Saturday: President Tweets He Wants To Quarantine NY, NJ, CT; Cuomo Responds; President Retreats

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Geeze.

You go off the national news for one weekend day, to try to do some mental health maintenance, and the president tweets that he is considering quarantining New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, as they are becoming hot spots for the novel coronavirus. To back up his point of using such a strong word, he put it in all-caps. The president tweeted: “I am giving consideration to a QUARANTINE of developing “hot spots”, New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. A decision will be made, one way or another, shortly.”

Here’s the screenshot in case he deletes it later:

Initially, this was a rumor that started weeks ago via text. I’m sure you received it too. I received it from three different close friends several days apart. It went something like this: “Hey, I just want you to know that my friend/client/aunt has a friend at the Pentagon, and they are talking of shutting everything down in 72 hours.”

It prompted me to spend $477 in groceries per trip two weeks in a row (my normal bill is like $197 and then quick trips of $57 or $87 in between).

Once I started watching New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s briefings regularly, my panic subsided. I could see how strongly he felt about helping New Yorkers stay outside, do their thing, but to do it social distance-style of six feet apart. With most businesses closed so that we have no reason to go anywhere, except to some trails and parks, which are now closing down because people just can’t stay away from one another. Today the governor stated in the press briefing that he was even considering closing the kids parks because people just aren’t social distancing there.

So when the president tweets “quarantine” in all-caps, it’s a really disgraceful thing to do. Those aren’t words you mess with.

Gov. Cuomo was asked about it by a reporter, and here was his response: “I don’t even know what that means. I don’t know how that could be legally enforceable, and from a medical point of view, I don’t know what you would be accomplishing. I don’t even like the sound of it, not even understanding what it is. I don’t like the sound of it.”

This is when as a native Midwesterner, I appreciate the deeply skeptical nature of New Yorkers, who sometimes cannot accept random acts of kindness without knowing the catch. It is in this case, that I really appreciate Gov. Cuomo’s response. Be sure to watch the clip here at CNN to see how the governor stated it, looking away, not looking anyone in the eye.

Later in the day, the president decided not to pursue quarantine, and instead to issue a “strong travel advisory,” as tweeted by himself.

Thank you to Deadline for reporting this when it happened, and when it resolved.