After weeks of criticizing President Trump, often unfairly, for his response to the coronavirus pandemic, The New York Times published a lengthy and rather damning piece on Wednesday detailing the belated and at times counterproductive response of the two most prominent Democratic leaders in New York: New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. For, finally, providing a more even-handed critique of the Democratic politicians calling the shots at the epicenter of the pandemic in the U.S., some of the Times’ readers have thanked the paper, though many made a point of noting that the critique was coming rather late in the game.
The Times report has been given a conveniently equivocal title — “How Delays and Unheeded Warnings Hindered New York’s Virus Fight” — which fails to directly point the finger at de Blasio or Cuomo, but its subtitle better summarizes the content of the piece: “The federal response was chaotic. Even so, the state’s and city’s own efforts failed to keep pace with the outbreak, The Times found.” Even that more direct criticism, however, does not accurately present just how badly the Times found that the two Democrats initially botched their response.
The report begins with the first confirmed case of the virus in New York City on March 1 — and both Cuomo and de Blasio vowing to take action that, the Times learned, was never taken (formatting adjusted):
A 39-year-old woman took Flight 701 from Doha, Qatar, to John F. Kennedy International Airport in late February, the final leg of her trip home to New York City from Iran. A week later, on March 1, she tested positive for the coronavirus, the first confirmed case in New York City of an outbreak that had already devastated China and parts of Europe. The next day, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, appearing with Mayor Bill de Blasio at a news conference, promised that health investigators would track down every person on the woman’s flight. But no one did. – READ MORE
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