Did de Blasio Bungle the Crisis?

Interesting Times with Ross Douthat

New York Times Opinion

New York Times, Journalism, News, Society & Culture, Ross Douthat

4.0 • 7.2K Ratings

🗓️ 21 May 2020

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

When New York’s coronavirus rates began to skyrocket in mid-March, they seemed like a portent for the rest of the country. But at this point, New York City has five times as many Covid-19-related deaths as the entire state of California, with just a quarter of its population. How much blame for New York City’s devastation should go to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s slow response and early downplaying of the danger? Has Gov. Andrew Cuomo earned the praise his briefings have brought him, given his questionable policy choices? debate who deserves blame for New York’s catastrophic mishandling of the crucial first weeks of the coronavirus. What mistakes led to the dispersion of the virus from the Empire State, and what lessons can be learned as other states start to reopen? Then, as the luxury of dining out becomes a distant memory and grocery aisles remain unpredictably stocked, what has quarantine done to the act of enjoying a meal? Plus an ode to humble staples that bring spice to life. For background reading on this episode, visit nytimes.com/theargument.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I'm Michelle Goldberg.
0:01.4	I'm Ross Douthit.
0:02.7	I'm Frank Bruney, and this is the argument.
0:05.6	This week, New York City is the unrivaled epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic in America,
0:17.4	with a caseload and a death toll that is shockingly high.
0:21.8	If Mayor Bill de Blasio had done more sooner to get New Yorkers to stay home, would that
0:26.7	have slowed the spread of the virus elsewhere, have New York's failures become America's
0:32.5	heartache.
0:33.6	But I think we're at a point now where we can say that, um, de Blasio into a lesser extent
0:38.9	Andrew Cuomo are two of the real sort of villains in this sort of mayor from JAWS sense.
0:46.1	Then, many restaurants are shuttered, and just buying food safely has become an ordeal.
0:53.7	We're also cooking more, but how and what we're making is changing.
0:59.2	Is food culture as we knew it over?
1:01.9	You know, in some ways, it's a small thing compared to the scale of the loss that we're
1:06.3	suffering, but my life is going to be really, really different and really, really a lot worse.
1:12.6	And finally, a recommendation.
1:15.0	My taste buds are tingling, waiting, waiting to hear.
1:20.3	If you're under 50 and you're healthy, which is most New Yorkers, there's very little
1:25.8	threat here.
1:26.8	This disease, even if you were to get it, basically acts like a common cold or flu.
1:31.8	That was New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio on March 10th, just one week before the city's
1:37.4	schools and restaurants had to be closed.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from New York Times Opinion, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of New York Times Opinion and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.