuomo respond to the news? He said at a recent briefing that providing masks and protective wear to nursing homes is “not our job” because the homes are privately owned.

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