New York Governor Andrew Cuomo suggested the state is beginning to reach its apex of coronavirus cases, though he cautioned that numbers are changing daily.
Announcing 599 deaths in the last 24 hours, Cuomo called the fatality number “effectively flat for two days,” which he said hints at a possible flattening of New York’s curve, along with fewer hospital and ICU admissions. Early projections showed the state would need 55,000 to 110,000 hospital beds, and the governor noted that the state is tracking at a rate lower than the initial modeling suggested.
“If we are plateauing, it’s because social distancing is working,” he said, however, he also stated that numbers could still continue to rise.
“The big question that we’re looking at now is: what is the curve?” he asked rhetorically, before saying that the curve could either be a short peak or a longer plateau, which would still overburden an already strained system.
Cuomo said the state will continue moving ventilators to New York City's public hospital system and that the state will continue its “surge and flex” program to shift gear and equipment to hospitals most pressed at any given time.
“This is a hospital system where we have our foot to the floor, and the engine is at redline and you can’t go any faster,” he described. “Staying at this level is problematic.”
The governor also announced an extension of NY Pause, extending restrictions on schools and nonessential businesses to April 29 and that he planned to ask President Trump to designate the USNS Comfort, currently being underutilized due to what Cuomo said was lower-than-expected non-COVID hospitalizations, a treatment center for coronavirus patients.
When asked about the availability of ventilators, Cuomo said “all of them” are being used. “We’re beyond capacity.”
“We are into the Plan B, C, D that we outlined,” he said. But, “we don't need any ventilators right now,” he said on his way out of the press conference. Despite hospitals using BIPAP machines and splitting ventilators, the New York governor expressed that he does not believe anyone has lost their life due to a lack of equipment or staffing. “The people we lost are the people we couldn’t save.”
He also displayed photos from New York City parks in an effort to chastise people for not staying inside, calling it “wholly unacceptable,” and announced an increase in the maximum fine for breaking social distancing rules to $1,000.
“What right do you have to act irresponsibly in a way that could get you sick, or someone else sick, and then I have to send an ambulance to pick you up and bring you to an emergency room that’s already overburdened?” Cuomo asked.
Regarding drug trials of hydroxychloroquine and Zithromax, Cuomo claimed that they have had some positive results but that those results were anecdotal and not yet conclusive.
Daniel Madrzykowski, research director at the UL Fire Safety Research Institute, joins Cheddar News to discuss the deadly Bronx fire that killed 19 people and fire safety tips that people need to know about.
Markets closed the day mixed, and well off their lows of the day following a market meltdown earlier in the session. The Nasdaq staged a comeback late in the day, even amid ongoing worries about the Federal Reserve raising interest rates. Doug Flynn, certified financial planner and co-founder of Flynn Zito Capito, joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss the markets' close and what's driving the major indexes.
Two companies recently announced a new partnership aimed at addressing the growing demand to borrow against crypto - digital assets capital markets firm CrossTower is partnering with commercial bank, BankProv. The companies are launching a crypto lending platform that will allow Bitcoin miners to receive loans to invest in crypto mining equipment. The companies say the program also addresses the difficulty of breaking into crypto mining due to the high cost. CrossTower research analyst Martin Gaspar joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
Next-gen social sports platform Break the Love recently raised $2.5 million in seed funding. Break the Love's platform and iOS app allows users to discover and book group-based tennis activities, to either learn, train, or compete. The new company has already gotten support from a few big names in the world of tennis, including the coach of Naomi Osaka, as well as the United States Tennis Association and the brand Wilson. Break the Love founder and CEO Trisha Goyal joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
As the Omicron variant continues to sweep across the country. The US Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments at the end of this week on whether or not the Biden administration can force private companies to vaccinate or test millions of their employees. In addition, the National Nurses United has spearheaded legal action to protect nurses and health care workers, patients, and the public while on the job. President of the National Nurses Union, Zenei Cortez, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
China's ongoing crackdown of its own entertainment industry has been raising eyebrows for once now. With the ruling Communist Party instructing media companies to boycott immoral and overly entertaining stars. But the country has gone even further. Now experts warn that this could lead to further issues such as gender-based violence. Professor at the Institute of Sociology at National Tsinghua University, Hsiu-Hua Shen, and Associate Professor of Politics at Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame Joshua Eisenman, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
Today marks one year since the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol. The Country watched as supporters of then-President Trump stormed what was assumed to be the most secure building in the country in an attempt to stop the certification of the 2020 Election. Several lawmakers, including the Vice President, could be seen ducking down as they feared for their lives. Democratic Michigan Representative Dan Kildee, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
Bed Bath & Beyond delivered disappointing fiscal third-quarter results for 2022. Shares initially dove more than 9% in premarket trading on the news but finished the day up nearly 8%. Bed Bath & Beyond has been a meme-stock target for online investors in the past -- so was meme-stock mania a factor in the recent stock movement for the company? Jaime Rogozinski, the founder of the subreddit WallStreetBets, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell for more, as his forum helped spark the meme stock phenomena. He also discussed some decentralized finance services and trends for the retail investor to watch for in 2022.
Digital medical care provider Pear Therapeutics rang the closing bell on the Nasdaq Friday and President and CEO Dr. Corey McCann, joined Cheddar to talk about how the company plans to grow the business of software-based therapeutics and how the first FDA authorized prescription digital therapeutics company will go about treating illnesses like insomnia and addiction. "These really are pieces of software. In many cases, they're apps and in the cases of our addiction products, these are based on something called cognitive behavioral therapy or CBT," he said. "These products change the patient's brain circuitry to help them be abstinent, to help them stay in treatment, and that's exactly what we see in randomized clinical trials and that's what we see in the real world." He also addressed the ongoing mental health crises brought on by the pandemic. **copy updated to remove IPO information as Pear Therapeutics went public in December**
