New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has volunteered his state as a “laboratory” for coronavirus vaccine testing as he contemplates reopening its economy. He has then ordered state residents to wear masks in public at all times.
“You want to use New York state as a laboratory? We are ready, willing and able,” Cuomo gushed on Wednesday during his daily coronavirus press conference, addressing the Food and Drug Administration, which is conducting early-stage vaccine trials on a number of experimental coronavirus vaccine compounds.
.@NYGovCuomo says the state won’t be normal until there’s a vaccine.
“We are all in, and energized and creative and ambitious about it. So anything we can do to accelerate that vaccine, we will do. You need a place to test it in large numbers? Think of New York.”
— Jimmy Vielkind (@JimmyVielkind) April 15, 2020
New York was not only “energized, and creative, and ambitious” about turning its population into pharmaceutical guinea pigs, Cuomo suggested, it was only natural given its status as the global epicenter of the epidemic. “You need a place to test [a vaccine] in large numbers, think of New York.”
Anything we can do to accelerate that vaccine, we will do.
Cuomo seemed to have confidence that the state’s economy would reopen soon, however. “We have the infection spread down to a manageable number,” he said, even while acknowledging that the state would be “going to a different place, which is a new normal” rather than reverting to status quo.
New Yorkers “MUST wear a mask or face covering in public in situations where social distancing is not possible,” Cuomo declared in an executive order also posted to Twitter on Wednesday. As examples, he mentioned public transportation and busy sidewalks.
#BREAKING: I am issuing an Executive Order today that all people MUST wear a mask or face covering in public in situations where social distancing is not possible.
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) April 15, 2020
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Source: RT