Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told New Yorkers to stay off the roads on Monday due to a severe winter snow storm despite that fact that he said on a radio interview that he was driving into the city himself.
Rules for thee, but not for me is a very common theme among democrat leaders. Cuomo declared a state of emergency and warned of significant delays with potential travel bans.
“When snow is falling that quickly, it makes it very difficult for plows to keep up with it,” Cuomo said. “I want New Yorkers to hear me loud and clear – stay home and off the roads and if you must travel, get where you’re going before noon, and expect to remain home for some time. We’ve been through this before and we will get through it again.”
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced restrictions on all non-essential travel beginning at 6 a.m. ET on Monday. Local forecasts called for up to two feet of snow in the New York City area.
Despite the declarations, Cuomo revealed during an interview with WINS radio in New York that he was “personally driving into New York City” as the storm intensified.
At one point in the interview, WINS reporter Juliet Papa asked Cuomo if it was “a great idea” for him to be driving given the dangerous road conditions.
“Life is options, Juliet. Right?” Cuomo said in response. “The airports are closing as we speak and for me, it’s walking or driving and for me, I’ll take driving. We have a lot of emergency workers that are doing great work today.”
Cuomo explained that he felt a responsibility to carry out his duties since he had activated emergency workers in advance of the storm.
“If I call them out, I’m not calling anyone into a situation I wouldn’t go into myself,” Cuomo said.
Gov. Cuomo says addicts in rehab facilities will get COVID vaccine this week ahead of general population, elderly
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday that addicts in the state’s rehabilitation facilities will be inoculated with the coronavirus vaccine this week, cutting in front of the general population and elderly people that aren’t living in nursing homes.
Meanwhile, the elderly are the most at-risk for contracting the virus.
At a press conference in Albany, Cuomo said that residents in facilities operated by the Office of Addiction Service and Supports will be given the vaccine, as well as employees at urgent care centers and health care workers tasked with administering the vaccines.
Cuomo said that after giving the vaccine to front line healthcare workers and nursing home residents last week, the state is expected to receive 259,000 combined doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines this week, BizPacReview reports.
Cuomo said that OASAS is next in line because residents live in close quarters.
“That’s where you have a lot of people in concentration,” Cuomo said.
Individual states have set their own vaccine rollout plans. Some states, including Massachusetts, have announced plans to prioritize prisoners for vaccination.
Andrew Cuomo is shattering NYC’s restaurant business...for no reason
The restaurant industry is perhaps the most essential part of New York City’s social and economic sectors – from small, family-owned restaurants to world-renowned establishments, the industry is the second-largest component of tourism spending.
But, at least 4,500 restaurants have been forced to permanently close their doors thanks to Governor Cuomo’s never-ending coronavirus restrictions.
As cases continue to rise, the Democrat ordered an end to all indoor dining starting on Monday, with NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio in full support of the ban.
“The hospitalizations have continued to increase in New York City,” Cuomo said. “We said that we would watch it if the stabilization, if the hospital rate didn’t stabilize we would close indoor dining. It is now. We’re gonna close indoor dining in the city on Monday.”
Cuomo’s decision has received enormous backlash because of its disregard for the facts.
Dave Portnoy, the founder of Barstool Sports, blasted the dining ban, calling it “insanity” in a Twitter rant Friday.
Politicians Are Stealing the Basic Right To Earn A Living pic.twitter.com/9Yx9Vf1iP1
— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) December 11, 2020
“I can’t believe in this country, what I consider the most basic right of them all, the right to earn a living, the right to earn a livelihood, is now being stolen,” he continued. “It is being stolen by a few politicians who believe they are smarter than me and you.”
According to the state’s contact tracing program, restaurants and bars have contributed a mere 1.4 percent to the total number of cases, while personal gatherings have driven nearly 75 percent.
So, essentially, Cuomo is shutting down an industry, pulverizing small businesses and putting workers out of a job only to make a microscopic dent in case numbers.
And restaurant owners are infuriated.
“We’ve been following everything that they gave us – the guidelines, we changed our air filter systems, we do the protocols of taking temperatures, getting people to sign the [contact tracing] papers, everything from A to Z,” one restaurant owner told the New York Post. “It’s just not right you have small businesses that are day to day surviving, and day to day they’re trying to pay the bills and day to day trying to feed their staff who are trying to feed their kids.”
Closing down restaurants takes away one of the few options New York City residents have to socialize, and because humans need social interactions, household gatherings will likely skyrocket – and so will case numbers.
