I’ve been watching Governor Cuomo of New York conduct his daily briefings almost every day and I’m very impressed with him and what he says about how his state is handling this crisis. I’m very pleased when I hear him expound on his strategies for dealing with this threat and what he strongly believes the U.S. government and this president should be doing.
He looks like a leader, he talks like a leader, and he is, without question, a real leader. It appears that Governor Cuomo must have been studying China’s strategy relative to its coronavirus response because his strategy is very much along the same lines. His policies and actions, along with those of China and South Korea, should be acknowledged as models for the world.
In Cuomo I see a high-ranking official who is showing empathy and sympathy, he is inspirational, and he exhibits a rare form of leadership that has been sorely lacking in our country and, most certainly, in Washington DC.
Unfortunately, as he tries to guide his state in these efforts he has an obstacle blocking his way that the leaders in China did not have to put up with; and that is one Donald J. Trump, the “unpresident” of the U.S.
China was the first country hit by the virus in early January and its government, after a bit of vacillating, sprung into action. If its leaders had not acted that quickly this massive country of some 3.5 billion people could have been devastated.
Right now the U.S. has 250 cases per million, China with a population 5 times greater has only 57 per million, Hong Kong 60, Taiwan 11, Singapore 117, Japan 11.
China’s central government has been in control right from the start and has coordinated all the efforts. It did not allow the vast number of hospitals or officials in the provinces to go their own way and compete against each other for protective equipment, supplies, and ventilators.
Chinese leadership delegated various aspects of coordinating efforts to specific government agencies. They tracked the volumes of patients and the supplies of equipment to determine where the greatest areas of need were and distributed them accordingly. And it has worked very well.
Those who are trying to build the case that China deliberately planted this virus in other countries are nothing more than purveyors of misinformation as is Trump who keeps referring to it as the Chinese virus. No one knows where this virus originated, it could have been in almost any country.
I’ve read reports saying that in China the number of cases of this virus at the peak of the problem was thousands per day and that is now down to about two dozen. At one point there were about 760 million people confined to their homes, half of its entire population.
This guy Trump is a world-class vacillator, he is all over the place, changing his opinions and strategies from one day to the next, exactly what America doesn’t need right now. Just recently he recommended a short-term quarantine of parts of New York, NJ, and CT. Cuomo was asked what that meant, how it would be implemented, and he said, “I have no idea.”
About one day later we heard that Trump, because of massive pressure from many areas, backed off this reckless, irresponsible suggestion. What we are watching is a colossal case of mismanagement such as we have never seen before by a U.S. president. He is showing he is a great danger to this country.
The magnitude of Trump’s total incompetence because of his failure to act as far back as January 20, has been brilliantly documented in this article by reporters with the Guardian News., “The missing six weeks: how Trump failed the biggest test of his life.”
When you read what he did and didn’t do you will be very, very shocked and troubled You will realize that he should be held personally responsible for the many thousands of deaths of Americans that will be the victims of his failure to act at that time.
Thank God for Governor Cuomo, his fellow governors, and mayors of cities across our country. When they sensed that the federal government and this president were failing to manage this crisis as the nation required they took all kinds of actions to attack it themselves. They are the heroes, together with doctors, nurses, technicians, EMT s, and other medical personnel in every state.
Just imagine what things would be like if Governor Cuomo had been the president instead of Trump for the past three years. Sure we would still have a massive virus problem, a crisis, in America. But what we would also have is an entirely capable president, a strong leader, one who would be managing the response to the crisis in a very competent, effective manner.
I believe that the level of fear, panic, and feelings of hopelessness would be far less if Cuomo were the president. Sadly he is not our president, but know what? Who says that he can’t be in a matter of months if Democrats realize that he would be their best candidate for president. Then we could see a powerful movement come together and make him their candidate instead of Joe Biden.
Think positive and it might well happen.
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