When news broke over the last couple of weeks that the Governor of New York Andrew Cuomo, unanimously praised by the media for his handling of the COVID pandemic, was involved in a potential cover up of thousands of nursing home deaths, I must say I rolled my eyes. Not in shock or disbelief, but because stories like this hardly surprise me nowadays. For those of you unfamiliar with the shocking story, which is now under investigation by the FBI and U.S. attorney, you can read about it here. It was already known for the best part of a year that New York had failed its elderly nursing home residents, who were dying in horrifically large numbers—compared to anywhere else in the country.
The widespread hero-worship heaped on Andrew Cuomo since the beginning of the pandemic (he achieved almost cult status on social media, including among many people I know personally), has completely baffled me. It was almost as glowing as the praise heaped on the Governor of the state that I live in, Charlie Baker. This is not a political issue for me: Cuomo is a Democrat and Massachusetts’ Baker is a Republican. It’s that the media doesn’t seem to care whatsoever about actual results—but more about whether people seem to be saying the right thing and catering to what “feels good”. Because as of February 2021, official statistics show that the 3 states in America with the worst COVID death rates are New Jersey, New York and Massachusetts. This has been the case for almost 12 months now. Meanwhile the 3 best performing states are Hawaii, Vermont, and Alaska. Other states that the media seems to spend the most time criticizing, including Florida and Texas—are nowhere near as bad as New York and Massachusetts.
So where’s the disconnect here? What am I missing? Am I being weird for caring about actual results before deciding if a Governor is successful? When I first heard that Andrew Cuomo was winning an Emmy award last November, I thought it was a joke. It wasn’t. It was the result of a media and Hollywood elite, who had inexplicably been fawning on him since last March, whilst completely ignoring the real statistics. The award was for “masterful briefings” and “following science”, and I encourage everyone to google the media stories of his award, to see for yourselves how unquestionably luminous the praise for Cuomo was. Better still, simply go online and plug in the search terms “Andrew Cuomo” and “love”. You will be met with a barrage of headlines from last year, ranging from “Why We Are Crushing on Andrew Cuomo Right Now” (March 2020 Vogue), to “No One Does It Like Andrew Cuomo” (Washington Post July 2020). Again, I repeat: if New York was a country, it would have one of the highest COVID death rates in the world—and be among the most dangerous places to live. This pains me to say, as a huge fan of the Empire State, with many friends there, and someone who spends a lot of time in Manhattan. The United States is a federal republic, and no matter how strong the arguments are about an inadequate federal response, we will always essentially be like “50 small countries”, with responsibility for public health falling squarely on the Governor. The amount of pain and suffering in New York state has been made infinitely worse by poor leadership, and my heart goes out to all those families who have lost elderly relatives.
If Andrew Cuomo is now found to be criminally negligent for what happened—and I believe in the rule of law and due process. But if he is, I hope the media establishment will pause and consider why they hero worshipped a leader who presided over such a devastatingly high pandemic toll. But I’m not optimistic. I know deep down inside the media is only a short step away again from finding their next false prophet.
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ADDENDUM:
After writing the above blog post, further allegations of misconduct emerged regarding Andrew Cuomo. This time from women who alleged sexual harassment from him. The story is ongoing, you can read the initial claims here.
Suneel Dhand is a physician, writer, and YouTuber. He is Founder at MedStoic Lifestyle Medicine and DocsDox . Follow him on YouTube and Instagram