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NY Gov Cuomo Updates Coronavirus Response; NY Gov: Curve Appears to be Heightening, Not Flattening. Aired 11a-12:00p ET
Aired March 24, 2020 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[11:00:00]
RICHARD QUEST, CNNMONEY EDITOR AT LARGE: He literally has the true definition of the word dilemma and at the moment the evidence would suggest
that he's better off sticking with the lockdowns.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our country wasn't built to be shut down. We're not going to let the cure be worse than the problem.
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN HOST: Right. Welcome back. We want to take you live to New York now. The state is dealing with about half of the cases in the
United States right now. Governor Andrew Cuomo is holding a press conference. Let's listen in.
GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): They do and they have really stepped up and risen to the occasion. So I want to thank them.
Let me take you through some facts today because we have some new facts, changes and circumstances that are not encouraging. And I want to make sure
people understand them and we react accordingly.
The increase in the number of cases continues unabated. As a matter of fact, the rate of increase has gone up. We have the most sophisticated
people you can get doing projections on this. They have been studying projections from China, South Korea, Italy, places all across this country.
What they are now seeing is the rate of cases, the rate of new infections is doubling about every three days. That is a dramatic increase in the rate
of infection. And this whole discussion all along has been how fast does the rate of increase spread.
And can we slow the rate of increase?
We're not slowing it and it is accelerating on its own. One of the forecasters said to me we were looking at a freight train coming across the
country. We are now looking at a bullet train because the numbers are going up that quickly. And the most challenging point about the increasing
numbers is where the numbers will apex.
What is the high point of the numbers?
And the apex is the point where we have to be able to manage the capacity. We had projected the apex at about 110,000 hospital beds. That's the number
I've been talking about. The new projections suggests that the number of hospital beds needed could be as high as 140,000 hospital beds.
So flatten the curve, flatten the curve. We haven't flattened the curve and the curve is actually increasing. That means the number of hospital beds,
which is at 53,000 beds, 3,000 ICU beds, the anticipated need now for the height of the curve is 140,000 hospital beds and approximately 40,000
intensive care unit beds.
Those are troubling and astronomical numbers and as I mentioned are higher than had been previously projected.
We are exercising all options as aggressively as we can. That rate of increase, that apex, they project at this time, could be approximately 14
to 21 days away. So not only do we have a spike in the increase -- when you spike the increase in cases, it accelerates the apex to a point where it
could be as close as 14 to 21 days.
We're exercising all options. We're doing everything we can on every level to quote-unquote "slow the spread," flatten the curve. We've closed
businesses; we've reduced street density. We had an issue in New York City. I spoke to Mayor de Blasio. I spoke to City Council Speaker Cory Johnson.
We will have a plan that I believe will be in place by noon today.
And we have increased testing to the highest level in the United States and the highest per capita level on the globe. No one is testing more than we
are testing. So in many ways, we have exhausted every option available to us.
We've closed all the businesses; we've reduced the street density and we've increased testing to the highest level in the country.
[11:05:00]
CUOMO: We're also trying all the new drug therapies. Hydroxychloroquine, which the president speaks about and is optimistic about. And we hope for
optimistic results also. We are actually starting that today. The president and the FDA accelerated that drug coming to New York. So the hospitals will
start using that drug today.
The FDA also authorized an experimental procedure by the New York State Department of Health where we -- the Department of Health actually takes
plasma from people who are infected and who have the antibodies and will try putting that plasma into a person who is still struggling with the
disease, hoping that the antibodies make a difference.
We're also pursuing a new level of testing which will test people's blood to see if they have antibodies for the coronavirus, which means they may
have been infected and resolved and never knew it.
But if you had the coronavirus and resolved, you now have an immunity to the coronavirus. For some period of time, most experts suggest, and it is a
significant amount of time. That would be very important for us to know because these are then health care workers who could go back to work. These
are workers who could return back to the private sector.
But the inescapable conclusion is the rate of infection is going up. It is spiking. The apex is higher than we thought and the apex is sooner than we
thought. That is a bad combination of facts.
So slow the spread. We'll still do everything we can but it is clear that we must dramatically increase the hospital capacity to meet that highest
apex. And we have to do it very quickly.
Again, the apex could be here in as little as 14 to 21 days. You are talking about a very significant, logistical, operational movement to
increase that number of hospital beds and do everything that you need to do related to the increase in hospital beds.
There are three elements that are necessary to increase the hospital capacity. First are obviously the availability of beds. A bed without staff
is virtually useless. And a bed and a staff without the right equipment is virtually useless. So you have to complete all three at the same time.
As far as beds, we have told the hospitals -- I'll speak to every hospital administrator today -- hospitals must increase their capacity by 50
percent. The goal is to ask them to try to increase it by 100 percent.
Remember, we have 53,000 beds. We need 140,000 beds. Even if they did increase it by 100 percent, you would only be at about 100,000 beds. You
need 140,000 beds. Emergency hospitals like the 1,000-bed facility that's being built here will be helpful. The emergency hospitals that we're
building in Westbury and Stonybrook and at the Westchester Convention Center will be helpful.
But they are nowhere near the number of beds that we need. But we need the staff for those beds. And we're calling and contacting all retirees in the
health care field. We're calling all professionals in the health care field. Whether or not they work in a hospital, they can work in an
insurance company, a clinic or whatever, but we want to enlist as many staff as we can and as many back-up staff.
Because health care workers will get sick. And this will go on for weeks. You can't ask a person to work for 14 days consecutive or around the clock
shifts. So we will need a back-up reserve staff.
And equipment, equipment, equipment. Masks, PPEs and ventilators. And of those three, the greatest critical need are ventilators. Now ventilators,
you say ventilators.
[11:10:00]
CUOMO: Nobody really knows what are you talking about. The people who are going to come in, the people who will have acute needs, these are people
who have -- are under respiratory distress. They need a ventilator. The ventilator will make the difference between life and death literally for
these people.
This is a piece of equipment that, in the normal course of business, you don't have a need for high levels of ventilators. And our hospital system
has about 3,000 or 4,000 that has always met the need.
This is a dramatic increase in the number of ventilators that you need. We have been working around the clock, scouring the globe. We've procured
about 7,000 ventilators. We need at a minimum an additional 30,000 ventilators.
You cannot buy them. You cannot find them. Every state is trying to get them. Other countries are trying to get them. The capacity is limited. They
are technical pieces of equipment. They are not manufactured in two days or four days or seven days or 10 days. So this is a critical and desperate
need for ventilators.
We're going so far as to trying an experimental procedure, where we split the ventilators, we use one ventilator for two patients. It's difficult to
perform. It is experimental. But at this point we have no alternative. So we are working on this experimental application.
Picture two hospital beds, two people in beds, one ventilator between the two of them but with two sets of tubes, two sets of pipes going to the two
patients. Again, it is experimental. But mother -- necessity is the mother of invention. And we are working on this as we speak. Because life is
options and we don't have any other options.
There is no other way for us to get these ventilators. We've tried everything else. The only way we can obtain these ventilators is from the
federal government. Period. And there are two ways the federal government can do it. One is to use the Federal Defense Production Act.
There's a federal law where the federal government can say to manufacturers, you must produce this product. I understand the federal
government's point that many companies have come forward and said we want to help and General Motors and Ford and people are willing to get into the
ventilator business.
It does us no good if they start to create a ventilator in three weeks or four weeks or five weeks. We're looking at an apex of 14 days. If we don't
have the ventilators in 14 days, it does us no good.
The Federal Defense Procurement Act can actually help companies because the federal government can say, look, I need you to go into this business. I
will contract with you today for X number of ventilators. Here is the start-up capital you need. Here is the start-up capital you need to hire
workers to do it around the clock. But I need the ventilators in 14 days.
Only the federal government has that power. And not to exercise that power is inexplicable to me. Volunteerism is nice. And it is a beautiful thing
and it is nice that these companies are coming forward and saying they want to help. That is not going to get us there.
And I do not, for the life of me, understand the reluctance to use the Federal Defense Production Act. Also the federal government has 20,000
ventilators or thereabouts in the federal stockpile. Secretary Azar runs an agency calls HHS, Health and Human Services.
I asked the secretary, look at the first word in the title of the agency you run. It is health. Your first priority is health. You have 20,000
ventilators in the stockpile. Release the ventilators to New York.
How can we be in a situation where you can have New Yorkers, possibly dying because they can't get a ventilator, but a federal agency saying, I'm going
to leave the ventilators in the stockpile?
I mean, have we really come to that point?
[11:15:00]
CUOMO: Also, we have to be smarter about the way this is being done. The federal government has to prioritize the resources. Look at where the
problems are across the nation. California has 2,800 cases; Washington state, 2200; Florida, 1200; Massachusetts, about 800. New York has 25,000
cases.
New York has 25,000 cases. It has 10 times the problem that California has. Ten times the problem that Washington state has. You prioritize resources
and your activity and your actions to where they are needed.
And, New York, you are looking at a problem that is of a totally different magnitude and dimension. The problem is the volume. Dealing with 2,000
cases is one thing; 2,000 cases, frankly, we could deal with in this building with the capacity we are providing. We have 25,000 cases. We need
the federal help. And we need the federal help now.
Also, there is a smart way to do this. Deploy the ventilators around the country as they are needed. Different regions have different curves of the
infection. New York is the canary in the coal mine. New York is going first.
We have the highest and the fastest rate of infection. What happens to New York will wind up happening to California and Washington state and
Illinois. It's just a matter of time. We're just getting there first.
Deal with the issue here. Deploy the resources. Deploy the ventilators here in New York for our apex. Then after the apex passes here, once we're past
that critical point, deploy the ventilators to the other parts of the country where they are needed.
I'm not asking for 20,000 ventilators and they stay in New York and they live in New York and change their residence. As soon as we finish with the
ventilators, then you move them to the next part of the country that has the critical problem. Then after that region hits its apex, move to the
next part of the country with the critical problems.
I will take personal responsibility for transporting the 20,000 ventilators anywhere in the country that they want once we are past our apex. But don't
leave them sitting in a stockpile and say we're going to wait to see how we allocate them across the country. That's not how this works. They're not
simultaneous apices. They are a curve that is individual to that region.
Deploy to that region. Address that region. Then move on to the next. I'm not only talking about ventilators. We get past the apex, we get over that
curve, that curve starts to come down, we get to a level we can handle it, I'll send the ventilators. I'll send health care workers. I'll send our
professionals who dealt with it and who know all around the country.
And that's how this should be done. You know it's going to be on a different calendar and sequence. Let's help each other. New York, because
New York is first. Then after New York and after the curve breaks in New York, let's all rush to whoever is second. Then let's all rush to whoever
is third. Let's learn from each other and help each other.
I want to make a point on the president's point about the economy and public health. I understand what the president is saying. This is
unsustainable that we close the economy and continue to spend money. No doubt about that. No one will argue about that.
But if you ask the American people to choose between public health and the economy, then it is no contest. No American is going to say accelerate the
economy at the cost of human life. Because no American is going to say how much a life is worth.
Job one has to be save lives. That has to be the priority. And there's a smarter approach to this. We don't have to choose between the two.
[11:20:00]
CUOMO: You can develop a more refined public health strategy that is also an economic strategy.
What do I mean by that?
Our public health strategy was a blunt instrument. What we said at a moment of crisis is isolate everyone. Close the schools. Close the colleges. Send
everyone home. Isolate everybody in their home. In truth, that was not the most refined public strategy.
Why?
Because it wasn't even smart frankly to isolate younger people with older people. But at that moment, we didn't have the knowledge. We needed to act.
That's what we did. You can ask to refine the public health strategy.
You can say, look, the lower risk individuals do not need to be quarantined. And they shouldn't be quarantined with an older person who
they may be transferring it to.
People who are recovered, you test them and test the antibodies and find they resolved themselves of the virus. And I believe once we get that test,
you will find hundreds of thousands of people who have had the coronavirus and resolved.
Once they're resolved, they can go back to work. Develop that test. It's in testing now. Once they're resolved, let them go back to work. Let the
younger people go back to work. Let the recovered people go back to work. It's even better for the older and vulnerable people you are trying to
protect.
And then ramp up the economy with those individuals. So you are refining your public health strategy and at the same time you are restarting your
economy. Those two can be consistent if done intelligently. Restart the economy with the younger, recovered tested workers.
Don't make us choose between a smart health strategy and a smart economic strategy. We can do both and we must do both. It's not the economy or
public health. It's restarting the economy and protecting public health. It is both.
But I understand restarting the economy. The crisis today, focus on the crisis at hand. Focus on the looming wave of cases that is about to break
in 14 days. That has to be the priority.
And that is hospital capacity. That is about providing hospital beds, providing staff and providing equipment and providing PPE and providing
ventilators. Coming back to that number of 30,000 and needing federal action to address it now.
If the federal government said today, I will deploy all 20,000 ventilators, it will take us two weeks to get those ventilators into hospitals and to
create ICU beds and to locate the staff. So there is no time to waste. The time to do this is now.
FEMA is sending us 400 ventilators. I heard it on the news this morning. We are sending 400 ventilators to New York.
400 ventilators?
I need 30,000 ventilators. You want a pat on the back for sending 400 ventilators?
What are we going to do with 400 ventilators when we need 30,000 ventilators?
You are missing the magnitude of the problem. And the problem is defined by the magnitude.
These are the numbers from today. You can see our testing rate is now over 90,000 people who've been tested. That's the highest rate of testing in the
country and per capita on the globe. We did 12,000 new tests since yesterday.
Number of positive cases in the state of New York, 25,665; 4,700 new cases of those tested. You see the entire state county by county. More and more
counties are being covered. We have 3,000 people currently hospitalized. We have 756 people in ICU units. The ICU are the ventilated units. That's 23
percent of the hospitalizations.
[11:25:00]
CUOMO: That's the problem. As the number of cases go up, the number of people in hospital beds goes up. The number of people who need an ICU bed
and a ventilator goes up and we cannot address that increasing curve.
Again, you look at the number of cases in the country. You will see that New York is an outlier in the number of cases. It is not even close. What
is happening in New York is not a New York phenomenon. People in New York don't have a different immune system than other Americans.
It is not higher in New York because we are New Yorkers. It is higher in New York because it started here first and because we have global travelers
coming here first and because we have more density than most places.
But you will see this in cities all across the country. And you will see this in suburban communities all across the country. We are just the test
case. We are just the test case. And that's how the nation should look at it.
Look at us today. Where we are today, you will be in three weeks or four weeks or five weeks or six weeks. We are your future. And what with we do
here will chart the course for what you do in your city and your community.
I'm not asking you to help New York just to help New York. I'm asking you to help New York to help yourselves. Let's learn how to do it right. And
let's learn how to do it right here. And let's learn how to act as one nation and let's learn how to act as one nation here.
And we learn the lesson here, we will save lives in your community. I promise you that. We're delivering supplies that we have been able to
purchase today. New York City has had a critical problem. I spoke to Mayor de Blasio. He's right; he had a critical problem on PPE and gowns, masks,
et cetera. The equipment we're bringing today will resolve that immediate need.
There will be no hospital in the city of New York who will say today their nurses or doctors can't get equipment. We are addressing that need not just
for New York City but also Long Island and Westchester. We have acquired everything on the market there is to acquire.
We have had a full team purchasing from companies all across this globe, buying everything that we can purchase. And we are bringing that here to
distribute to New York City, Long Island and Westchester because that is the greatest need.
This number of supplies will take care of our immediate need. It does not take care of the need going forward, three or four or five or six weeks.
The burn rate on this equipment is very, very high. I can't find any more equipment. It is not a question of money. I don't care what you are willing
to pay. You just can't find the equipment now.
But this will take care of the immediate need. I don't want our health care workers, who are doing God's work -- they are doing God's work.
Can you imagine the nurses who leave their homes in the morning, who kiss their children goodbye, go to a hospital, put on gowns, deal with people
who have the coronavirus?
They're thinking all day long, oh, my God, I hope I don't get this. Oh, my God, I hope I don't get it and bring this home to my children. You want to
talk about extraordinary individuals. Extraordinary. And it's the nurses and doctors and health care workers. It's the police officers who show up
every day and go out there and walk into a situation they don't know what they're walking into.
It is the firefighters and the transportation workers and the people who are running the grocery stores and the pharmacies and providing all those
essential services.
Most of us are in our home, hunkered down, worried. They're worried and they're going out there every day, despite their fear. Despite their fear,
overcoming their fear. And not for their family. They're doing it for your family.
[11:30:00]
CUOMO: When you see them on the street, when you see them in the hospital, please just say thank you and smile and say, I know what you're doing.
What happens?
All these facts, all these numbers.
Am I strong in my language vis-a-vis the federal government?
Yes, I am.
But what happens at the end of the day?
What does it all mean?
That's what people want to know.
What does it all mean?
What it all means is what we said it all means the first day this started. The first day I went before the people of New York state and I said, I'm
going to tell you the truth. I'm going to tell you the facts, the way I know it.
Those facts have not changed. Those facts are not going to change. This is not a new situation. We watched this through China. There are hundreds of
thousands of cases; 80 percent will self resolve. That's why experts say to me, tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people have had the virus
and didn't know they had it and resolved.
That's why we have to get that test that shows you had the virus because you have the antibodies. And you did resolve. Once we do that, that's how
you get the economy back to work. That's how you get the back-up health care workers.
But 80 percent will self resolve, 20 percent will go and need hospitals. It is not about that. It is about a very small group of people in this
population who are the most vulnerable. They are older. They have compromised immune systems. They are HIV positive or they have emphysema or
underlying heart condition or bad asthma or recovering from cancer.
Those are the people who are going to be vulnerable to the mortality of this disease. And it is only 1 percent or 2 percent of the population.
But then why all of this?
Because it's 1 percent or 2 percent of the population. It's lives. It's grandmothers and grandfathers and sisters and brothers.
And you start to see the cases on TV. It's the 40-year-old woman who recovered from breast cancer but had a compromised immune system and four
children at home. That's what this is about. It's about a vulnerable population.
I called the executive order I passed Matilda's Law. My mother. It is about my mother. It's about my mother. It is about your mother. It's about your
loved one. And we will do anything we can to make sure that they are protected.
Again, keeping it in perspective: Johns Hopkins, 387,000 cases studied; 16,000 deaths on 387,000, 100,000 recoveries worldwide, 268,000 pending.
Last point, it is about the vulnerable. It is not about 95 percent of us. It's about a few percent who are vulnerable. That's all this is about.
Bring down that anxiety. Bring down that fear. Bring down that paranoia. It is not about 95 percent of us. And we're going to get through it because we
are New York and because we've dealt with a lot of things and because we are smart.
You have to be smart to make it in New York. And we are resourceful. And we are showing how resourceful we are. And because we are united and when you
are united, there's nothing you can't do.
And because we are New York tough -- we are tough. You have to be tough. This place makes you tough. But it makes you tough in a good way. We're
going to make it because I love New York. And I love New York because New York loves you. New Yorks loves all of you, black and white and Brown and
Asian and short and tall and gay and straight.
[11:35:00]
CUOMO: New York loves everyone. That's why I love New York. It always has. It always will. And at the end of the day, my friends, even if it is a long
day, and this is a long day, love wins always. And it will win again through this virus. Thank you.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE)?
CUOMO: The preliminary plan, Zach (ph), is it will backfill hospitals. You take the situation we're looking at. We need ventilators and we need ICU
beds. Those can only really be created in a hospital. But then you have to move people out of the hospital.
Where do you put them?
This facility, 1,000 beds, can backfill from the hospital. This facility also has acute care capacity. But we're not anticipating we do acute care
here. We are anticipating it is a backfill for the hospital beds.
QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE).
CUOMO: Yes, my mother is not expendable. And your mother is not expendable. And our brothers and sisters are not expendable. And we're not
going to accept a premise that human life is disposable. And we're not going to put a dollar figure on human life.
The first order of business is save lives, period, whatever it costs. Now I also don't believe it's an either/or. I believe you can have an
intelligent, refined public health strategy.
You talk about risk stratification. You can have people go to work. You can test people and find out that they are resolved from the virus. Let them go
back to work. You will have younger people go back to work.
You can have an economic start-up strategy that is consistent with the public health strategy. It's smart. It's complicated. It's sophisticated.
But that's what government is supposed to do, right?
That whole concept of develop government policy and program. You can do both but not in a clumsy, ham-handed way, right?
Well, we'll just sacrifice old people. They're old people anyway. And the old get left behind.
What is this, some modern Darwinian theory of natural selection?
You can't keep up so the band is going to leave you behind. We're going to move on. And if you can't keep up, well, then you just fall by the wayside
of life. God forbid.
QUESTION: Governor, you mentioned President Trump by name today. The federal government and Secretary Azar. (INAUDIBLE) very dynamic period
(INAUDIBLE) not to do this?
They have their own supply chain and stabilization board (INAUDIBLE).
CUOMO: Yes. Yes. People say, people say, people say. Politicians say. Yes, I look at actions, not words. They are dealing with the supplies. Here is
my question.
Where are they?
Where are the ventilators?
Where are the gowns?
Where the PPEs?
Where are the masks?
Where are they?
Where are they if they're doing it?
And by the way, Peter Navarro. Well, we want to work with companies. Fine. Work with companies. When the -- what the Defense Procurement Act was
about, the country needed materials to go to war. When we went to war, we didn't say, uh, any company out want to build a battleship?
Who wants to build a battleship?
Maybe a couple of you guys can get together and build a battleship, maybe a couple of you guys can get together and build us some missiles, maybe, you
think?
Anybody want to build a plane?
You know, we're going to need planes. They are sending planes at us and they're dropping bombs.
Anybody want to do that?
That's not how you did it. The president said it's a war. It is a war. Well, then act like it's a war.
[11:40:00]
CUOMO: It is not anti-business. Nobody is talking about change the governmental philosophy.
By the way, the businesses would welcome it. I speak to the businesses.
You know what they say?
I'll do it. But I need start-up capital. I can't turn my factory overnight into a ventilator manufacturing company. I have to buy equipment. I have to
find personnel. I have a lot of start-up capital.
Will you give me the start-up capital. Will you give me an order that says if I go through all this, you will buy X number of units. It is actually a
pro-business mentality, not an anti-business mentality. This is a false distinction.
Well, we don't want to tell business what to do. That's our philosophy. We don't want to tell business what to do.
You know what business wants?
They want to make money. That's what they want. They want to put people to work. They want open their factory and they want to make money. Let them
open their factory and make money. Help them do that by ordering the supplies you need.
It's a war. You're right. Say, Zach (ph), you're building battleships. Here is your contract. God bless you. That's how -- what the Defense Procurement
Act was all about. At the rate they are going, it is not happening. FEMA says we're sending 400 ventilators.
Really?
What am I going to do with 400 ventilators when I need 30,000?
You pick the 26,000 people who are going to die because you only sent 400 ventilators.
(CROSSTALK)
QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE)
CUOMO: You have to ask the federal government.
What do I know?
QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE).
CUOMO: I don't know. Their answer is we don't need to do it because companies are coming forward who want to do it. And by the way, I am sure
that is true. It's just the timeline doesn't work. I don't need ventilators in six months. And I don't need ventilators in five months or four months
or three months.
By the way, California is not going to need ventilators in six months. It is now. So you're asking a business to produce what is a sophisticated
piece of electronic equipment, a ventilator, and to do it in 14 days. That's an enormous undertaking. They can't do that on a voluntary basis.
If you use the Defense Procurement Act, DPA, then you say, I'll pay for it. I'll give you the start-up capital. I'll fund you buying the equipment.
I'll fund you hiring workers. Otherwise, it doesn't work on a normal business timetable.
And the businesses want to know, look, if I go through all of this, somebody has to buy 40,000 ventilators. You know, a ventilator is on
average $25,000 per ventilator. This is an expensive item. Nobody is going to build 40,000 ventilators unless they know someone is buying 40,000
ventilators.
That's what the federal government can give them with the DPA. I buy 40,000 ventilators. Caveat: they have to be here in 21 days. Then use them here.
We hit the apex first. I will transport them anywhere you want in the country. I'm not asking you to give us 40,000 ventilators. Address the
curve here. Then that curve is going to be going across the country.
You hear what I'm saying here today?
You will have the governor of California several weeks from now saying the same thing. Going to have the governor of Illinois with the same thing.
Governor of the state of Washington saying the same thing.
Do it right here. We're just the first case. We're just the first template. Do it right here. Then we'll move the goods. I'll move the professionals.
I'll move the doctors and nurses who can say we can teach you how to do it because we saw it in New York. We can help one another. That's smart.
That's right. That's the American way.
QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) doubled that number. (INAUDIBLE).
[11:45:00]
CUOMO: I spoke to the mayor this morning. I spoke to the mayor yesterday. Whatever need he has, we'll figure out how to address. You have a lot of
situations that develop here that just nobody could have expected, right?
These are unchartered waters for all of us. But that's why I said resourceful, smart, we're quick on our feet. We're agile. What's the
problem; we'll figure out how to solve it and we'll do it together.
QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE)?
CUOMO: I haven't even thought about it, Zach.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Last one.
QUESTION: When will this facility be ready (INAUDIBLE)?
CUOMO: Multipart question. There are two different types of facilities here. One is an emergency hospital; four separate components, 250 each
equaling 1,000 in an emergency hospital that could be used for acute care.
There's a second facility, if you will, which is 1,000 beds. It's a lower level of medical care for people who don't need as intense service. Let me
ask the general.
Pat, you want to comment on that or General Shields?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll answer.
The governor -- what the governor provided was exactly what it is, is the first phase.
CUOMO: (INAUDIBLE) your mike --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, the first phase of the buildout is the 1,000 beds from the Health and Human Services that comes in with the kit. We lay
medical professionals over top of that. We go to phase two. Continue to build out bed capacity so we can provide a little higher level of care
potentially.
As we move forward but we have an immediate level. There is a third phase we continue to build out beds in the facility to get to the capacity that
the governor's getting after, which does not address the entire number but starts in that path.
And then the other strategies to go along with it. So we expect in the end to be above 2,000 but the basic number is 1,000 and 1,000. We are working
toward being above that number by the time we're done dressing it out.
(CROSSTALK)
CUOMO: Let me -- oh, I'm sorry.
QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE).
CUOMO: The four -- excuse me one second. The four -- the hospitals will be staffed by federal medical personnel for the 250-bed -- four 250-bed
facilities, the 1,000, about 320 medical federal personnel.
QUESTION: (INAUDIBLE) younger health care people who've been tested for the antibody go back to the work force.
(INAUDIBLE) how soon are the tests for that coronavirus antibody to be ready and used on that scale?
CUOMO: They are working on that now. You don't have a hard answer now. They're working on it now. They're developing it. It is a fairly simple
test. I'm not a medical -- it is only testing your blood for those antibodies. So it's a fairly simple test; I don't have an answer but I can
get you an estimate.
But let me just -- because these all come back to the same point. The reason I've always said to New Yorkers relax is because this is not a
major issue for 95, 96, 97 percent of the population. It is only those vulnerable people, 1 percent or 2 percent of the population.
This conversation about the economy, your question, blunt and jarring in its bluntness, well, if we are talking about 1 percent or 2 percent of the
population and they're old and vulnerable and they're sick anyway, well, why then stop the economy?
How much are we paying for this 1 percent or 2 percent?
They're old. They're vulnerable. They're going to die anyway.
Why stop the train for the 1 percent or 2 percent?
It's the same point I've been saying on 98 percent of the people will be fine. Don't worry unless you are in the vulnerable category and then take a
high level of precaution. But we're not willing to sacrifice that 1 percent or 2 percent. We're not willing to do that. That is not who we are. It's
not what we are. It's not what we believe.
[11:50:00]
CUOMO: We are going to fight every way we can to save every life that we can. Because that's what I think it means to be an American. I know that's
what it means to be a New Yorker. I'm not going to leave any stone unturned until we can make sure everyone is protected. That's what I was trying to
communicate by calling it Matilda's Law, right?
That's why I gave it my mother's name. She didn't want me to give it her name. She is annoyed at me. I wanted to personalize it for people. Yes, it
is only 1 percent or 2 percent. Don't worry. Go live your life.
It's only 1 percent or 2 percent. But the 1 percent or 2 percent is Matilda and Sally and Jane and Sarah and your uncle and my uncle. And they are
precious. And I'm not giving up. I am not giving up.
QUESTION: Crunch the numbers for the apex.
Are you able to factor in any assumptions regarding the (INAUDIBLE) efficacy of the drug therapy (INAUDIBLE)?
CUOMO: No. Look, if lightning strikes -- look, I agree, first of all, I agree with the president. Try everything you can. I agree. He said he had
heard good things about the drug combination. So had I. I said send it to me. I will use it first. As soon as you send it to me, I will use it. He
sent it to me. I'm using it today. Knock plastic.
If it works, great. Great. But we're talking about two weeks here. If it doesn't work and, by the way, even if it does work, you are still going to
need the beds for people to be on a ventilator while you give them the drug, even if it turns out it that it winds up saving their lives. You
don't get around needing the hospital beds and needing the ventilators.
I have to go to work, guys. Thank you very much. Thank you.
JOHN KING, CNN HOST: You were listening to the Democratic governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo. I'm John King in Washington. A mocking, scathing,
biting, disdainful, highly critical of the federal response broadside today from the governor of New York Andrew Cuomo.
He says his state has more cases than anticipated. He says it will now peak at 140,000. That's up from 110,000. He believes the apex could be two weeks
away. And he says he needs thousands of ventilators, mocking the federal government for promising to send him several hundred.
Let's continue this conversation, now a number of broad charges mounted there by the governor. CNN's Kristen Holmes is with us. CNN's John Harwood
is at the White House. We are also joined by CNN's Jeff Zeleny, our business anchor, Julia Chatterley, and Dr. Ashish Jha, the director of the
Harvard Global Health Institute.
John Harwood, the governor is trying to balance his criticism with some praise of the federal government. Today he came out, I would call it 90
percent criticism, essentially saying New Yorkers will die if the federal government doesn't stop being flat-footed, in his perspective. He says
there are 20,000 ventilators in a federal stockpile.
He says send them to New York now so that he can save lives and then move them somewhere else later, scathing from the governor.
JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: John, we have seen last few days that we have a president who wavers under pressure, whether it's
pressure from the stock market, from his poll numbers, from business people that he talks to.
And we have just seen what today's pressure point is. Yesterday, we saw the president giving encouragement to business leaders, saying it will not go
on too long. We will restart the economy. That was powerful pushback from Cuomo. Done carefully without saying the president's name, trying to
indicate that he has worked cooperatively on chloroquine, this potential trial therapeutic treatment that he talked about at the end of the news
conference.
But a very powerful statement that we are not going to leave behind that 1 percent or 2 percent of the people who are vulnerable. And I should say it
is not only a partisan message, John. We have seen that in a different way today earlier from Liz Cheney. Sent out a tweet, saying there is no
normally functioning economy to return to if thousands of Americans lay dying in an overwhelmed health care system, overwhelmed hospitals.
So we know the president has been paying attention to these Andrew Cuomo briefings. He will do a town hall with FOX this afternoon. Let's see what
his tone is today in response to that pressure.
KING: And Kristen Holmes, one of the pressures from Governor Cuomo has been use the Defense Production Act to order factories, give them a
contract.
[11:55:00]
KING: Tell them to produce masks and ventilators and other desperately needed equipment. He said it was, quote, "inexplicable to me that the
federal government would not move more quickly" on that.
This morning on CNN, the FEMA director said they were going to do that. But there was pushback from the White House. This has been days and days and
days of contradictions and mixed signals about whether the president is going to -- he has invoked the authority but he has not actually used it
yet.
Where are we at this moment?
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, where we are is that this is a complete mess. And just to note, President Trump at 8:00 am this
morning tweeting that he hasn't had to use the Defense Production Act because everyone has been volunteering. It was just three minutes later
that the FEMA administrator said on our air that he was going to use it, that they were going to take over this as part of the allocation part.
So I kind of want to break down what exactly that means. Well, according to the White House, according to the Defense Production Act, there are really
several parts of it. President Trump himself is only talking about the manufacturing piece. He is saying he doesn't need these companies to take
over and make these goods because they are volunteering.
Well, there's a whole other section here that seems to be not talked about which is the allocation. And that is what these governors need. Right now,
they need the federal government to come in and take control of the supply chain.
They need to have the federal government deciding who gets what, when and how to prioritize in terms of who needs the most. Right now they're not
doing that.
Essentially you have 50 states who are competing not only with themselves but they're competing with the federal government and they're competing
with international forces who are trying to get the medical supplies. In some cases, they are actually competing with their own hospitals, who are
trying to get this. So there's no real rhythm here. And that is what these governors are asking for.
But again, it just seems to be more and more of a mess out of the White House conflicting narratives. And we have to say, even when we ask them
very specific questions about it, there doesn't seem to be any real answer. It seems as though they're going back and forth.
And just a reminder, John, the business community pushed back very hard when President Trump invoked it. That's why you saw that tweet afterwards,
saying that while he invoked it, he wasn't going to use it. That is something we have to keep in mind as we're moving forward.
KING: Dr. Shaw, one of the things the governor said -- and New York now has the most cases by far -- it's at 10 times almost the number in
California -- he says we are the canary in the coal mine.
Is he right?
Is New York unique?
Their high spike in cases there or is he right, that weeks from now we will see this in other places as well?
DR. ASHISH JHA, HARVARD GLOBAL HEALTH INSTITUTE: So, John, there's no doubt about it. We will see it in other places around the country. Cities
will be hit first. They're going to see it in suburbs and rural areas. This is not a virus that respects national boundaries and it certainly doesn't
respect state boundaries.
So if we can't get New York through this, it portends bad news for the rest of the country. And I think that's why we all have to rally around New
York. But then understand that there will be other places next. I can't predict which ones but I believe California and Washington and Florida I'm
deeply worried about.
They are not on the ball on this. Arizona has a large proportion of older people. We have had a challenge.
KING: We do have a challenge.
And Julia Chatterley quickly for me. Chuck Schumer, the Democratic leader, says they are now on the 2-yard line. Yesterday it was the 5-yard line on
the stimulus plan. Financial markets are desperate to see Washington is committed to helping.
JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN ANCHOR: Absolutely. This is crucial. What we're seeing here is a vacuum in national leadership, which is about what we are
seeing with the hunger games going on in states and beyond.
Which was the interesting point that Governor Cuomo made about a staggered reopening of the economy here. The problem is, it needs coordination and
focused leadership. We don't have that right now. Until we get that, we need Congress to act to bridge the financial gap and relieve some of the
immediate pain.
KING: On that issue, the governor said, yes, he agreed with the president. He needed to be ready to do that. But he said it was clumsy and ham-handed.
Our coverage continues in just a moment.
END
