Andrew Cuomo and Phil Murphy are leading the fight against this pandemic. They know our strength is together
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Forget Trump: Welcome to the Free Republic of Reality. Here's our Declaration of Interdependence
Andrew Cuomo and Phil Murphy are leading the fight against this pandemic. They know our strength is together
This was the week that the United States and our region became the global epicenter for the coronavirus pandemic.
Across the country, the national death toll rose past 2,000, with more than 40 percent of those deaths in New York City and New Jersey.
For weeks, as conditions continued to deteriorate here, our national government under the leadership of Donald Trump has been in various stages of denial and obfuscation. Since January, the administration has been responding to this deepening national emergency by trying to lay out a narrative that would help the president's re-election bid and keep Wall Street humming.
Not since the American Revolution, when England's King George III punished us for acting in our own self-interest, has our "national leader" been so out of touch with our real circumstances.
This has given rise to what I call the Free Republic of Reality, led by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont and Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf. These four Democratic governors formed a compact of mutual aid and support as a coordinated public health response to a rising death toll they could not ignore.
Our free republic did what a nation must do in a time of existential crisis, combined forces under the basic principle that all lives matter and that all commercial interests must be subordinate to the preservation of life.
Just what is government for if not that?
Last Tuesday,
Murphy reported that New Jersey had recorded 17 COVID-19 related deaths, the most in one day since the start of the outbreak. With 3,675 cases at that time, our state now had the second-highest number of cases of any state in the nation.
Just 48 hours later,
New Jersey had 6,876 cases confirmed and reported 81 deaths. Nineteen people had died in the same span of time. A day later, 19 more New Jerseyans perished.
The New York Times described an
"apocalyptic surge" on Tuesday in which over one 24-hour period 13 patients died at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, including one who was 38 years old.
The Times recounted that some patients died in the emergency room before getting a bed, while people stood outside all day waiting for the chance to get tested. Many ended up going home without being seen.
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