| Andrew Cuomo took the low road. On Thursday night, the night Ebola officially, dauntingly, came to Gothamtown, the governor sat to Mayor Bill de Blasio's left at a news conference and tried to calm New Yorkers’ nerves. The two Democrats appeared at Bellevue Hospital, the country’s oldest continually operating hospital, an international leader in treating infectious diseases and one of eight facilities the state had designated for Ebola treatment. The presence of the governor and mayor, mere floors beneath the room where the infected patient, Dr. Craig Spencer, remained in quarantine, highlighted that the virus does not travel by air. Like President Obama’s hug with Nina Pham—the 26-year-old Dallas nurse who contracted Ebola from Thomas Eric Duncan, and blessedly had overcomethe virus after a period of isolation—their news conference was a gesture meant to reassure the city's anxious citizenry: Ebola is transmitted only through the sharing of bodily fluids. Rest assured, 8.4 million residents of New York City, 19.6 million citizens of New York State. Do not be alarmed. De Blasio told New Yorkers that the chances of becoming infected by Ebola were vanishingly small. “We have the finest public health system not only anywhere in the country but anywhere in the world,” he said. Cuomo added, “We are as ready as one could be for this circumstance.” On... |
