Caymans Post

A world within. A state apart.
Thursday, Apr 18, 2024

New York governor calls coronavirus the ‘European virus’

Governor Andrew Cuomo’s remark appeared to be a dig at President Donald Trump who has insisted on calling the pandemic the ‘China virus’.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo dubbed the new coronavirus the “European virus” during a video message to the Democratic National Convention.

“Our current federal government is dysfunctional and incompetent. It couldn't fight off the virus, in fact it didn't even see it coming. The European virus infected the north-east while the White House was still fixated on China,” Cuomo said on Monday.

Cuomo was one of the first Democratic luminaries to speak at a convention that the pandemic has effectively forced online to keep thousands of party faithful from gathering and spreading the virus.

His remark appeared to be a dig at President Donald Trump who had repeatedly insisted on calling the pandemic the “China virus”, though his opponents often accuse the president of verbalising racist overtones by insisting on the term.

The virus was first detected in Wuhan, China, though some studies have said the New York outbreak may have come from European travellers who did not know they were infected.

Trump last week again referred to the “China virus” in an interview with the New York Post, where he discussed plans for his acceptance speech for the presidential nomination.

“I’ll probably be giving my speech at the White House because it is a great place. It’s a place that makes me feel good, it makes the country feel good,” the Post quoted Trump as saying in an interview.

“We’d do it possibly outside on one of the lawns, we have various lawns, so we could have it outside in terms of the China virus,” Trump said.

Cuomo, 62, a potential presidential contender in 2024 or 2028, said the Trump administration remained unprepared to overcome a pandemic that slammed into New York City five months ago.

“This is a man-made threat by our own negligence,” he said. “We now see the virus ricocheting across the country from one state to another. Today we trail the world in defeating Covid. We have over 5 million cases.”

More than 170,000 people in the US have died from Covid-19, according to Johns Hopkins University.

With more than 32,000 deaths, New York remains the hardest-hit state. But Cuomo’s strict lockdown and methodical reopening have turned it into a model for recovery with a low level of contagion this summer even as the virus continues to ravage Florida, Texas and other parts of the country that rushed to reopen.

When New York was the pandemic’s epicentre in April, Cuomo’s daily briefings became must-watch TV nationwide as he sought to help Americans absorb the enormity of the crisis.

His command of the health data and empathy with the suffering of New Yorkers contrasted with Trump’s disregard for scientific expertise, refusal to call for nationwide sacrifice and reluctance to recognise the pain of those who have lost loved ones.

Cuomo’s popularity soared as Trump’s dropped.

Cuomo suggested Covid-19 was a symptom of a sharply divided nation in crisis. He cited anti-Semitism, “anti-immigrant fervour” and the racism on display in the violent 2017 demonstration in Charlottesville, Virginia, “where the KKK didn’t even bother to wear their hoods”.

Donald Trump didn’t create the initial division,” Cuomo said. “The division created Trump. He only made it worse.”

He described Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden as “a leader who appeals to the best within us, not the worst, a leader who can unify, not divide, a leader who can bring us up, not tear us down”.

Steve Guest, the rapid response director at the Republican National Committee, said Biden’s record of responding to pandemics when he was vice-president was “dismal”.

“Andrew Cuomo’s appearance at Joe Biden’s convention is a stark reminder of the Democrats’ failed responses to pandemics,” he said, citing the H1N1 pandemic of 2009 and 2010.

In that outbreak, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 12,469 people died in the US. In the Ebola outbreak of 2014, the agency said, one person in the US died.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Caymans Post
0:00
0:00
Close
Paper straws found to contain long-lasting and potentially toxic chemicals - study
FTX's Bankman-Fried headed for jail after judge revokes bail
Blackrock gets half a trillion dollar deal to rebuild Ukraine
Israel: Unprecedented Civil Disobedience Looms as IDF Reservists Protest Judiciary Reform
America's First New Nuclear Reactor in Nearly Seven Years Begins Operations
Southeast Asia moves closer to economic unity with new regional payments system
Today Hunter Biden’s best friend and business associate, Devon Archer, testified that Joe Biden met in Georgetown with Russian Moscow Mayor's Wife Yelena Baturina who later paid Hunter Biden $3.5 million in so called “consulting fees”
Singapore Carries Out First Execution of a Woman in Two Decades Amid Capital Punishment Debate
Google testing journalism AI. We are doing it already 2 years, and without Google biased propoganda and manipulated censorship
Unlike illegal imigrants coming by boats - US Citizens Will Need Visa To Travel To Europe in 2024
Musk announces Twitter name and logo change to X.com
The politician and the journalist lost control and started fighting on live broadcast.
The future of sports
Unveiling the Black Hole: The Mysterious Fate of EU's Aid to Ukraine
Farewell to a Music Titan: Tony Bennett, Renowned Jazz and Pop Vocalist, Passes Away at 96
Alarming Behavior Among Florida's Sharks Raises Concerns Over Possible Cocaine Exposure
Transgender Exclusion in Miss Italy Stirs Controversy Amidst Changing Global Beauty Pageant Landscape
Joe Biden admitted, in his own words, that he delivered what he promised in exchange for the $10 million bribe he received from the Ukraine Oil Company.
TikTok Takes On Spotify And Apple, Launches Own Music Service
Global Trend: Using Anti-Fake News Laws as Censorship Tools - A Deep Dive into Tunisia's Scenario
Arresting Putin During South African Visit Would Equate to War Declaration, Asserts President Ramaphosa
Hacktivist Collective Anonymous Launches 'Project Disclosure' to Unearth Information on UFOs and ETIs
Typo sends millions of US military emails to Russian ally Mali
Server Arrested For Theft After Refusing To Pay A Table's $100 Restaurant Bill When They Dined & Dashed
The Changing Face of Europe: How Mass Migration is Reshaping the Political Landscape
China Urges EU to Clarify Strategic Partnership Amid Trade Tensions
Europe is boiling: Extreme Weather Conditions Prevail Across the Continent
The Last Pour: Anchor Brewing, America's Pioneer Craft Brewer, Closes After 127 Years
Democracy not: EU's Digital Commissioner Considers Shutting Down Social Media Platforms Amid Social Unrest
Sarah Silverman and Renowned Authors Lodge Copyright Infringement Case Against OpenAI and Meta
Italian Court's Controversial Ruling on Sexual Harassment Ignites Uproar
Why Do Tech Executives Support Kennedy Jr.?
The New York Times Announces Closure of its Sports Section in Favor of The Athletic
BBC Anchor Huw Edwards Hospitalized Amid Child Sex Abuse Allegations, Family Confirms
Florida Attorney General requests Meta CEO's testimony on company's platforms' alleged facilitation of illicit activities
The Distorted Mirror of actual approval ratings: Examining the True Threat to Democracy Beyond the Persona of Putin
40,000 child slaves in Congo are forced to work in cobalt mines so we can drive electric cars.
BBC Personalities Rebuke Accusations Amidst Scandal Involving Teen Exploitation
A Swift Disappointment: Why Is Taylor Swift Bypassing Canada on Her Global Tour?
Historic Moment: Edgars Rinkevics, EU's First Openly Gay Head of State, Takes Office as Latvia's President
Bye bye democracy, human rights, freedom: French Cops Can Now Secretly Activate Phone Cameras, Microphones And GPS To Spy On Citizens
The Poor Man With Money, Mark Zuckerberg, Unveils Twitter Replica with Heavy-Handed Censorship: A New Low in Innovation?
Unilever Plummets in a $2.5 Billion Free Fall, to begin with: A Reckoning for Misuse of Corporate Power Against National Interest
Beyond the Blame Game: The Need for Nuanced Perspectives on America's Complex Reality
Twitter Targets Meta: A Tangle of Trade Secrets and Copycat Culture
The Double-Edged Sword of AI: AI is linked to layoffs in industry that created it
US Sanctions on China's Chip Industry Backfire, Prompting Self-Inflicted Blowback
Meta Copy Twitter with New App, Threads
The New French Revolution
BlackRock Bitcoin ETF Application Refiled, Naming Coinbase as ‘Surveillance-Sharing’ Partner
×