August 2, 2021
Albany, NY

Governor Cuomo: "We Have Seen This Movie Before"

New Yorkers are Encouraged to Get Their Vaccinations to Avoid Going Back to Life with Pandemic Restrictions

Governor Cuomo: "New Yorkers saw the movie. You saw the movie. You know how this turns out. You know what happens with the Delta Variant. You know what those facts mean. You know what's going to happen in the movie. Don't wait for what you know is going to happen."

Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today, at a press briefing, encouraged New Yorkers to avoid reliving the COVID movie that played out last year.

VIDEO of the Governor's remarks is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

AUDIO of the Governor's remarks is available here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks are available below:

Last, last point. I'm with two of my daughters, they came up the other day. Twins, Cara and Mariah. We're going to watch a movie at night and I say you pick the movie, they pick the movie. We're watching the movie. During the course of the movie I selectively prophesize on what I think is going to happen. He's going to move too close to the window, he's going to get shot. Then he gets too close to the window - bang - he gets shot, he's too close to the window. Couple of minutes later. He's going to get in the car, he's going to turn on the car, the car blows up. Gets in the car, it blows up.

After the movie, one of my daughters says to me, you know, that that was really amazing how you figured out what was going to happen in that movie? I let her sit with that for a couple of minutes. And then I had to tell her the truth, which is, I said, no, I saw the movie already. It wasn't brilliant analysis of the plot; I saw the movie. We have seen the COVID movie.

We've seen this movie. I've seen this movie. Melissa has seen this movie every day through the briefings. Rick Cotton runs the airports among other things, one of the first people to get COVID because it was coming through the airports. He's seen the movie. Beth Garvey saw the movie. She had to write all the laws. Janno Lieber saw the movie at the MTA. We had to figure out how to disinfect subway cars because the first piece of bad information was surface transmission, remember that? So, we had to come up with all sorts of chemicals and PPE, and then he had an operate a system with no riders. Rob Mujica dealt with it every day in the financial chaos.

New Yorkers saw the movie. You saw the movie. You know how this turns out. You know what happens with the Delta Variant. You know what those facts mean. You know what's going to happen in the movie. Don't wait for what you know is going to happen. We beat the damn thing by being smart the first time. Be smart again. "Well, the CDC. Well, this," New Yorkers did not make a decision the first time because of the CDC. It was because they got the facts. They're smart and they made a decision based on the facts.

You have the facts. I'll give you the facts, but make the smart decision because you saw the movie. By the way, you've also seen the movie on homelessness. You've also seen the movie on crime out-of-control in New York City. I've seen that movie three times in my life. You know how the movie ends. Be smart.

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