Up To Date With Ethan Callender Entry 15: Flatlined

Now that the Trump era is likely done due to a possible litany of legal troubles awaiting him, America can finally breathe some semblance of a sigh of relief. However, things are not automatically perfect without Trump. In fact, there are several incidences of s*** hitting the fan for a variety of politicians. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has had a well-deserved fall from grace,  One year ago, he was being heralded for his response to COVID-19, even as New York was an early leader in COVID deaths. Now, the tables have turned on Cuomo, as news of his covering up COVID deaths in nursing homes has become more widespread. 

Thousands of preventable COVID deaths happened under this policy, as nursing homes were directed to let in certain patients if the homes could properly care for them, regardless of infection. I’m willing to speculate that Cuomo had good intentions with this policy, but it clearly blew up in his face. Otherwise, those COVID deaths would’ve happened less frequently, and a coverup would not have been a viable option. I think he covered up the deaths so as to maintain his image, which was positive at the time. He’s a career politician, after all.

Sadly, this story went unnoticed for about a year by a good chunk of mainstream and liberal sources because they were too busy looking for someone to compare to Trump. Trump sucked, I get it, but the more liberal portions of the media picked the exact wrong guy to compare him to. One source that did handle this story better was The Guardian, who published a blistering op-ed with plenty of factual evidence behind it. Long story short, Cuomo recieved millions of dollars from a hospital group, and he then granted these interests immunity from lawsuits if their actions killed anyone during the pandemic. Worse still, half of the other states in the country adopted similar measures, effectively putting medical profits over patients’ lives.

The ramifications of this scandal are huge, and that’s not even including the aforementioned death toll. Now that the story has become more prominent, Cuomo is in deep trouble. His political career may have just ended. At this point, it all comes down to whether a Democrat-leaning state’s institutions are just as unable to provide accountability as a Republican administration at the state (or federal) level. If they are able to enforce the rule of law and give Cuomo the boot, that’s the closest thing to a good outcome we can get at this point. If not, it’s more evidence that the Democrats really are no better than the GOP, who just let Trump get away with likely inciting a domestic terror attack on the Capitol. Andrew Cuomo was compared so favorably to Trump last year, but it is now clear that Cuomo is still awful. To put in bluntly, Cuomo needs to go.