Governor Cuomo walks across the Cabaret at Marist College wearing an N95 mask. He sits down, takes off his mask, and looks out to the press box.

“Marist, go Red Foxes,” Gov. Cuomo said, continuing to thank President Dennis Murray for having him.

“We’re in Poughkeepsie, which is right down the Hudson River. Beautiful ride today.”

Governor Andrew Cuomo delivered his daily COVID-19 press briefing in the Cabaret at Marist College at noon on May 8. Source: Tara Guaimano ‘20

He spent the first few seconds reminiscing about joining the fishermen out on the Hudson. “[I have] a little fishing envy. It’s striped bass season in New York, so no fishing for me.”

Marist was a downstate stop for Gov. Cuomo’s daily COVID-19 press briefings, following briefings in Westchester and Nassau counties earlier this week. The briefings are usually held at the State Capitol Building in Albany, but this week, the Governor has been doing some traveling.

While the Cabaret at Marist is normally packed with students scarfing down a burrito before class, today, it housed small, socially-distant camera crews. Around 10 reporters sat six feet apart in scattered chairs, sporting a variety of homemade and medical face masks.

Governor Andrew Cuomo and Attorney General James fishing on Lake Ontario over the summer. Source: Office of Governor Cuomo

Cuomo quoted Albert Einstein on the importance of getting facts straight and asserted, “Wouldn’t it be nice if the talking heads on TV took that advice?”

“We would have hoped to see a steady, sharp decline in those numbers. We went up very quickly as you see, we would have hoped that we would have hit the top and then come down — that's not what’s happening,” he said. “it’s more flattening out. The question is will it flatten out or will it continue to drop?”

Yesterday, 216 New Yorkers passed away, including 171 deaths in hospitals and 45 in nursing homes.

“But again, we don’t know. So, we go day to day and we see and react given the facts we are presented with. The lack of facts can hurt you, we have seen that, I believe, during this whole pandemic,” Cuomo said.

Cuomo addressed the possibility of a second-wave, insisting we learn from new facts on the virus’ spread.

“It is shocking to me that for so many months and so many weeks that the virus is coming from China, from China, from China,” he said.

“Now, it turns out the virus didn’t come from China, it came from Europe. And all those talking heads, that is a relatively new fact.”

With 1.8 million unemployment claims in New York state, this is much worse than 9/11 and the 2008 financial crisis, said Melissa DeRose, Cuomo’s secretary and top aide.

“We are literally building the plane while we are trying to fly it,” DeRosa said.

“It is not like anything else, you have more unemployed today compared to the Great Depression,” Cuomo said.

Regardless, Cuomo said he won’t act fast.

“There is no doubt that this is a terrible period, but you have to get through it. If we make a mistake and act too quickly, the situation is only going to get worse,” he said. “I don’t want to have hundreds of more people possibly die because it was a ‘whoops,’ because I responded to politics.”

“One fact we do know about COVID is that we know that there is still a lot that we don’t know,” Cuomo said.

The State said there is growing evidence that COVID-19 can cause severe illnesses in children, with 73 reported cases in New York with symptoms similar to the Kawasaki disease and toxic shock-like syndrome. This past Thursday, the death of a 5-year old boy was reported as the first of this strain.

“This is every parent’s nightmare, right, that your child might be affected by the virus — this would be really painful news, and would open up an entirely different chapter,” Cuomo said.

More data surfaced on fatalities according to race of COVID-19 victims. As of May 8, New York City has seen the Hispanic population occupy 34% of fatalities in comparison to 29% population makeup, as well as Black Americans in 28% of the city’s fatalities and only 22% in the population.

White Americans make up 27% of the COVID-19 fatalities in New York City, and 32% of the population. In New York State, the White people occupy 60% of fatalities and 74% respectively.

“It’s clear that the majority of the new cases at a disproportionate number are coming from minority communities. This is something we are focused on,” Cuomo said.

The Governor urged New Yorkers to research the case increases in states entering phase 1 of reopening. He promised New York wouldn’t be like them.

“The good news on the overall is we are finally ahead of this virus. For so long we were playing catch-up,” Cuomo said. “Everyone would like to see everything open tomorrow...We are now in control and we have the virus on the run, because we have been smart.”

Gov. Cuomo Delivers COVID-19 Briefing on Marist Campus

MARIST CIRCLE