The Mind of Andrew Cuomo

Presumably, it’s good news. Drug companies have produced two vaccines against the coronavirus. Both have been extensively tested. Both are wildly effective. Both will apparently be distributed within months. 

And yet, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has a problem with the vaccines. He is appalled that these vaccines have been produced during the Trump administration. Politically speaking, this is not expedient because it does not advance the interests of the Democratic Party. Besides, for people who believe that Trump is the Devil incarnate, as many Democrats do, the idea that Trump would ever get credit for anything eats at their craw.

You know and I know, if the vaccine had been announced one day after Joe Biden took office, people like Cuomo would be crowing about the great leadership Biden had shown in dealing with the pandemic.

Political debate in today’s America is pathetic and divisive. But, it is not all Trump's doing. No one is making Andrew Cuomo sound like a fool. Keep in mind that Cuomo represents America’s elite intellectuals. 

The New York Post reports on a recent Cuomo radio interview:

 “Why is it moving so fast? Two reasons: money and ego. The first drug company that has the vaccine, that is big money,” Cuomo argued on Hot 97’s Ebro in the Morning radio show Tuesday.

“You didn’t need Trump to tell the vaccine companies you should develop a vaccine. He had nothing to do with it. Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, they all know this is billions of dollars, whoever gets to the market first. So it’s in their economic interest to push this fast,” he argued, naming top pharmaceutical companies — Pfizer and Moderna — that have been conducting coronavirus drug trials since the spring and have released promising preliminary results for curing the deadly virus, showing over 90 percent efficacy.

In his poorly disguised frenzy to get Trump, Cuomo becomes a true believer in capitalism, in free markets and in the profit motive. Hmmm. Or is he criticizing the drug companies for moving ahead so quickly and smartly.

It is perhaps too obvious to underscore, but the Pfizer vaccine was developed in partnership with a company in Germany. Is that also Trump's fault.

At issue in Cuomo's rant is Operation Warp Speed, otherwise known as industrial policy. Democrats have long since promoted industrial policy, a partnership between government and business. Now, apparently, since Trump is in charge they are having a change of heart.

While Pfizer did not seem to take government funds, Moderna seems to have. And, if the Trump administration has declared itself ready to provide the vaccine for free to all citizens, the government is effectively the market for the vaccine. And when it comes to distribution of the vaccine-- a task made significantly more difficult given the need to maintain it at extremely low temperatures-- one understands that the American military, an organization with extraordinary logistical expertise, will participate directly.

Surely, the greedy drug companies have a motive for producing a vaccine, but the truth remains that they will also be contributing to the restoration of the American economy. Cuomo could have balanced his contempt with the fact that drugs often do good-- for others.

Cuomo continued with his mindless rant. So thoroughly does he detest Trump that he can accord him no credit for anything. It is not the first time, because Cuomo has been saying that as long as Trump is president he will not trust the FDA’s review process. He has assembled his own experts to affirm the value of the vaccine.

Seriously.

“President, it’s ego. On the way out the door he wants to be able to say, ‘I solved COVID because I discovered a vaccine. Nah, it’s all BS. He didn’t do anything,” Cuomo continued.

You might think that the administration did too little, or perhaps even too much. But to say that it did nothing is simply untrue.

Cuomo does not seem to understand that the president, no matter who he is, does not dictate to the FDA. In Cuomo's fantasy world, Trump is an absolute dictator who imposes his will on even the FDA. Keep in mind, Trump does not even control the words of one Dr. Fauci.

“It’s the drug companies and nobody is going to trust him saying it’s a safe vaccine. But you’re going to see this play out, they’ll do what’s called an emergency authorization by the FDA.”

He continued: “I think that could happen as soon as January where the FDA, because Trump will push them, will say we authorized the drug for emergency use, and you could see it starting in January before Biden gets into office and that’s why I’m pushing so hard to make sure that we have a process in place to check what the FDA says before people start getting the vaccine in New York.”

Is there something wrong with emergency use? Does Cuomo really think that the FDA just does what Trump wants? If we have learned anything over these years, we have learned that the federal bureaucracy cannot be plied to the will of Donald Trump.

So, Andrew Cuomo will deprive New Yorkers of the virus because he does not trust the federal government and its experts. Is he therefore encouraging people not to take a vaccine that has been shown to be around 95% effective? Of course, he is. But, he gets away with it because he is blaming it on Trump.