I HAD BEEN DOING BRIEFINGS EVERY day for 110 days. We had been reopening for over one month, and the infection rate not only held constant but actually dropped. None of the experts had predicted that. We had accomplished the goal and actually achieved what all the experts told us was impossible. Remember where we were. All the models said we would need between 110,000 and 140,000 hospital beds on any given day at our apex. We went from 53,000 hospital beds to a total capacity of close to 90,000. They said we needed to do everything we could to “bend the curve” and reduce the transmission rate but that even with our best efforts they did not believe we could get the need below 110,000 beds. They did not believe that we could institute social distancing practices, close down all aspects of public life, and cause individual behavior change to any large degree. They said to me many times that even if the government announced the policies, they did not believe people would comply to a sufficient extent to reduce the transmission rate any lower or any faster. New Yorkers proved them all wrong. Not only did we not hit 110,000 hospital beds, we never went above 19,000. It was incredible.
It’s not that they underestimated New Yorkers alone, but they assumed the pattern of behavior would be what they were seeing across the country. They assumed the lack of government credibility and the fragmented body politic that has been evident in this country over the past several years would continue. They didn’t expect people to rise to the occasion the way New Yorkers did. They didn’t foresee the possibility of a unified population, empowered, informed, and educated, forging a strong sense of community. But that’s what happened.
We had been up the mountain, traversed the plateau, and survived the slow decline. We had gone through hell, and we were on the other side. The numbers were as low as they would go. All the scientists and health officials said that we would never get to zero COVID deaths. The goal was to get the infection rate down to about 1 percent and maintain it during the phased reopening. We had done that.
That day, I would give my last daily briefing and do it direct to camera from behind the governor’s desk on the second floor of the state capitol—the same desk that FDR and my father had used.
As I stood there, reflecting back on the past 111 days, a line from George Washington’s Farewell Address came to mind: “Though in reviewing the incidents of my administration I am unconscious of intentional error, I am nevertheless too sensible of my defects not to think it probable that I may have committed many errors.” In the span of time, with retrospection, facts and information may suggest there are things that we should have done differently. But I hope that New Yorkers know that I worked my hardest and I tried my best.
I addressed the people of New York and others across the world, simply saying, “Over the past three months, we have done the impossible.” And they had.
I was ending the daily briefings because the immediate job at hand was done, and I wanted the people to know it. I wanted to communicate the confidence and sense of accomplishment they should rightly feel. There would be future challenges, and they could handle them. I wanted to signal a reduction in the anxiety, but not complacency. Also because the briefings were about the truth, I truthfully didn’t have enough new information to justify their time on a daily basis. I said I would do the briefings in the future on an as-needed basis, which was probably a couple of times a week. If the situation changed and the facts changed, I would change.
People ask me what I did after the daily briefings ended. The answer is, the same thing I did before the briefings. For me the intensity was only slightly less. Operating at a high level is in my nature, and then there’s really no time to relax when you’re the governor. And we had to begin the rebuilding in full force while at the same time stay vigilant. COVID isn’t done with us as a nation, because we haven’t learned the lesson of COVID yet. It will continue beating this country until we understand the true cause of our vulnerability and strengthen it.
I believe New Yorkers were provided with the truth. They trusted the information they were given. They knew the challenge could only be mastered if they did it together, and they did. On day 111 it was over. It was time to catch our breath. We could sit back and reflect on what we had accomplished and mourn those we had lost. New Yorkers were proud, and they should have been. They were seeing the infection rate climb across the country and in countries around the world, and they knew they had done what we needed to do. They had saved lives—the lives of their neighbors, brothers, and sisters. They had gone from the worst infection rate in the nation to the lowest infection rate in the nation. For all the pain and loss, it was a beautiful moment in its own way. Yes, there would be challenges ahead—a growing national infection rate, young people not complying—and we would never really relax until the COVID vaccine was ready. But we had a new confidence in what we could accomplish together. We met a historic challenge. In some ways it wasn’t the end but only the beginning.
THE AFTERMATH
AFTER DAY 111, I FINALLY had time to catch up with my mother. Like all of us, this had been a very stressful time for her. The older we get, the more precious time becomes; we are painfully aware of how quickly it passes. Multiple months of disruption is a long time. My mother
