Andrew Cuomo slaps down Donald Trump’s claim that state won’t need 40,000 ventilators

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo slapped down President Trump for his pushback against the request for thousands of life-saving ventilators for his state – saying he operates on facts, not ‘feeling.’

Cuomo spoke in a televised press briefing Friday, hours after the president dismissed his request for a rapid infusion of the devices into his state as potentially overblown. Cuomo says experts tell him New York will need 40,000 ventilators during the ‘apex’ of the coronavirus pandemic. His state now has about half the nation’s cases. 

‘I don’t have a crystal ball. Everybody is entitled to an opinion, but I don’t operate here on opinion,’ Cuomo. ‘I operate on facts and data and numbers and projections… all of them say you could have an apex needing about 40,000 ventilators.’

‘Those are numbers, not ‘I feel, I think, I believe, I want to believe,’ he underlined. 

Those comments clearly pointed to President Trump’s own language in an interview with conservative Fox News host Sean Hannity Thursday night, where Trump slapped down the Democratic governor’s requests.

‘Governor Cuomo and others they say they want 30,000 of them. Thirty thousand!’ Trump told Hannity. ‘Think of this, you go to hospitals and they have one. And now all of a sudden everybody is asking for these vast numbers.’ 

Then Trump referenced his gut instincts, as he did on a push to get the nation’s economy going by Easter even as health experts say social distancing must be kept in place.  

‘I think that a lot of things are being said that are more, I don’t think certain things will materialize, a lot of equipment is being asked for but I don’t think they’ll need,’ Trump said. 

‘I have a feeling that a lot of the numbers that are being said in some areas are just bigger than they’re going to be.’ Trump continued. ‘I don’t believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators. You know, you go into major hospitals sometimes and they’ll have two ventilators. And now all of a sudden they’re saying, ‘Can we order 30,000 ventilators?” 

Cuomo also blasted Trump for claiming ventilators were found in storage.

‘That is incorrect and grossly uninformed,’ Cuomo said.  

Sean Hannity concurred with Trump, calling Cuomo’s insistent pleas for the medical devices ‘annoying’

‘I have a feeling that a lot of the numbers that are being said in some areas are just bigger than they’re going to be,’ President Trump said on ‘Hannity’ Thursday 

‘The point is: “Well they’re in a stockpile, you must not need them” is just ignorant. Of course you don’t need them today. You need them when you hit the apex, which is 30,000. We’re not there yet,’ he said.

 Cuomo has been making similar arguments this week, even as he put out an urgent request to get stockpiled equipment as deaths and infections rise. He says he will offer his ‘personal’ guarantee to send the equipment to other states once the peak passes in New York.

‘Make the decisions based on the data and the science – we’re following the data and the science and that’s what it says. I hope we don’t need 30,000 ventilators. I hope some natural weather change happens overnight and kills the virus globally. That’s what I hope. But that’s my emotion – the numbers say you may need 30,000 ventilators,’ he said.   

Cuomo said earlier this week his state has 4,000 ventilators and has purchased another 7,000. The U.S. government has pledged to send New York another 4,400 ventilators. That’s still far short of the 30,000 ventilators that Cuomo said the state will need if the crisis reaches its expected breaking point.