A.G. Gancarski
Though New York’s Governor said Wednesday that his state was willing to help Florida as needed in the coronavirus fight, it remains to be seen what, if anything, that help will look like
In Jacksonville Thursday, Gov. Ron DeSantis took issue with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo‘s assertion that help was on the way.
DeSantis said that while an offer was in fact made, it wasn’t anything Florida needed.
The Governor said “they’re not helping us. I think someone had reached out to our office about ventilators. We’ve got 6,000 ventilators just sitting idle.”
DeSantis went on to say “we don’t necessarily need it,” before returning to a familiar narrative about ways Florida outperformed New York in various areas during the crisis.
As he did on the Sean Hannity show earlier this week, DeSantis discussed how Florida’s approach to managing its nursing home population was “superior” to New York’s, where Cuomo made the fateful decision to return COVID-19 positive patients to long term care facilities, where over 6,300 died as a result.
In June, Cuomo said his team reached out to states currently dealing with spiking case loads, as the New York Daily News reported.
“It is open-ended, however we can help,” he said during a conference call with reporters. “We are in a position to provide any of the above. Equipment, staff, knowledge, ventilators, National Guard assistance, whatever they need.”
On Wednesday, Cuomo suggested that there was progress.
“You’re seeing a tremendous spike. Some hospitals are running out of ICUS, which is a really frightening situation to be in,” Cuomo said. “Whatever they need, Florida has said they might need assistance from us, whatever they need, we’ll provide.”
The Cuomo/DeSantis back and forth is well-documented.
The Governor spent much of the spring crowing about how Florida escaped the fatal fate of New Yorkers, many of whom died from the virus, but by the middle of June the optics had shifted, and New York was preparing to quarantine arriving Floridians along with those from other hotspot states.
DeSantis’ biting rejoinder was that if they were to be quarantined, it shouldn’t be in New York nursing homes.
The quarantine was imposed days later, and the starch had gone out of the Governor’s attacks.
“They’ve got to do what they’ve got to do,” the Governor said about the decision, adding that he didn’t want to quarantine New Yorkers earlier in the year, but he had to.
What’s clear is that whatever help was tendered by Albany, Tallahassee believes it can get by without it.
13 comments
S.B. Anthony
July 9, 2020 at 3:54 pm
idiot
jon
July 10, 2020 at 3:50 pm
Agreed, Cuomo, just like his brother Fredo is a complete POS! Who the hell would ever take advice from that idiot farmer? His state is a shit show!
Merrie
July 10, 2020 at 5:32 pm
Well jon, perhaps you should take a look at Gov Cuomo’s numbers. He has educated himself and brought his state from worst to best in just over 3 months. I don’t believe it was his fault that NY got hit with the Coronavirus first. But he did indeed do something about it and he never hid any death numbers. He’s offering his help and desantis is too STUPID, IGNORANT, PRIDEFUL and let’s not forget a trump ass licker to accept help from anyone that is SO MUCH BETTER THAN HIM. You’re and idiot like all the other trumpsters!!
Vince Samuels
July 11, 2020 at 7:37 pm
The Coronavirus pandemic is showing the world our nation can’t come together to solve a national Health crisis. This will worsen the severity of the virus impact and possibly keep the crisis deeper amongst vunerable groups. And, the action of the European Union (EU) to barr US citizens from european nations is further evidence that our partisan idiocy will cost us prestige, respect and revenue. The sheer hate that has drove our political parties to failure in social cooperation, is the real pandemic; and one that will and must be faced if our nation will heal. Its fairly clear DeSantis future like Ivey in Alabama and Abbott in Texas, are tied with I-trump political fate, so these states can fix their executive incompetence and put the needs of every citizen, above GOP dogma. Yet in short term not only Cuomo should be considered a source for these GOP weasels–they have dedicated local officials that seem far ahead of these feckless state sycophants, in ensuring that our kids do NOT become pawns in the I-trump saga.
Lastly we can only hope that Steve Schmidt and David Frum target GOP and Independent voters, about DeSantis and his clownish loyalty to I-trump.
Diane
July 14, 2020 at 10:41 am
Cuomo did a lot better in slowing the virus than Florida is doing. I think it’s magnanimous of Governor Cuomo offered ventilators. DeSantis is the POS. DeSantis bragged on May 20th that Florida wouldn’t be like New York, and he was dead wrong! We’re doing worse than New York.
Sonja Fitch
July 9, 2020 at 4:57 pm
Duffus Desantis you have made a pandemic even worse cause your stupid ego!!!!! Remember this when Florida becomes number 1 over NY in about 60days! Criminally negligent and incompetent!!!! Damn you duffus Desantis!
BlueHeron
July 9, 2020 at 11:51 pm
Like Cuomo, hate Cuomo.
He’s got what we desperately need and Ronny declines.
What say we bring Cuomo down here with strong leadership, staff, equipment, knowledge and everything else he has offered?
Let the grownups handle it. Ok Ron?
Lock DeSantis in a closet and leave him there until things are better controlled, lives are saved and illness is reduced.
It really is apples and oranges, Ronny.
jon
July 10, 2020 at 3:51 pm
What? We need a crime wave and murder rate skyrocketing? Are you insane??????
Democrats are retarded!
BlueHeron
July 11, 2020 at 1:54 am
Jon. Take a breath. I did not say he would be bringing all of the criminals, murderers and “thugs” with him.
Fun facts
New York has a violent crime rate of 3.5 per 1,000 people, compared to 3.7 nationwide, and the property crime rate is 14.4, compared to 22.0 across the country. Mar 24, 2020
Overall, Florida’s crime rates are slightly higher than the national rates for both violent and property crime. Florida had 3.8 violent crimes per 1,000 people in 2018, versus 3.7 nationwide. Apr 8, 2020
Merrie
July 10, 2020 at 5:40 pm
BlueHeron…I like that! I couldn’t agree more. Though I think we should just expose desantis, no I like ronny better, to the Coronavirus so he can’t be counted as one of the FL causalities when he dies. Sorry, this whole thing has gotten so far out of hand. Coronavirus, masks, social distancing…these are all health concerns, not political issues to be argued!! I’m tired of living in a chaotic trump world!
Peter Fallon
July 11, 2020 at 7:55 am
DiSantis is proving himself to be a partisan on the wrong side of the issue. You can criticize Cuomo for his nursing home approach and may be right but to not acknowledge NYS nursing home deaths were at half the rate of the rest of both the Country and Florida is disingenuous, something we’ve become accustomed to with the GOP.
Conversely Cuomo has delivered a measured successful approach to beating back the virus. That success is threatened by the irresponsible behaviors of feds, states and individuals.
Out of curiosity why does FL still have a quarantine for people coming from NYS?
Diane
July 14, 2020 at 1:36 pm
Even if we don’t currently need ventilators, the polite thing to do would be to say thank you, not criticize Governor Cuomo. DeSantis says we don’t need ventilators right now but, in the future, we might. So, the proper response would be to politely thank Governor Cuomo, and tell him, if we need the ventilators in the future, we’ll let him know. Instead, DeSantis criticized Cuomo. Almost the entire Republican party is uncivilized!
Diane
July 14, 2020 at 1:50 pm
DeSantis is a liar!
Governor Cuomo said his offer is open-ended and includes anything from ventilators, medical staff and technical assistance to the National Guard.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/new-yorks-governor-offers-to-help-other-states-now-in-need-2020-06-26
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