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- New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said health and government officials will be able to speak freely “now that Mr. Trump has been removed from his post.”
- “I think you’ll see scientists speaking with an unmuzzled voice” after Joe Biden’s victory was called over President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, Cuomo said.
- The Trump administration has established a tendency to publicly break and attempt to discredit its own health officials, including Dr.Anthony Fauci, the nation’s foremost infectious disease specialist.
- Visit the Business Insider homepage for more stories.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo predicted on Sunday that health and government officials would “take a different tone” when it comes to how they deal with the coronavirus “now that [President Donald] Trump is out of the office. ”
“I think the political pressure to deny COVID is gone,” Cuomo said on ABC’s “This Week,” referring to Joe Biden’s presidential victory. “I think you’ll see scientists speaking with an unmuzzled voice now.”
Biden, Trump’s Democratic opponent in the race, surpassed 270 electoral votes in overthrowing the swing state of Pennsylvania on Friday morning, paving the way for a Biden-Harris administration. Business Insider, along with Vox and Decision Desk HQ, called Biden’s victory on Friday. Over the weekend, several media outlets also declared Biden the winner of the 2020 presidential election.
—This week (@ThisWeekABC) November 8, 2020
The Trump administration has established a model of open rupture with, and in some cases appearing to silence, its own health officials. Dr Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading infectious disease specialist and member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, has issued stern warnings about the pandemic since its onset. Trump, in response, called it a “disaster” and said he planned to fire him.
Cuomo and other governors have publicly clashed with the Trump administration over how to approach the surge in coronavirus cases in individual states.
Cuomo was one of the first governors in the country to issue closure warnings when cases began to rise in New York in March. The state has called itself a coronavirus hotspot for months until the number of positive cases begins to level off and then decline.
The United States hit a new record for coronavirus cases in late October, reporting its highest ever daily tally, nearly 84,000 cases, Business Insider previously reported. Public health experts have warned for months of a fall resurgence of new cases, but lawmakers have been slow to announce new lockdown measures.
“We’re getting to the worst two months, I think we may have seen COVID,” Cuomo said. “You see the numbers going crazy all over the country, all over the world. Scientists said it was coming.
“We are going to have two long months,” he added.
Biden’s administration would alleviate some of that pressure, Cuomo said. Biden plans to announce on Monday the formation of a coronavirus task force to fight the disease.
“Unfortunately, the Biden administration does not take office until January 20,” Cuomo said.
The coronavirus has infected more than 9.8 million people in the United States, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University. Of this total, more than 230,000 people have died.
The White House did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s request for comment on Cuomo’s remarks.
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