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Who Will Pay for Tests? States or Federal Government
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WPCNR CORONAVIRUS REPORT. From the Governor Cuomo Press Office. April 16, 2020:
Wednesday night, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo was a guest on CNN’s Cuomo Prime Time to discuss New York’s ongoing effort to combat the corona virus. The program revealed that apparently the Federal Government at this time is unwilling to fund the amount of money to pay for increasing the ability of private labs to process an exponential volume of tests. Here is that discussion:
Governor Cuomo: That’s a legitimate issue. I knew you would get to one sooner or later. Look, the way I think of it is, when is it over, over? It’s over, over when you have a vaccine. Then people know the virus is dead. That’s 12 to 18 months, so the question is how do you get from here to 12 to 18 months? Well, maybe they’ll come up with a medical treatment, convalescent plasma, et cetera. Yeah, maybe. Otherwise, we have to get from here to 12 months, 18 months. We have to start to phase in the opening of the economy while we’re watching the public health consequences and the number of hospitalizations, et cetera.
Testing is the best mechanism for you to get through this 12 to 18 months. Now, why doesn’t the President want to go near testing? Because testing is a quagmire. No one can do it. No one can bring it up to scale quickly. It is very complicated. I have spent days and days on this. Government doesn’t really do testing, it’s really a private lab function. To now take testing and ramp it up to where you have to bring it, Chris, is an impossibility.
Chris Cuomo: Help me understand, because when people hear you say, “nobody can do it,” why? Why is it so hard? Is it about not having enough tests? Not enough people? Not enough labs? Why can’t America do it when we can do everything?
Governor Cuomo: It’s all of the above. It’s all of the above. Can we do it? Yes. Can you do it in one month? Well, no. So everybody’s reaction is hands off because this is now going to be the blame game. Well, there wasn’t enough testing. Who’s to blame? That’s why the President said 11 times, after I said 11 times, the states can’t do the test. You’ve never heard me say, “I’m not capable. I give up.” I don’t like to say it. It’s not who I am, it’s not what I believe. I said it because I want to make sure we’re clear: I can’t do it. I can’t bring it to scale. This gets very complicated. It was all of the above. They don’t have enough manufacturing equipment, they don’t have enough vials, they don’t have enough swabs, they don’t have enough machines. The private labs don’t have the capacity. They need testing agents that don’t even come from this country. There’s a whole international supply chain to this.
To grab hold of this is very problematic and we just went through this situation of how do we build ventilators in 14 days. That turned out to be very complicated. This testing is now what ventilators was in this new phase. I said I can’t do it. President said the states must do it. The states are saying, “we can’t.” This has to be justified, this dispute. It’s not even a dispute. The truth is nobody can do it well. You can’t bring that industry to this volume, this scale, nationwide. We can’t have 50 states – what’s happening now, is I’m competing against all the other states for those private sector companies that have some capacity.
I’m trying to buy tests. I called Governor Pritzker. There’s a company in his state that does these tests and they’re one of the leading companies. I said, “How do we do this? I don’t want to compete with you.” But every state is now competing and the federal government. This is madness. We did this with ventilators. It can’t be 50 states scrambling and bidding for the same product from the same 10 companies in the country. It can’t be.
“STOPPING THE SPREAD IS EVERYTHING.” NY APEX EASES DOWN. STILL 2,253 NEW CASES REPORTED YESTERDAY. GOVERNOR: MUST WEAR FACE MASK IN PUBLIC FRIDAY
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DETAILS REOPENING “MUSTS”
NO LAB CAPACITY TO ANALYZE MULTI-MILLIONS IN TESTS NATIONWIDE
BUSINESS OPENINGS BASED ON ESSENTIALITY
WPCNR GOVERNOR CUOMO CORONAVIRUS REPORT. By John F. Bailey. April 15, 2020:
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo detailed how New York will come back today in a program that emphasized stopping the spread, making sure the spread is stopped, and described a structured reopening plan driven by faster testing, and careful analysis of the essentiality of businesses that would open in sequence.
He said the Apex of infections in New York State had eased in a definite downward trend, but noted that though incubations of persons (going on ventilators) had declined, 2,253 new hospitalizations of persons with corona virus were reported.
He said the state would categorize nursing home deaths, not attributing all deaths to coronavirus(though WPCNR notes the rise in nursing deaths corresponded directly to the spread of the coronavirus). Nursing homes are nowrequired to tel persons with loved ones there if they have covid-19 cases there.
The Governor confirmed 11,571 additional cases of novel coronavirus, bringing the statewide total to 213,779 confirmed cases in New York State.
To emphasize the need to stop spreading the Governor announced a new executive order making it mandatory persons going out in public had to wear a face mask, which could be made out of cloth and cover the nose and mouth. The order is to be effective this Friday, April 17.
The Governor provided how he felt the New York “Bridge to Normal” would proceed. The first was massive testing of persons coming back to work. Testing essential workers and health care providers first. Then employees coming back to work in essential businesses. (more on that later in this ariticle.)
He said: “When you relax that social distancing, you could very well see an increase in the infection rate. So it’s all a calibration to the public health. But it’s going to be a gradual increasing of economic activity in calibration with the public health, public health standards. The single best tool to doing this gauging, right, is large-scale testing. Test, trace and isolate.”
He also announced the New York State Health Department had developed an antibody test, which can be administered by a pinprick taking blood from a person who has recovered from the coronavirus.
The state is asking the Food and Drug Administration to authorize the new antibody test for use beginning next week. With approval the state could conduct 100,000 tests a week. The Governor also said the state wanted to use saliva tests.
However the massive testing needs analysis, which suggests another problem:
New York’s 228 labs will process most of the NY tests, the governor said, and they would also help analyze tests in Michigan and Maryland which are other states being hard hit. He announced he has started the New York ventilator sharing policy he had promised two weeks ago. He is sending 100 New York State ventilators to Michigan and 50 to the state of Maryland to handle the outbreaks gripping those states.
The Governor said the nation does not have the laboratory capacity to analyze the tests of all 50 states to give states a handle on the virus states of penetration. He pointed out the federal government has to act to set up more lab testing facilities, to speed the testing states not facing high coronavirus spread yet will rapidly fill out private labs, and probably have to pay a premium for test analysis in bidding wars. The governor said states are “broke,” that the federal government has to spend to set up those labs, that the states cannot handle the testing capacity they need.
The governor gave insight into how businesses would be selected to be opened. He outlined a process that involved which businesses would be deemed essential, based on the service/business provided, and the number of essential public workers were needed, police,fire, health, ambulances, etc. The essential businesses would open first: testing persons in the city who returned to work to see if they were infected. Next another tier of essential businesses not so essential as the first would be allowed to open. Testing would continue. What businesses were considered the most essential were not specified.
Questions in the press “Q. & A.” center on the “Must Wear Face Masks” State Order, focusing on how it could be enforced. The Governor said that you wear the mask off, but if you were approaching someone or a group of people on a street crossing so to speak, you had to put the mask back up. Asked about penalities, the Governor said there would be none to start, but he would see how compliance was before he specified penalties.
The Governor said:
“Stopping the spread is everything. How can you not wear a mask? I hope New Yorkers will do it because it makes sense.”
Below is the county-by-county listing of where the cases are Metropolitan area counties are in BOLD FACE.
the virus, the geographic breakdown is as follows:
| County | Total Positive | New Positive |
| Albany | 548 | 13 |
| Allegany | 28 | 0 |
| Broome | 153 | 7 |
| Cattaraugus | 32 | 0 |
| Cayuga | 36 | 3 |
| Chautauqua | 24 | 1 |
| Chemung | 69 | 5 |
| Chenango | 71 | 3 |
| Clinton | 45 | 0 |
| Columbia | 96 | 12 |
| Cortland | 23 | 1 |
| Delaware | 46 | 1 |
| Dutchess | 2,048 | 114 |
| Erie | 1,751 | 83 |
| Essex | 12 | 0 |
| Franklin | 13 | 0 |
| Fulton | 24 | 2 |
| Genesee | 76 | 0 |
| Greene | 73 | 7 |
| Hamilton | 3 | 0 |
| Herkimer | 40 | 1 |
| Jefferson | 47 | 0 |
| Lewis | 7 | 0 |
| Livingston | 31 | 0 |
| Madison | 105 | 1 |
| Monroe | 884 | 34 |
| Montgomery | 32 | 0 |
| Nassau | 26,715 | 1,465 |
| Niagara | 204 | 7 |
| NYC | 118,302 | 7,837 |
| Oneida | 246 | 17 |
| Onondaga | 449 | 18 |
| Ontario | 62 | 1 |
| Orange | 5,716 | 138 |
| Orleans | 33 | 2 |
| Oswego | 42 | 1 |
| Otsego | 44 | 0 |
| Putnam | 571 | 13 |
| Rensselaer | 124 | 4 |
| Rockland | 8,474 | 139 |
| Saratoga | 227 | 3 |
| Schenectady | 237 | 2 |
| Schoharie | 20 | 0 |
| Schuyler | 6 | 0 |
| Seneca | 18 | 0 |
| St. Lawrence | 92 | 0 |
| Steuben | 151 | 4 |
| Suffolk | 23,278 | 816 |
| Sullivan | 424 | 9 |
| Tioga | 25 | 1 |
| Tompkins | 115 | 3 |
| Ulster | 733 | 43 |
| Warren | 77 | 0 |
| Washington | 42 | 2 |
| Wayne | 48 | 0 |
| Westchester | 20,947 | 756 |
| Wyoming | 34 | 2 |
| Yates | 6 | 0 |
MAIL FOR YOUR ABSENTEE BALLOT APLICATION NOW TO VOTE IN JUNE 23 PRIMARY FOR NY ASSEMBLY DISTRICT 97 AND CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT 17
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LETTER FROM MAYOR ROACH–WEAR MASKS VISITING STORES, BUSINESSES/
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WPCNR THE LETTER TICKER. APRIL 15, 2020:
I have issued a new emergency declaration that requires individuals to wear a face covering when working at, visiting, or patronizing a business in the city of White Plains.
The face covering does not have to be a mask but must cover your nose and mouth. The use of face coverings does not change the social distancing requirements but rather is intended to augment them. Details are available on our website.
If you have recovered from the coronavirus, you are encouraged to donate your plasma. Please see the NY blood center’s website at: https://nybc.org to fill out the donor request form. The demand is high and you may save a life.
RideConnect of Family Services of Westchester has set up a shopping program for older adults to help keep them safely at home. Volunteers get a client’s grocery list, do the shopping and drop the groceries off at the client. If you need help shopping for groceries or medications, call them at (914) 242-7433.
Remember we are standing together by staying apart!
Letter from the Governor
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WPCNR THE LETTER TICKER. April 15, 2020:
| April 14, 2020. Remember: Our actions determine our destiny. This virus spreads in ways we now understand via person-to-person transmission that can be airborne. We know that we can actively prevent its spread by staying home, by wearing face coverings when we are out of the house and by standing six feet away from others in public. New Yorkers should be proud that we have flattened the curve and we are continuing to do so every day. But this is far from over: The moment we become lax, the virus will take advantage. We must stay the course. Here’s what else you need to know tonight: 1. Some positive news — and some terrible news. For the first time since we began recording the data, the total number of hospitalizations has dipped down in New York State. We also saw a drop in the number of intubations for the second day in a row. That’s the good news; it shows that what we are doing is working. But the tragic news is that we lost 778 New Yorkers to this virus yesterday(Monday). The number of daily fatalities has been essentially flat — but at a horrifying rate. We mourn every New Yorker we’ve lost. 2. I am calling for a fair federal stimulus bill for New York. Congress must appropriate an additional $500 billion specifically for states and territories to meet the states’ budgetary shortfalls that have resulted from the unprecedented public health crisis. In the absence of this, states will have to confront the prospect of significant reductions to critical services, hampering public health and the economic recovery. 3. Due to Coronavirus, there is a shortage of blood and blood donations are desperately needed. New York State is working with blood banks to ensure safe social distancing protocols are being followed. Learn how and where you can donate at ny.gov/donateblood. 4. Other ways you can help. In addition to giving blood, there are many ways New Yorkers can help with the state’s coronavirus response, from donating goods and services to contributing to the state’s First Responders Fund to volunteering. And you can continue to help us just by social distancing and acting responsibly. Learn more here. Tonight’s “Deep Breath Moment”: In order to liven up mundane chores, people around the world are finding some levity by dressing up while taking out the trash. From wearing unicorn costumes to wedding dresses, people are getting creative to make social distancing a bit more uplifting. If you were forwarded this email, you can subscribe to New York State’s Coronavirus Updates here. Ever Upward, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo |
LAST NIGHT, THE RMS TITANIC STRUCK AN ICEBERG AT 11:40 PM. 2-1/2 HOURS LATER SHE SANK, DROWNING 1,500 PASSENGERS. 108 YEARS AGO
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WPCNR MILESTONES. By John F. Bailey. April 14-15, 2020.
She began her voyage, four days ago, 108 years ago, April 10, 1912.
She carried over 2,200 passengers and crew and was the largest ocean liner of her time ever built.
They were the rich and famous, the poor and hopeful.
She was guaranteed unsinkable.
Her owners, the White Star Line, wanted to set a new speed record for crossing the Atlantic.
Her captain had been warned their northerly course would take it through an iceberg field.
On April 13, a Saturday evening, 108 years ago, sailing under a crisp clear,calm starlit sky at 11:40 PM after an evening of partying aboard ship, prior to arrival in New York on Sunday, the ship sideswiped an iceberg.
She was the Titanic.
She was the ship of dreams.
Today, she is the ship of nightmares as her hundreds of passengers from all walks of life perished together in the ruthless sea. The cold fateful, unforgiving frigid indifferent eternity of the sea.
The Titanic’s fate was a lesson that changed maritime laws.
Two and a half hours after the iceberg collision the Titantic sank at 2:20 A.M., early the morning of April 15, (this morning) on that night to remember.
This is an excerpt from the testimony of a survivor, Emily Maria Borie Ryerson watching from a lifeboat desperately trying to row away from the suction of the sinking ship, at the 1912 U.S. Senate SubCommittee Hearing on the Titanic sinking:
“The order was given to pull away. Then they rowed off—the sailors, the women, anyone – but made little progress; there was a confusion of orders; we rowed toward the stern, someone shouted something about a gangway, and no one seemed to know what to do. Barrels and (deck) chairs were being thrown overboard.
“Then suddenly, when we (in the lifeboat) still seemed very near, we saw the ship was sinking rapidly. I was still in the bow of the boat with my daughter and turned to see the great ship take a plunge toward the bow, the two forward funnels seemed to lean and then she seemed to break in half as if cut with a knife, and as the bow went under, the lights went out; the stern stood up for several minutes, black against the stars, and then that, too, plunged down and there was no sound for what seemed like hours, and then began the cries for help of people drowning all around us, which seemed to go on forever.”
Dorothy Gibson, the silent screen actress and survivor – from her testimony before the committee—observed from a lifeboat– in an excerpt from her testimony before the same committee, said:
“Suddenly there was a wild coming together of voices from the direction of the ship of the ship and we noticed an unusual commotion among the people huddled about the railing. Then the awful thing happened, the thing that will remain in my memory until the day I die.
The Titanic seemed to lurch slightly more to the side and then the fore. A minute, or probably two minutes, later she sank her nose into the ocean, swayed for a few minutes and disappeared, leaving nothing behind her on the face of the sea but a swirl of water, bobbing heads and lifeboats that were threatened by the suction of the waters.”
The Titanic’s fate was traced to the negligence and reckless disregard of the risk of sailing at 22 knots through an icefield, and 16 lifeboats for 2,200 persons, insufficient number of lifeboats.
And in recent years, analysis of the hull plates recovered from the wreck of the ship on the ocean floor indicated a faulty, economical brittle bolt selection in constructing the hull.
The White Star Line owner J. Bruce Ismay, onboard that night, callously saved his own life by slipping into a lifeboat.
Ismay in a statement, denied telling the Captain of the Titanic to set a new speed record and denied telling the Captain to increase the ship speed in the ice field region. Also said he just happened to be near a lifeboat about to be lowered and no more women and children around to board, and that was why he got into the lifeboat.
So much for corporate responsibility and guilt of any kind, even then.
Not much has changed in corporate world over the decades since this night and morning to remember.
2 County Police Officers Rescue Woman from Submerged Car in Macy Park
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Pulled from her vehicle after it entered the water
WPCNR POLICE GAZETTE. From Westchester County Police. April 14, 2020:
A Westchester County Police sergeant jumped into frigid waters today to rescue a woman whose car drove into Woodlands Lake at V.E. Macy Park in Irvington.
Sgt. Jeff Slotoroff swam out to the vehicle, reached in through a partially opened window to unlock the driver’s side door, and was able to force it open enough to remove the woman from the car.
As he swam back toward shore holding the woman, Captain James Luciano tied a rescue rope around his waist, entered the lake and was able to take over bringing the victim to safety as other officers on land held the rope to stabilize them.
The incident began about 9:30 a.m. when County Police received 911 calls reporting that a vehicle had driven into Woodlands Lake.
The woman, who remained conscious during the incident, was taken by ambulance to Westchester Medical Center for treatment. County Police are investigating what caused her car to go into the lake.
“Sgt. Slotoroff and Captain Luciano put themselves in harm’s way to rescue this driver. I commend them for their skillful and courageous actions,” Public Safety Commissioner Thomas A. Gleason said.
An Ardsley police officer and a woman who was riding her bike in the park also entered the water in the effort to rescue the woman. Gleason thanked them along with fire and EMS personnel that responded to the scene.
Woodlands Lake, which is fed by the Saw Mill River, is usually about 5 feet deep but was likely higher and more turbulent as a result of yesterday’s significant rainfall.
Members of the County Police Emergency Service Unit also responded, searched the vehicle to ensure no one else was inside it and secured it before it became fully submerged. The vehicle will be removed from the lake this afternoon
“I WILL NOT FIGHT WITH THE PRESIDENT. I WILL FIGHT TO PROTECT THE PEOPLE OF NEW YORK STATE. WE ARE AT THE APEX, ON THE PLATEAU.”
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BIDDING WAR OVER NEW TEST BUYING. URGES FEMA TO TAKE OVER.
WPCNR GOVERNOR CUOMO BRIEFING REPORT. By John F. Bailey. April 14, 2020:
Governor Andrew Cumo addressed the difference of opinion between him and President Donald Trump in the daily briefing this morning in Albany over presidential powers.
He said the matter of bringing back state economies is too big a matter to pick a fight over. He said four times in the conference “I will not fight with the President.”
Governor Cuomo also said, “I will fight to protect the citizens of New York State.
The governor announced 778 New York residents died yesterday from the corona virus bringing the state total to 10,884 since the epidemic began 44 days ago.
In discussing the plan for recovery for the New York metropolitan area, the Governor said the figures from yesterday continue to show the state has reached the apex and is continuing in a plateau of the progress of the disease.
Positive indicators, he said continued to hold up the state analysis. The net hospitalizans curve is down. The number of new corona virus hospitalizations yesterday was 1,649. The net hospitalizations yesterday were down. The new incubations(putting patients on ventilators) was at an all-time low.
In the news conference “Q & A,” the governor said he saw the same kind of bidding war developing in New York competing with other states to purchase tests, because only a handful of testing companies make tests, and the kind of tests New York State wants, (tests with 95% accuracy). The governor urged the government to step and purchase the tests and distribute.
“Don’t replicate the 50-state pandemonium in purchasing medical equipment in purchasing tests in an EBAY bidding war,” the governor warned. Governor Cuomo said in order to open up New York City and the metropolitan area there has to be a lot of tests done as people return to work, as just one of the problems in reopening that has to be addressed.
Deputy County Executive Ken Jenkins, Community Mental Health Commissioner Michael Orth host Facebook LIVE:”Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic” Today, 11:00 a.m. Link: https://www.facebook.com/westchestergov/
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