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New York Governor announces 100% workforce reduction for non-essential services

213 points| ajaviaad | 6 years ago |techcrunch.com | reply

363 comments

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[+] throwaway5752|6 years ago|reply
There is no doubt Cuomo should be the national point person for the response to the crisis based on his performance so far. He is independently working with regional manufacturing to retool to make critical medical PPE and ventilators, and has organized a regional coalition including CT, NJ, and PA. I have not agreed with him all the time, but his crisis management has been exemplary and he will have saved many lives in NY by the time this is done.
[+] vincentmarle|6 years ago|reply
I think that Gov Newsom of CA has been doing a way better job than Cuomo:

- implements stricter measures faster and more decisively, while having a lower case count

- doesn't fight with his mayors or the President

- no false promises or statements that need to be taken back days later

[+] zone411|6 years ago|reply
This should've been done much sooner, certainly before St. Patrick's Day. He rejected an earlier proposal by De Blasio. It was obvious that this was coming and also clear that NYC would've been hit very hard. No state government has done well.
[+] ransom1538|6 years ago|reply
Sorry what? His state has the highest infection rate and he just NOW did a 100% workforce reduction. He hasn't even issued "a shelter in place" order. BARS WERE OPEN MONDAY. Thousands of deaths will be on his hands. I think he should be criminally prosecuted.

NY needs to be locked down NOW.

[+] dev1n|6 years ago|reply
It helps to be advised by one of the best people in healthcare too, Dr. Howard Zucker.
[+] vinniejames|6 years ago|reply
Cuomo said 24hours ago he would not implement a total shutdown. He changed his mind hours later following California's lead.

Being a fast follower is good, but not exemplary

[+] asdff|6 years ago|reply
Cuomo is two weeks too late due to plugging his ears and ignoring his public health advisors.
[+] staticassertion|6 years ago|reply
As far as I can tell he's been way too slow and this is still not a lock down, so I'm unsure why I see so much praise for him.

I suspect it's because he did a cutesy interview.

[+] vanattab|6 years ago|reply
I think the strongest leadership we have seen from any of the governors has been Mike Dewine of ohio. He acted quickly and with out regards to politics or the economy. I was especially impressed by his postpoent of the primaries. If Ohio keeps the curve below the ICU capacity it's going to be thanks to him and Amy Acton.
[+] tanilama|6 years ago|reply
Yeah, he seems to be on top of things, other than being dismissive at first, then drastic change course when meeting with criticism
[+] quartzite|6 years ago|reply
It will be impossible for us to permanently stop the spread with half measures. As viral spread continues due to half hearted social distancing, when will we be able to return to normalcy? Given the characteristics of this virus even a few cases floating around seem to be enough to reignite contagion.

So we persist in stasis for a month or a year with no end in sight while the economy begins to collapse, which will also destroy lives and lead to humanitarian disaster?

And all of that on shoddy evidence which probably is not counting the true case fatality rate due to woeful ignorance of the total number of infected people?

This article from a Stanford Professor makes the case that COVID-19 mortality is not as high as initial reports make it seem:

https://www.statnews.com/2020/03/17/a-fiasco-in-the-making-a...

We also have potential treatments emerging that could alleviate much of the strain on the healthcare system.

We need to make rational and strategic decisions here, not decisions based out of fear.

Massive and systematic society wide testing is the first step, the second step is the bulk manufacture of demonstrated COVID-19 treatments. The third is ramping up hospital capacity.

All of this is so that we can reopen society in a reasonable amount of time prepared to deal with the inevitable spread of this virus.

[+] fennecfoxen|6 years ago|reply
> It will be impossible for us to permanently stop the spread with half measures.

You're not going to like this, but at this point, no one expects anyone to permanently stop the spread of the virus. It is very contagious, it has a very effective stealth mode, and it is widespread. You should probably expect that over half of the world population will contract this virus.

New York's restrictions are primarily to make people contract it more slowly, so that the state (and other states) can deal with it more slowly.

[+] henryfjordan|6 years ago|reply
> Massive and systematic society wide testing is the first step, the second step is the bulk manufacture of demonstrated COVID-19 treatments. The third is ramping up hospital capacity.

By the time we would get tests and hospital beds, we'd already be too deep into the crisis for them to matter much. Millions will be dead.

Garcetti, the mayor of Los Angeles, said last night that we are shutting down the city to buy time to get more beds, tests, and treatments. Our leaders have a good idea of what's necessary.

[+] redisman|6 years ago|reply
These current shutdowns are really just to buy some time for all the steps you talked about. Basically get a re-try and try to go for a more SK/Taiwan style approach.
[+] dboreham|6 years ago|reply
Problem with this line of thinking is it doesn't match up with the body count in the small areas in Italy that have had high infection rates. It probably turns out to be the only choice: there is no plan B where we just let bodies pile up.

Hopefully once antibody testing is rolled out (two weeks?) your theory about high undetected infection rate will be proven true.

[+] oat_bravo_nap|6 years ago|reply
South Korea stopped the infection without "full measures."
[+] treyfitty|6 years ago|reply
To be clear, the governor unequivocally said this is not a shelter in place. It is merely language telling employers that they are to not have workers physically present.

The governor also said there will not be any civil penalties for individuals that do not stay at home.

[+] mattnewton|6 years ago|reply
I think this will open the door for NYC to fully "shelter in place" lockdown, however.
[+] chadlavi|6 years ago|reply
> Mass transit will remain operational and restaurants, food delivery and bank will remain in service.

This kind of article would really benefit from a quick bulleted list at the top, I had to skim to get this essential info

[+] jakear|6 years ago|reply
So that’s CA and NY both with shelter in place. Strange that WA hasn’t implemented it yet.
[+] stronglikedan|6 years ago|reply
This seems to be a reaction to people not doing it on their own sufficiently enough, like what happened in Italy. Perhaps Washingtonians are taking the recommendations more seriously, so they don't require an official mandate. That decision can't be a light one, and I don't envy those that have to make it.
[+] cjhopman|6 years ago|reply
Huh? NY is explicitly not a "shelter in place". It is a restriction only on employers, not individuals.
[+] malandrew|6 years ago|reply
Other than kids, I haven't seen anyone really violating the social distancing protocol. People are out and about but not really going near one another except for people that look like they live together (couples, families, etc.)
[+] therealdrag0|6 years ago|reply
WA has high testing capacity compared to rest of country and has a very low "new-cases" grade (almost flat). So until it gets worse, they're probably in an "okay" position.
[+] ddoolin|6 years ago|reply
I'm glad that the favorite son could do the right thing for the state of NY, particularly when their positive cases are exploding.
[+] mochomocha|6 years ago|reply
"Better late than never" stays true, but when you're fighting against an invisible enemy (because of little testing) that invades exponentially quickly, "late" will unfortunately have a high human lives cost associated to it.
[+] ahoy|6 years ago|reply
Cuomo loves half-measures and taking credit for not doing much of anything.

There's no force of law behind this order.

Earlier this week he announced "mortgage relief," but its means-tested and difficult to actually navigate. It won't help.

A year or 2 ago he rolled out his "free college for every new yorker" plan. It benefits about 10% of the population.

Cuomo's only skill is talking a big game. He's exactly as bad as most other neolibs.

[+] fiftyfifty|6 years ago|reply
It seems highly likely that the US is headed where the whole of Europe is now: over 100,000 positives, over 5,000 deaths. We waited too long for actions like this. It will take a month before we see a drop in cases and deaths
[+] pjc50|6 years ago|reply
If the US gets away with as few as 5,000 deaths that would be remarkably good, fewer than the opiate crisis (is that still going on?) or the particular long-standing cause of about 10k deaths annually that the CDC is banned from making suggestions about.
[+] vehementi|6 years ago|reply
A month? Wouldn't it be more like 1-2 weeks?
[+] CPLX|6 years ago|reply
Well seeing as how fatalities from workplace related injuries average about 5,000-6,000 a year, maybe we'll end up ahead.

In all seriousness the math around the trade-offs inherent in all these discussions seems oddly absent. About three million people die every year in the U.S., many of those deaths preventable with far less drastic measures than we are taking here, and it doesn't seem like we're having anything like the same discussion about priorities with this specific situation.

I'm not saying the answer would necessarily come out any different, but it's strange we're not really asking the questions.

[+] ilamont|6 years ago|reply
There is currently no plan in place to penalize individuals for gathering socially

Then people won't take the rules seriously.

Lots of people in this country still don't believe or understand how much damage this virus can inflict.

[+] yibg|6 years ago|reply
Seems so piecemeal. We have models that work in parts of the world like Korea, Taiwan and Singapore. Is there any reason why the US and Europe can’t follow their model?
[+] tyingq|6 years ago|reply
Do they have a definition of what constitutes non-essential?
[+] Whut|6 years ago|reply
I feel like we should just do this nation wide.
[+] y-c-o-m-b|6 years ago|reply
At this point wouldn't it be better to just implement a Chinese-style martial law lock-down? The damage to the economy is already here. Might as well shut things down for 3-4 weeks and slowly open up sections of a city. That seems better to me then dragging this thing out for 3 months or longer. I feel like these "stages" of lock-down are doing nothing but delaying the inevitable which will cause more damage in the long run.
[+] alephnan|6 years ago|reply
Is there a non-paywalled link?
[+] rdruxn|6 years ago|reply
Why are the subways still open? Seems like low hanging fruit to close those.
[+] SoylentOrange|6 years ago|reply
Quote from NYTimes:

> For days, Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City has pushed for a “shelter in place” order and the governor has repeatedly dismissed the idea, saying he would not quarantine New Yorkers in their homes.

He also spoke on a popular podcast earlier this week about DEFINITELY NOT taking this kind of action