Vice President Pence was in Florida on Monday. He met with Florida governor Ron DeSantis while he was there, and praised him for his leadership during the pandemic. This praise by Pence, the head of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, triggered CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, the baby brother of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Chris Cuomo reacted to the praise on Twitter. “Head of task force praising gov who mishandled pandemic,” Cuomo tweeted.
Head of task force praising gov who mishandled pandemic https://t.co/nuxX4ePAa6
— Christopher C. Cuomo (@ChrisCuomo) July 28, 2020
This is hardly the first time Cuomo has tried to bash Florida’s response to COVID-19. Before the aforementioned tweet, Cuomo linked to a CNN hit piece trashing Florida’s response, and before that, Cuomo openly suggested that we can’t trust Florida’s data because of DeSantis. Keep in mind that Cuomo’s brother literally tried to cover up the full extent of nursing home deaths in New York by being the only state in the country that doesn’t count deaths of nursing home patients who died from COVID-19 in a hospital as nursing home deaths.
How does Chris Cuomo expect us to believe that Florida “mishandled” the pandemic? Where does he get the nerve to say this, especially being the brother of Andrew Cuomo?
Let’s look at the data and see how Florida compares to New York, and then decide which state “mishandled” the pandemic.
NY vs. FL for COVID-19 deaths.
Yet, @ChrisCuomo thinks @GovRonDeSantis mishandled the pandemic, not @NYGovCuomo. pic.twitter.com/ntzHFKJBdl
— Matt Margolis 🇺🇸 (@mattmargolis) July 28, 2020
Now, let’s look at new COVID-19 deaths by day.
NY vs. FL for new COVID-19 deaths by day.
Yet, @ChrisCuomo thinks @GovRonDeSantis mishandled the pandemic, not @NYGovCuomo. pic.twitter.com/rgIUH7k1KO
— Matt Margolis 🇺🇸 (@mattmargolis) July 28, 2020
That big blue spike on the left is New York. Where’s the big orange spike for Florida? Oh wait, there isn’t one.
Oh, but deaths aren’t the only important metric. What about cases? Well, let’s take a look. The following chart shows that Florida hasn’t even matched New York’s case numbers per capita:
NY vs. FL for confirmed COVID-19 cases.
Yet, @ChrisCuomo thinks @GovRonDeSantis mishandled the pandemic, not @NYGovCuomo. pic.twitter.com/eWmwWH974S
— Matt Margolis 🇺🇸 (@mattmargolis) July 28, 2020
Of course, this chart does show that Florida has been catching up in total confirmed cases, but that’s partially due to our expanded testing capabilities over time. So, let’s look at the case-fatality ratio.
NY vs. FL for cumulative COVID-19 CFR.
Yet, @ChrisCuomo thinks @GovRonDeSantis mishandled the pandemic, not @NYGovCuomo. pic.twitter.com/8An5ZF2qCx
— Matt Margolis 🇺🇸 (@mattmargolis) July 28, 2020
Look at that. New York’s case-fatality ratio is still way above Florida’s. Also, Florida’s CFR has gone down since peaking, while New York’s has remained fairly consistent and very high.
What about when we look at daily CFR for each state?
NY vs FL for daily COVID-19 CFR.
Yet, @ChrisCuomo thinks @GovRonDeSantis mishandled the pandemic, not @NYGovCuomo. pic.twitter.com/ng49T2pGyU
— Matt Margolis 🇺🇸 (@mattmargolis) July 28, 2020
Okay, CFR may not be the greatest metric because as testing increasing over time CFR is bound to go down. Perhaps we should look at hospitalizations instead.
NY vs. FL for COVID-19 hospitalization.
Yet, @ChrisCuomo thinks @GovRonDeSantis mishandled the pandemic, not @NYGovCuomo. pic.twitter.com/wX1yWoQFJ9
— Matt Margolis 🇺🇸 (@mattmargolis) July 28, 2020
Oops, sorry, Chris, Once again, Florida looks significantly better than New York.
What’s this smear campaign of Florida all about? CNN, particularly Chris Cuomo, seems intent on turning Florida into the new COVID-19 hotspot, even though by any metric, there’s no way Florida comes close to looking as bad as New York. Is the media trying to make sure that Trump loses Florida by bashing the state’s Trump-supporting GOP governor? Certainly. But is it more than that? Is it also about repairing Governor Cuomo’s reputation after his botched pandemic response? If so, why? Cuomo was often touted as a possible replacement for Biden for the Democratic nomination. Nervousness over Biden’s diminished mental capacity might have some thinking they need a dark-horse candidate to take the reins away from him. It seems unlikely that this will actually happen, and even less likely that Cuomo would be the Democratic Party’s savior, given his horrible record as governor, and his botched response to the pandemic in New York, which no amount of bogus media coverage can cover up.
Whatever the reason, there’s definitely an effort to push the narrative that Florida, not New York, botched their response to the coronavirus. Whatever the reason, the data completely contradicts that narrative.
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Matt Margolis is the author of the new book Airborne: How The Liberal Media Weaponized The Coronavirus Against Donald Trump, and the bestselling book The Worst President in History: The Legacy of Barack Obama. You can follow Matt on Twitter @MattMargolis
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