In New York, where 230 people died Monday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday stressed that, “the faster we reopen the lower the economic cost — but the higher the human cost.”
“How much is a human life worth? That’s the real discussion that no one has admitted openly or freely. But we should,” Cuomo said. “To me, I say the cost of human life — a human life is priceless.”
Cuomo said New York’s reopening plan is monitoring the data — including the transmission rate, hospitalization rate and death rate — and if rates go up, the state will “close the valve on reopening.”
Cuomo on Tuesday railed against the federal government for not providing enough funding to New York.
“They have not provided any aid to state and local governments,” he said, noting the states are the ones “that fund police, fire, education, teachers, health care workers. If you starve the states, how can you expect the states to be able to fund this entire reopening plan?”
Cuomo also urged the federal government to work on a bipartisan basis, stressing that is the only way legislation can be passed.
“If you don’t pass legislation, the federal government does not work. If the federal government does not work it makes it virtually impossible for state governments to work. If I can’t work, then local government can’t work,” he said.
