New York Governor Andrew Cuomo speaks to the media at the Javits Convention Center which is being turned into a hospital to help fight coronavirus cases on March 24, 2020 in New York City. New York City has about a third of the nation’s confirmed coronavirus cases, making it the center of the outbreak in the United States. (Photo by Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images)
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said new projections from health officials suggest instead of flattening, "the curve is increasing" and lambasted the federal government for its lack of action on distributing ventilators and for refraining from using the Defense Production Act.
The governor said the apex of the disease is approaching faster than anticipated and could come as soon as 14-21 days from now. He raised the number of hospital beds needed in the state to 140,000 beds and 40,000 ICU beds. New York currently has 3,000 ICU beds and 53,000 hospital beds. A few days ago, he said the state had projected it would need 110,000 beds.
Cuomo had previously included more hopeful notes of encouragement in his press conferences but on Tuesday delivered concerning news. "The apex is higher than we thought and the apex is sooner than we thought," he said.
Nearly half of the nationwide coronavirus cases are in New York state. Overnight, the case count rose by 5,000, bringing the total to more than 25,000 statewide.
"No one is testing more than we are testing," Cuomo said. "In many ways, we have exhausted every option available to us."
The governor noted that 23 percent of hospitalizations so far have needed ventilators and that 13 percent of positive diagnoses have required hospitalization as of Tuesday.
"We haven't flattened the curve, and the curve is actually increasing," Cuomo said from the Javits Center in Manhattan, which is being turned into a 1,000-bed emergency hospital by the Army Corps of Engineers.
On Monday, Dr. Deborah Birx, who is in charge of the White House response, said the attack rate in New York and New Jersey is five times higher than for the rest of the United States. The attack rate is the percentage of a population that catches the disease.
Cuomo was pointed in his criticism of the federal government for so far sending only a small fraction of needed ventilators to New York. "You want a pat on the back for sending 400 ventilators?" the governor demanded of the White House. "What are we going to do with 400 ventilators when we need 30,000 ventilators? You're missing the magnitude of the problem, and the problem is defined by the magnitude."
Cuomo said the state has so far procured 7,000 ventilators but needs 30,000 and, without more options for ventilators available, will start attempting the unusual plan to split them between people.
"If we don't have ventilators in 14 days, it does us no good," Cuomo assessed, again lamenting what he expressed was the lack of aid. "Not to exercise [the Defense Production Act] is inexplicable to me."
President Trump, during a Coronavirus Task Force town hall on Fox News Tuesday, struck back at the New York governor saying "I watch him on this show complaining."
"I'm not blaming him, but he shouldn't be talking about us," Trump said, referring to a claim that Gov. Cuomo neglected to purchase additional ventilators for the state in 2015. "He should be buying his own ventilators."
Still, citing New York's current 25,665 cases of the novel coronavirus, the governor called on Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar to release 20,000 ventilators in the federal stockpile.
"The problem is the volume," he said. He asked the federal government to deploy ventilators around the country as needed as different states approach their own curve rates of infection while noting that New York has the greater need at the moment.
After passing its critical period, he said that the state would then move the ventilators to the next region addressing a crisis.
"I will take personal responsibility for transporting the 20,000 ventilators anywhere in this country that they want once we are past our apex," he said. "But don't leave them sitting in a stockpile."
After the Chicago teachers union voted to work remotely due to what they say is a lack of safety protocols amid the COVID-19 surge, the school system canceled classes on Wednesday, citing harm that remote learning has done to the city's children. Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, joined Cheddar to discuss the issues surrounding the latest dispute between educators and schools. She said that the return to in-person learning would likely be halted until more COVID tests could be provided for districts. "This is a terrible situation for everybody, and we need the testing, and we need the masks," she said. "It's the omicron surge that has created this disruption, and we are trying to do the best we can. And this is the only school district that has this kind of action right now." The teachers might not be returning to their schools for at least two weeks amid the ongoing tensions.
Illinois State Senator Robert Martwick joins Cheddar News to discuss the new bill he co-sponsored allowing students in the state to take 5 mental health days without a doctor's note.
On Monday, President Biden announced his new plan to take on inflation by taking down the big meat monopolies - turning to the federal government's antitrust authorities to investigate the major meatpackers that control a significant share of the market. The White House plans to devote one billion dollars to aiding independent meat and poultry producers in an effort to undercut the few powerful meat producers that have control of the sector. Austin Frerick, deputy director of Thurman Arnold Project at Yale, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
As the pandemic drags on, so does the widespread great resignation. In November alone, 4.5 million Americans quit their jobs, marking a new record high, and showing a 9 percent jump from the month prior. On the flip side, the number of people filing tax paperwork to start new businesses is surging, with over 430,000 new businesses launching in November. Rhett Buttle, the founder of Public Private Strategies and national business advisor to the Biden for President campaign, joined Wake Up with Cheddar to discuss.
New York Attorney General Letitia James is ramping up a civil investigation into The Trump Organization. The AG's office has subpoenaed Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. They have refused to comply with the subpoenas. Bradley Moss, national security attorney, joins Cheddar News to discuss the next steps in this investigation.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has officially reduced the 110-year prison sentence of truck driver Rogel Aguilera-Mederos to 10 years, calling the initial lengthy sentence “unjust.” Dan Gilleon, constitutional attorney at Gilleon Law Firm APC, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
Former Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams was sworn in as the newest Mayor of New York City. Adams is now expected to work on a number of issues such as crime and coronavirus. Erin Durkin,, reporter at PoliticoNY, joins Cheddar News to discuss more.
California's new composting law will affect what residents do in their kitchens. As of this week, Californians will have to recycle excess food in an effort to reduce emissions caused by food waste. Cities and counties will turn recycled food into compost or use it as a renewable energy source. California's new law is the largest mandatory residential food waste recycling program in the country. Rachel Wagoner, Director of the California Department of Resources, Recycling and Recovery called the law 'the biggest change to trash' since recycling started in the 1980s. She joined Cheddar Climate to discuss.
As the U.S. comes up on the first anniversary of the January 6 insurrection.,A.C. Thompson, investigative reporter at ProPublica, joined Cheddar's Baker Machado to discuss updates to American Insurrection by FRONTLINE, ProPublica and Berkeley Journalism’s Investigative Reporting Program. The documentary investigates the attack on the Capitol touched off by the lie that the presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump but with new information gleaned since the event including interviews with lawmakers and law enforcement and the evolution of groups like the Boogaloo Boys and the Proud Boys behind the attack. "In some ways those groups that were kind of the vanguard of January 6 are maybe no longer relevant because their message is everywhere," he said.
