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Comment by untog | Hacker News Reader

As a New Yorker it's been eye opening to see the extent of the Cuomo worship nation (world?!) wide during the COVID outbreak. The view of Cuomo from many in the city was quite negative before, and I've been waiting to see how long it'll be before perceptions snap back to reality. Stories like this feel like the start of that, and there will be much more to come.

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The problem is people praise a ship captain who wrestles the ship control 1 inch away from the iceberg, not the captain who proactively avoids icebergs from a mile away.

And the iceberg scraped the side, dragging several thousand into the icey depths.

Got in a quick trip to the gym though.

People usually bring up the population density and travel point to say why NY and NYC in particular is doing so bad but it is a lot to do with attitude of the leaders. This[1] is a tweet from March 2 from the city's mayor. I know it hadn't gotten bad anywhere except China and Iran at this point. But Italy's case growth curve had a sharp uptick by this point with total cases reaching about 2k. Lockdown was unnecessary but encouraging people to go out in crowded places was just silly.

[1] https://twitter.com/BilldeBlasio/status/1234648718714036229

The mayor (and other elected officials) definitely has some blood on his hands. Not saying he willfully was trying to harm anyone but his mistakes cost lives.

As a former New Yorker, I think there are several factors in play.

One is that, basically, he's doing the right thing now, whatever early missteps. That matters.

Another is contrast - being competent is, sadly, not a given with our current leadership.

A final one is just that US culture specifically and humans generally flock to leaders in times of crisis. He's being a leader, there you go.

Rudy "noun, verb, 9-11" got the same treatment until he started making noises about violating the term-limit rules, as much as folks hated him.

I find it particularly odd given that the reason Cuomo is in the spotlight is because his state has done so so poorly, even compared to areas with similar density.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think any area in the US has "similar density" to NYC

OK, correcting you since you're wrong: It's not just New York City that's done badly, but smaller cities and areas of upstate New York that are quite similar to large parts of the rest of the country (that have done comparatively better).

> OK, correcting you since you're wrong: It's not just New York City that's done badly, but smaller cities and areas of upstate New York that are quite similar to large parts of the rest of the country (that have done comparatively better).

If by upstate NYC you mean Westchester County, that's still largely affected by the spread of the virus in NYC given how interlinked the two communities are.

Going by https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/new-york-coronav..., NYC is the most affected per capita, with Westchester placing #3

Basically, yes (technically it's #6): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_b...

And the 5 above it are the same metro area.

Yeah, but the truth is in what you don't say. The top 8 density areas were all NYC metro area, all of them small small population cities (<70k) except for NYC at #6 with over 8,000,000 population!

I think for various reasons that population density metric does a bad job of capturing density as a metric relevant to infectious diseases. The percent of the population that uses public transportation is a probably a more relevant metric, and in NYC that might be over 100%, since so many non-residents use it.

San Francisco is around 60% of the density of NYC. Outside of the US, cities like Taipei, Hong Kong, and Seoul are all similarly densely populated and have largely avoided the problems that have befallen New York due to quick responses and smart planning.

Yes, NYC had factors that made it particularly susceptible in a global pandemic of Covid-19: (1) high density (as you say), (2) lots of international travel to and from NYC, (3) heavily used public transit (covid virus lifespan on metal surfaces -- like poles people hang on to in subway trains -- is long).

Not to mention the fact that the American people were advised not to wear masks...

What would you have had New York do differently without the support of the federal government?

Can the state government close airports and prevent flights from Europe landing in NYC?

No but the Feds have already shipped supplies, built hospitals and closed travel to China & Europe.

NYC has the economy of some small countries and they do have the backing of the Fed, no matter what excuses Cuomo gives.

They could have started pushing social distancing measures earlier. Also, they might not be able to close airports on their own but if I am not mistaken screening and quarantining is something they could have started enforcing(or more strictly if they were already doing it).

Require masks in enclosed public places.

Cuomo undermined Byford at every turn in order to avoid the MTA turnaround being associated with someone not him.

What is more eye opening is the extent that a narrative can culminate for someone's future political ambitions, from their own party and from the media. Anyone that doesn't think Cuomo has his eyes set on a 2024 run is insane.

I escaped New York a couple of years ago, and never particularly cared for Cuomo. Right now I think he's benefiting from the "wartime bump" Trump was hoping for, and basking in the comparison between him and the POTUS.

Trump has been such a complete failure, and demonstrated such complete ignorance, that any kind of competency shines in contrast.

We're at the point in American politics where "believing science" and "accurately quoting statistics" is a heroic stand, and people are jumping on the Cuomo train because he's a comparative light in the darkness.

I hope this means that people are motivated to vote in November and take their government back, and I hope that the US is prepared to vote in a safe and secure manner. Unfortunately, McConnell and the GOP are blocking any such efforts.

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