Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Cuomo Unveils New Renderings for Essential Workers Monument

Earlier today, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo unveiled renderings for the Essential Workers Monument. The Commission of labor leaders representing all essential workers have chosen a location in Battery Park City to install the monument. The Circle of Heroes design will represent the essential workers who served their communities throughout the pandemic, sacrificing so much in order to keep their fellow New Yorkers safe and supported. Construction of the Essential Workers Monument is due to be completed by Labor Day, September 6. Additionally, in tribute to our essential workers, Essential Worker Park will be established in Battery Park City.

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

AUDIO of the event is available here.

PHOTOS of the event are will be available on the Governor's Flickr page.

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

Okay, good morning, all. Beautiful day in New York City today. Let me introduce the people who are on the dais with us. From my right, out great health commissioner who's done an outstanding job all through this very long and trying COVID experience, Dr. Howard Zucker. Melissa DeRosa, Secretary to the Governor, who's done a fantastic job. Bob Master from CWA, Communication Workers of America, which has been important all through this and just a great partner for the State of New York, and Bob himself is a great labor leader. And we want to thank him for all he's done. To my left, Pat Kane, another great labor leader from the nurses. And we want to thank the nurses very much for this past long and horrific year.

Aileen Gunther, a great member of the Assembly, who's done a lot of good, important legislation and was the sponsor of a bill we're going to sign today, what's called the safe staffing bill. The Assembly Member is a healthcare professional, former nurse, depending on the day. She likes to talk about being a nurse rather than a politician, but today she put them both together. Nadine Williamson from 1199, which of course was so instrumental in keeping our hospitals running, and putting their own self-interest aside and showing up every day. So it's a pleasure to be with you, Nadine. Kelly Cummings, who's the director of state operations, who is our get it done person. When the bureaucracy says no, Kelly Cummings says yes, and always finds a way to get it done.

With us today, we also have Major General Raymond Shields, who is the Adjunct General of the New York National Guard. The National Guard is the emergency response force for New York. Hurricane storms, fires, floods, COVID. The force that the state deploys initially, or the National Guard may come from all over the state at a moment's notice and deal with the most horrific situations. They're are young people and they are there willingly and they're trained and I can't thank them enough. I've been out there with them on many long, scary nights. They give not only great relief, but great confidence to the people of the state. And we want to thank them all.

Michael Powers, who is the President of the Correction Officers Association. Thank you for what you had to do and manage through this difficult year.

Sam Fresina of the firefighters. Sam, thank you and the firefighters and the emergency responders who are to show up day after day after day after day. You know, most emergencies are limited in time. It's a day, two days, three days, a week. And then you go home and you sleep and you catch your breath.

This never ended. Correction officers, as you can see, always on call, never turn off the phone. Sorry. Yeah, I had to do that.

Dr. Parag Mehta, from the Medical Society of New York. Thank you. Thank you. What the doctors did was extraordinary.

All the members of the National Guard, all the members of labor, all the essential workers who showed up, thank you very much. And we're going to talk about honoring you today.

Today is not a day where we're going to talk about COVID numbers. There are no charts. We know where we are. We are past the day to day monitoring of COVID. We have reached a new plateau, a plateau that should give us all confidence and success.

Long time coming, a product of our efforts. People say to me all the time, how did New York go from the worst infection rate on the globe on the globe to literally the lowest infection rate in the United States of America, how did you do that? How did you go from worst to first? And there's no magic to it. It was the phenomenal efforts of the essential workers. And it was the efforts of New Yorkers, the intelligence of New Yorkers, where you had other states and communities who were saying, well, I believe this politically, I don't believe that. New Yorkers were smart and they were united and they did what they had to do.

And they got the infection rate down. But now we're starting to write a new chapter. And the new chapter that we're writing is the post-COVID emergency period. The emergency is over. It's a new chapter. Doesn't mean there's not challenges for the new chapter, but the emergency is. It's not that we believe COVID is gone, we still have to vaccinate people, especially young people. That is still a priority. The young people are lagging in vaccines because remember when this started, it wasn't about young people, right? It was about older people. Young people weren't even eligible for the vaccine early on. So now we're trying to catch up and say to the young people, I know you didn't think initially this was your problem, but it is now your problem. And we have to get them to vaccinate and we have a number of incentives to do that.

One of my favorites is a full four year scholarship to a state college. If you come, a young person, 12 to 17 gets a vaccine and we do a weekly raffle and give away 10 full scholarships to a state college room and board. I'm excited about that. Not because they want to go to college, but as a parent who had to pay their college bills, this is a real home run for the student and for the parents. It's working. 145,000 young people have come to get the vaccine since we announced the raffle, another 10 winners this week.

As you can see, they're all across the state. We congratulate them. We congratulate their parents who were saying, thank God, I don't have to worry about this going forward. And we're going to continue it for another week. So, young people come out, get your vaccine, get in the raffle and try to win a full scholarship, but get the vaccine anyway, because it's just.

We're still watching COVID. It would be irresponsible and reckless not to be wary and vigilant about COVID. There are new variants - the Delta variant they're watching now spreads much more quickly than the original virus code. It's in the United States. Didn't start in the United States, but one thing COVID showed us again is how small the world is. It's not like the old days. Well that's happening in Europe, has nothing to do with us. That's in China, has nothing to do with us. No. What happens in China tomorrow is our problem the week after. They get on a plane, it's here.

COVID was in China for 24 hours and then COVID was in Europe and 24 hours later COVID was in New York. That's what happened here. Well COVID is in China by the time he was in COVID it was in China. It was already in Europe. And then it was in France, Spain, Italy, they got on a plane. They landed at JFK.

Why did New York have that high vaccination, the high infection rate? All of us. Because it had been coming from Europe weeks and weeks and weeks and nobody knew. What a mistake. So, stay wary, stay vigilant. The Delta variant - the virus mutates all the time. There were hundreds of mutations of this virus. Right now, they say the vaccinations manage all of the mutations, but God forbid, there's a mutation that the vaccination doesn't work, right? Then we're right back to zero and, not to be the bearer of bad news, but to be the bear of common sense, there will be another virus. There will be a next one. We don't have the luxury of saying, well, COVID we managed. That's it, never happening again. It will happen again and we have to be prepared.

But the emergency is over. The state of emergency that I had declared in consultation with Commissioner Zucker, a health emergency. It expires tomorrow. It will not be renewed. It will punctuate the expiration of the emergency that we have been in because New Yorkers rallied and essential workers rallied, let's give everyone a round of applause.

The emergency is over. The CDC guidance still stays in effect. The CDC mask requirements for unvaccinated individuals, public transportation, homeless setting, certain institutions and local governments may continue. And I would urge them to continue to enforce those mask requirements where they are in effect.

But in this new post-COVID period, we go down two tracks simultaneously. One re-imagine and rebuild and renew New York. Everyone talks about just rebuilding. I don't want to just rebuild New York. I don't want to say that we went through this whole last year and rebuilding suggests you're going to go back to where you were the day before COVID started and re-establish where you were the day before COVID started. I don't want to go back to last year. Life is not about going back. Life is about going forward and we've learned a lot since last year. We've learned many lessons during COVID, so we're not going to just rebuild. We're going to re-imagine New York.

What did we learn? And now we're going to reconstruct and how do we reconstruct it better than ever before? How do we use this moment of rebuilding and reconstruction to re-imagine New York? We've gotten billions of dollars from the federal government. I don't want to just replace what was. What should have been, right?

We have a storm, hurricane Sandy, a house gets knocked down. You don't rebuild the house the same way it was. You put it in a better kitchen, you put it in a better bathroom. You put it into better heating system. You put in solar panels. You use the opportunity to reimagine and to renew. And that's what we're doing in New York. New airports, new transportation systems, new Long Island Railroad, new broadband access so every family now has access. New healthcare procedures because of how much we learned about our healthcare system and how we would not ready for the emergency. Learn those lessons and incorporate them governmental, societally, also personally.

New Yorkers, get a vaccine and get on with life. Get out of the house. Go experience New York. Go to a movie, go to Radio City Music Hall, see a concert. Go root for the Islanders, especially tonight. They have to win tonight, go tonight, root for the Islanders. Go to a restaurant, go shopping. What people do is a major factor in bringing the economy back quickly. I'm going to go shopping. I need new ties. I think I've been wearing this tie about 10 times over the past year. Go out and live life. Life is not about what we were doing the past year. We were surviving the past year, we were surviving. Life is about thriving. Go reconnect, enjoy life. That's the first thing to learn the lessons from COVID.

Learn the lessons from COVID. COVID knocked us on our rear end. Things happen. Life will knock you on your rear end. You'll make a mistake. Something will happen outside of your control. Somebody gets sick, you lose your job, you get divorced. Something will happen in life that just knocks you on your rear. The question becomes, what do you do when you get knocked flat on your back? What do you do? And that defines you in life. That moment defines you in life. You're watching a boxing match and the guy gets knocked down and the crowd all leans forward. What is he going to do? What is she going to do? Are they going to get up? Are they going to give up? They're going to get up and they're just going to lay there. I know they're going to get up and they're going to be smarter for it and say, I'm not going to let that happen. I felt it, it hurt, but I'm going to learn the lesson. We're going to learn the lessons from COVID.

Part of it is our healthcare system. Being able to handle an emergency, doing it safely, being prepared, being equipped. Remember what we went through when COVID started? We had to set up the largest field hospital in the country in Javits, 2,500 emergency beds. Our hospital system was going to be overwhelmed. Every expert came in and said, you're going to need at least 150,000 hospital beds, Governor. 150,000 hospital beds. You know how many hospital beds we have in this state? 50,000. Well, you're going to need 150,000 in two to three weeks. That's what I was told.

Thank God we had the essential heroes that we have. Thank God the state worked together. So the upstate hospitals supported the downstate hospitals, Long Island hospital supported, but we were on the brink of catastrophe and chaos. Don't underestimate the lesson of COVID. We were right on the cusp of total chaos. That hospital system becomes overwhelmed like Italy, by the way, at the time. And now you have people dying in hallways. You have ambulances don't come because they have nowhere to bring you. That, my friends, was chaos. And I feel that deep inside me because we were that close. Learn those lessons now and correct those lessons now.

We couldn't get vaccines. We couldn't get the Q-tip swabs to administer the vaccine. You couldn't get masks. We ran out of masks. We had to send private planes to China to buy masks from China. Masks that we were paying 70 cents per mask, we were paying seven dollars per mask and having to get them from China. We didn't have the right medicines. We ran out of supplies. We didn't have PPE. Nurses were going out there to work with garbage bags over them. Garbage bags as PPE. How could that happen? United States of America, New York. Federal government was nowhere to be found. They were - you're on your own New York. Call us when it's over.

What did we have? We had essential workers who did the superhuman. Essential workers. We made up the term essential workers. There was no such thing as essential workers. If I could do it over again, I'd come up with a better term than essential workers, because essential worker is sort of blah term.

What does it mean to be an essential worker? Essential worker were those people who had to show up to work to keep society functioning. Essential workers were those people who had to show up so everybody else could stay home and be safe. Governor puts the state on lockdown. Everybody has to stay home.

Not everybody. The essential workers have to show up. What does that mean? Because staying home only works if the lights come on and if there's heat. And if when you go to the store, this food on the shelves. And when you go to the store, there were supplies so that you can stay at home. Staying at home only works if God forbid you get sick, you call 911 and somebody answers the phone and an ambulance comes and it takes you to a hospital. And in the hospital, there's a doctor and there's a nurse and there's a staff worker. So staying home isn't that easy. For society to stay home, a lot of people have to show up and break the rear end.

For you to stay home safe, lot of people have to put their lives in danger and drive the bus and drive the train and be exposed to hundreds of people in this time of fear and chaos. Yeah, for the people who stay home, they say, oh, it was very hard to stay home. Forget you. It was hard to stay home. How about the people who I made go to work? And I took it personally. Look at the inconsistency. Everybody stay home to be safe, but not your bus driver. You have to drive that bus so the nurse can get to work. Not you, nurse, not you, doctor, not you, teacher, not you, utility worker, not you, National Guard. You're coming out.

And then you have to worry that you don't get sick. And then you have to worry that you don't get sick and bring it home to your family. One thing, if you get sick, God forbid you bring it home to your children and your wife. Is it on my clothes? Is it on my hands? Am I infected? And you have to live with that fear. That's why essential workers doesn't do it justice. These were people who went above and beyond. By the way, not the millionaires in society, not the highest paid people in society, but now the most important workers in society. And they rose to the occasion over and over. I've said thank you many times. But thank you is a little hollow, right? So I work at ways to show thank you because if you're really thankful, do something. It's nice that you say it.

It's even more relevant if you do something to show your gratitude, to show the service. And I believe the essential workers are heroes in the truest sense of the word. We had heroes after 9-11. We have heroes after COVID. A lot of similarities between 9-11 and COVID. Different emergencies, different tragedies, but both were moments where people had to step forward and find their better selves. And people did. And in COVID, they had to do it for a year. So part of saying thank you is the honor, part of it is making sure it doesn't happen again. And we learn the lessons of the past. This Labor Day, 2021, a couple of months, New York State is going to open the Circle of Heroes Monument to Essential Workers. I'm going to call it the Circle of Heroes.

Maybe we drop essential workers by the time we get to Labor Day. Circle of Heroes. Circle of Heroes Monument was designed by representatives of the essential workers. It is a monument of 19 maple trees in a circle and a path in a circle, recognizing the individual responsibility and contribution of each group, but a circle representing that they were all connected. Because it only worked if all the pieces work. It only works if the ambulance shows up and if the doctor shows up and if the nurse shows up and if the utility worker shows up and if the National Guard shows up. If that circle is broken at any spot, it all falls. So the circle, but still the individual contribution of the 19 groups. In the middle of the circle will be an eternal flame that honors those that we lost during COVID. And the eternal flame says your spirit is still alive in us and in our soul and we will never forget, and we are eternally grateful for what you did. We are eternally grateful.

This is going to be located in Battery Park City. That was the location that was picked by the essential worker commission. It will be within view of the statue of Liberty and New York Harbor. It will be right on the Hudson River. It will be a beautiful, beautiful location and it will have the Circle of Heroes Monument. It will have an atmosphere of peace and contemplation, where people can come and remember those who were lost. People can remember this moment in time and what it represents, and it will be our way of saying thank you. There'll be a quote that was done in the story by a great New York reporter who passed away during this period. Jim Dwyer, the voice of New York, a voice of the working men and women of New York for many years. And he wrote, 'in times to come when we are all gone, people, not yet born walk in the sunshine of their own days because of what women and men did at this hour to feed the sick, to heal and to comfort.'

Truer words were never spoken. And I think that sums up in many ways what COVID was all about. So we're going to have the monument. It's going to be done on Labor Day. How can it only be done in a couple of months? Kelly Cummings has promised me that it will get done in a couple of months, or she will be a new resident of Idaho. That's how this will work. So I believe she will get it done. We're going to have the monument. We're also going to announce $25 million in childcare scholarships to the essential workers, which will extend the support for the working families that we provided during the Cares Act. That does deserve a round of applause.

And while we'll never know the full number of people who have been sacrificed, we will learn the lessons so no one has to go through this again.

When you think back COVID was not the first time we had this warning. We had warnings and we didn't heed the warnings. When you look back this country cannot say what a surprise. You had the avian flu, you had SARS, you had swine flu, you had MERS, you had a Ebola, you had Zika, you had Dengue. Warning after warning after warning, after warning, everybody missed it every time. It's fascinating.

There was a movie in 2011 called Contagion, which was done right after MERS and SARS which could have been a movie done about COVID. It was done 10 years ago. It said a bat in China transfers a virus, it gets eaten. One person gets into China. They get on the plane, they come to the United States. Everybody misses it. It moves faster than the World Health Organization moves faster than the CDC. Ten years ago, the movie predicted everything. We didn't learn. We didn't listen.

Denial. We're in denial. Let's deny it - so much easier to deny a problem in life, you know, because if you admit the problem, then you actually have to do something about it. Well, we're going to do something about it because COVID was not the last time and we owe it to our essential workers and to what we went through to learn the lessons and we'll do it before there is a next time. Healthcare facilities and the staff will be on the front lines again, and they're going to be better prepared and they're going to be better equipped and they're going to be better trained. Society itself is going to have a new appreciation for public health.

The Department of Health is going to be a different Department of Health with more of an emergency response and we're starting with real measures today. Today, I'm going to sign it to the law of the safe staffing bills, which I believe is a major step forward in improving the quality of health care in our healthcare facilities. What it says is plan now for how to provide for healthcare systems going forward. Put everyone at the table, especially the people who are on the front lines because they know best. The nurses, the administrators, the staffers who provide the direct care, how many people do you need to safely provide direct care to treat the patients and to keep the nurses and administrators healthy and safe.

Come up with that plan, come up with it by January 1 and then the Department of Health is going to police and regulate those plans to make sure they are implemented and to penalize any violations. We want to thank the nurses for putting it together, represented by NYSNA and CWA. We want to thank the healthcare workers and 1199. We want to thank 1199 and CWA for coming together as part of this effort with NYSNA and we want to thank the hospitals and the Greater New York Hospital Association. This is the first time we've done this. It was hard but we did it and we're going to sign the bill and move on to take a step forward today.

Congratulations to everyone who worked so hard to make this a reality. I know it was hard, but New York is better for it and your members are better for it. And the healthcare system in this state is the better for it. And we got it done. Congratulations. Let's sign the bill.

You think it's easy to sign a bill? Nothing is easy.

Thank you very much. Let's give them a round of applause.

I'm going to ask Aileen Gunther to say a few words, please, Assemblymember.

Assemblymember Aileen Gunther: This pen means an awful lot to me. It's 12 years that I've worked on this bill and I have to thank you because it means so much to me, means so much to all of my colleagues. I'm still an RN. I'm one of you and I want to thank you for your service during this awful virus. This is something that you brought home to all of us, and we'll never, ever forget you for this.

All I can say is, I want to thank all of the staff that work with me, Dana and everybody, because it meant a lot. Here we are today, men and women. I worked all during COVID. I was giving out immunizations. I couldn't be prouder to work with you side by side for the last 40 years. This is our moment and thank you for this moment. Thank you.

Governor Cuomo: Thank you for your service. Thank you. Congratulations. And to the essential workers on Labor Day, we're going to see you with the opening of the Circle of Heroes right at Battery Park City. God bless you for what you did. Thank you.