New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo made a plea to American healthcare workers to "come help us" amid his state and city's stressed resources in fighting the global coronavirus pandemic.
"As governor of New York, I am asking healthcare professionals across the country, if you don't have a healthcare crisis in your community please come help us in New York now," Cuomo told reporters at his daily press briefing Monday. "We need relief. We need relief for nurses who are working 12-hour shifts, one after the other after the other. We need relief for doctors and we need help for attendants.
"So. if you are not busy, come help us, please."
Cuomo said his state is "preparing stockpiles now" – and has faced questions from President Donald Trump, the one he has criticized for not helping deliver resources fast enough. Trump questioned, at his coronavirus task force daily press briefing Sunday, whether New York might be seeking to hoard supplies.
Cuomo needs help now, but he admitted: "The word stockpile means not for immediate use. It means you're preparing for a battle to come."
Cuomo wants to stockpile healthcare workers, too.
"And we will return the favor," he said. "The New York way is to be helpful. So, help New York.
"We are the ones that are hit now. That's today. But tomorrow, it is going to be some where else. Whether it's Detroit or New Orleans, it will work its way across the country. And this is the time for us to help one another."
The governor's appeal came as New York grapples with what he called a "staggering number of virus deaths. He and other health officials cautioned that the crisis unfolding in New York City now is merely a preview of what other communities may yet face.
“We've lost over 1,000 New Yorkers," Cuomo said. "To me, we're beyond staggering already. We've reached staggering.”
Even before the governor's appeal went out, close to 80,000 former nurses, doctors and other professionals in New York were stepping up to volunteer, and a Navy hospital ship, also sent to the city after 9/11, had arrived with 1,000 beds to relieve pressure on the city's overwhelmed hospitals.
"Whatever it is that they need, I’m willing to do,” said Jerry Kops, a musician and former nurse whose tour with the show Blue Man Group was abruptly halted by the outbreak. He returned to his Long Island home, where he volunteered to be a nurse again.
The U.S. reported nearly 160,000 infections and about 2,900 deaths, with New York City the nation's worst hot spot, but with New Orleans, Detroit and other cities also seeing alarming clusters.
“Anyone who says this situation is a New York City-only situation is in a state of denial," Cuomo said. “You see this virus move across the state. You see this virus move across the nation. There is no American who is immune to this virus."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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