Is N.Y.’s Andrew Cuomo the Worst Governor in America?

Eric Zuesse

On May 15th, ProPublica bannered  “Two Coasts. One Virus. How New York Suffered Nearly 10 Times the Number of Deaths as California” and reported that N.Y.’s Governor Andrew Cuomo stopped NYC’s Mayor Bill DeBlasio from imposing extreme social distancing measures for a while, and, “In April, two prominent experts said in a New York Times opinion article that their research showed that had New York imposed its extreme social distancing measures a week or two earlier, the death toll might have been cut by half or more.” Furthermore: “an estimated 90 percent of the cumulative deaths in the United States from Covid-19, at least from the first wave of the epidemic, might have been prevented by putting social distancing policies into effect two weeks earlier, on March 2, when there were only 11 deaths in the entire country. The effect would have been substantial had the policies been imposed even one week earlier, on March 9, resulting in approximately a 60 percent reduction in deaths.”

In addition, as everybody knows, a large percentage of coronavirus deaths occur in nursing homes. And, on the same day, May 15th, the Daily Caller News Foundation headlined “New York Admits Knowingly Undercounting Nursing Home Deaths After Quietly Changing Reporting Rules”.

Furthermore, on May 26th, David Sirota headlined “Cuomo Gave Immunity to Nursing Home Execs After Big Donations — Now People Are Dying. Critics say data proves New York’s liability shield is linked to higher nursing-home death rates during the pandemic.” Britain’s Guardian bannered on May 13th, “US nursing homes seek legal immunity as Covid-19 spreads ‘like brushfire’” and argued for more regulations in the U.S., instead of for any personal liability at all, no matter how many people might get needlessly killed by bad executive decisions. And they quoted a Harvard professor (perhaps well paid by corruptors): “Putting a nursing home out of business because somebody died is really punishing at the wrong level, because certainly there are nursing homes that probably did not act responsibly, or they may have ignored the threat. But so did many government agencies.” So: the only effective policy — personal executive liability — that could address this problem, was essentially ruled out by that liberal newsmedium. And that Harvard professor didn’t volunteer to suggest it and the reporter failed to even mention it. However, that Guardian reporter did point a finger of blame at healthcare in the U.S. being a privilege of those who have the ability to pay for it, instead of a right of all residents, and she noted that, “Nearly 70% of US nursing homes are for-profit, and the industry has a reputation for lackluster performance around infection control.” On May 14th, TIME bannered, “‘A License for Neglect.’ Nursing Homes Are Seeking — and Winning — Immunity Amid the Coronavirus Pandemic” and reported only about the total chaos in America’s legal system, which produces total legal immunity for anyone who can pay for the ‘best’ lawyers. Of course, that’s a corrupt country.

So: if Andrew Cuomo is responsible for N.Y.’s having more coronavirus cases (360,000) than all nations but the U.S. (1,700,000) and Brazil (377,000), and Russia (362,000), then is that because all of these places are especially corrupt?

Could be. But the percentages per population are, of course, far more significant a measure, and here those are, expressed as cases per million population: U.S.=5,211; Brazil=1,779; Russia=2,483; N.Y.=19,202.

But how does NYC compare to, for example, Tokyo? Tokyo has 5,170 cases and 9,300,000 population. That’s 560 cases per million. NYC has 200,000 cases, and 8,400,000 population. That’s 23,809 cases per million. (It’s only slightly worse than the rest of New York State.)

Hong Kong has 1,066 cases, and 7,450,000 population. That’s 143 cases per million.

America isn’t the worst country in the world, but it’s pretty bad, and N.Y. State is simply what it claims to be: it’s “the empire state.” And maybe Andrew Cuomo is merely an ordinary N.Y. Governor. But, clearly, he is horrid. Maybe America has some that are worse, and maybe America’s President, Donald Trump is even worse, and maybe Joe Biden also is, but, clearly, they’re all very bad.

But what can be expected in such a corrupt country?

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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of  They’re Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of  CHRIST’S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity.