Cuomo: ‘We All Failed’ at Making COVID-19 Projections
Gov. Andrew Cuomo admitted he and many others failed at making COVID-19 predictions.
On Memorial Day during a COVID-19 briefing from the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York City, Cuomo made a surprising confession about COVID-19 projections.
"All the early national experts. Here's my projection model. Here's my projection model. They were all wrong. They were all wrong," he said.
Cuomo added he's taking himself out of the speculation business.
"Now, people can speculate. People can guess. I think next week, I think two weeks, I think a month," Cuomo said. "I'm out of that business because we all failed at that business. Right?"
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Cuomo does understand a reason why many projections predicted higher COVID-19 cases and deaths is because the projections didn't know how much social distancing could help.
"There are a lot of variables. I understand that. We didn't know what the social distancing would actually amount to. I get it, but we were all wrong. So, I'm sort of out of the guessing business," he said on Memorial Day during a COVID-19 briefing from the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York City. "We watched the numbers. We prepare as the numbers drop, so when the number actually hits the threshold, we're ready to go."
Cuomo added future decisions on when a region will move further ahead or behind in the four-phased reopening will be based on current numbers and not projections.
On Tuesday, the Mid-Hudson Region entered Phase 1 of Cuomo's four-phased reopening plan. It's expected the Hudson Valley will enter Phase 2 in about two weeks, though officials are optimistic the timeline could be accelerated.
Cuomo has noted a region's reopening will be shut down if there's a new spike in COVID-19 cases.