Beautiful Virgin Islands

Monday, Sep 01, 2025

New York governor calls coronavirus the ‘European virus’

Governor Andrew Cuomo’s remark appeared to be a dig at President Donald Trump who has insisted on calling the pandemic the ‘China virus’.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo dubbed the new coronavirus the “European virus” during a video message to the Democratic National Convention.

“Our current federal government is dysfunctional and incompetent. It couldn't fight off the virus, in fact it didn't even see it coming. The European virus infected the north-east while the White House was still fixated on China,” Cuomo said on Monday.

Cuomo was one of the first Democratic luminaries to speak at a convention that the pandemic has effectively forced online to keep thousands of party faithful from gathering and spreading the virus.

His remark appeared to be a dig at President Donald Trump who had repeatedly insisted on calling the pandemic the “China virus”, though his opponents often accuse the president of verbalising racist overtones by insisting on the term.

The virus was first detected in Wuhan, China, though some studies have said the New York outbreak may have come from European travellers who did not know they were infected.

Trump last week again referred to the “China virus” in an interview with the New York Post, where he discussed plans for his acceptance speech for the presidential nomination.

“I’ll probably be giving my speech at the White House because it is a great place. It’s a place that makes me feel good, it makes the country feel good,” the Post quoted Trump as saying in an interview.

“We’d do it possibly outside on one of the lawns, we have various lawns, so we could have it outside in terms of the China virus,” Trump said.

Cuomo, 62, a potential presidential contender in 2024 or 2028, said the Trump administration remained unprepared to overcome a pandemic that slammed into New York City five months ago.

“This is a man-made threat by our own negligence,” he said. “We now see the virus ricocheting across the country from one state to another. Today we trail the world in defeating Covid. We have over 5 million cases.”

More than 170,000 people in the US have died from Covid-19, according to Johns Hopkins University.

With more than 32,000 deaths, New York remains the hardest-hit state. But Cuomo’s strict lockdown and methodical reopening have turned it into a model for recovery with a low level of contagion this summer even as the virus continues to ravage Florida, Texas and other parts of the country that rushed to reopen.

When New York was the pandemic’s epicentre in April, Cuomo’s daily briefings became must-watch TV nationwide as he sought to help Americans absorb the enormity of the crisis.

His command of the health data and empathy with the suffering of New Yorkers contrasted with Trump’s disregard for scientific expertise, refusal to call for nationwide sacrifice and reluctance to recognise the pain of those who have lost loved ones.

Cuomo’s popularity soared as Trump’s dropped.

Cuomo suggested Covid-19 was a symptom of a sharply divided nation in crisis. He cited anti-Semitism, “anti-immigrant fervour” and the racism on display in the violent 2017 demonstration in Charlottesville, Virginia, “where the KKK didn’t even bother to wear their hoods”.

Donald Trump didn’t create the initial division,” Cuomo said. “The division created Trump. He only made it worse.”

He described Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden as “a leader who appeals to the best within us, not the worst, a leader who can unify, not divide, a leader who can bring us up, not tear us down”.

Steve Guest, the rapid response director at the Republican National Committee, said Biden’s record of responding to pandemics when he was vice-president was “dismal”.

“Andrew Cuomo’s appearance at Joe Biden’s convention is a stark reminder of the Democrats’ failed responses to pandemics,” he said, citing the H1N1 pandemic of 2009 and 2010.

In that outbreak, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 12,469 people died in the US. In the Ebola outbreak of 2014, the agency said, one person in the US died.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Chinese and Indian Leaders Pursue Amity Amid Global Shifts
European Union Plans for Ukraine Deployment
ECB Warns Against Inflation Complacency
Concerns Over North Cyprus Casino Development
Shipping Companies Look Beyond Chinese Finance
Rural Exodus Fueling European Wildfires
China Hosts Major Security Meeting
Chinese Police Successfully Recover Family's Savings from Livestream Purchases
Germany Marks a Decade Since Migrant Wave with Divisions, Success Stories, and Political Shifts
Liverpool Defeat Arsenal 1–0 with Szoboszlai Free-Kick to Stay Top of Premier League
Prince Harry and King Charles to Meet in First Reunion After 20 Months
Chinese Stock Market Rally Fueled by Domestic Investors
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
Ukrainian Nationalist Politician Andriy Parubiy Assassinated in Lviv
Corporate America Cuts Middle Management as Bosses Take On Triple the Workload
Parents Sue OpenAI After Teen’s Death, Alleging ChatGPT Encouraged Suicide
Amazon Faces Lawsuit Over 'Buy' Label on Digital Streaming Content
Federal Reserve Independence Questioned Amid Trump’s Push to Reshape Central Bank
British Politics Faces Tumultuous Autumn After Summer of Rebellions and Rising Farage Momentum
US Appeals Court Rules Against Most Trump-Era Tariffs
UK Sought Broad Access to Apple Users’ Data, Court Filing Reveals
UK Bank Shares Dive Over Potential Tax on Sector
Germany’s Auto Industry Sheds 51,500 Jobs in First Half of 2025 Amid Deepening Crisis
Bruce Willis Relocated Due to Advanced Dementia
French and Korean Nuclear Majors Clash As EU Launches Foreign Subsidy Probe
EU Stands Firm on Digital Rules as Trump Warns of Retaliation
Getting Ready for the 3rd Time in Its History, Germany Approves Voluntary Military Service for Teenagers
Argentine President Javier Milei Evacuated After Stones Thrown During Campaign Event
Denmark Confronts U.S. Diplomat Over Covert Trump-Linked Influence in Greenland
Starmer Should Back Away from ECHR, Says Jack Straw
Trump Demands RICO Charges Against George Soros and Son for Funding Violent Protests
Taylor Swift Announces Engagement to NFL Star Travis Kelce
France May Need IMF Bailout, Warns Finance Minister
Chinese AI Chipmaker Cambricon Posts Record Profit as Beijing Pushes Pivot from Nvidia
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
Ukraine Finally Allows Young Men Aged Eighteen to Twenty-Two to Leave the Country
The Porn Remains, Privacy Disappears: How Britain Broke the Internet in Ten Days
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Welcome to The Definition of Insanity: Germany Edition
Just a reminder, this is Michael Jackson's daughter, Paris.
Spotify’s Strange Move: The Feature Nobody Asked For – Returns
Manhunt in Australia: Armed Anti-Government Suspect Kills Police Officers Sent to Arrest Him
China Launches World’s Most Powerful Neutrino Detector
How Beijing-Linked Networks Shape Elections in New York City
Ukrainian Refugee Iryna Zarutska Fled War To US, Stabbed To Death
Elon Musk Sues Apple and OpenAI Over Alleged App Store Monopoly
2 Australian Police Shot Dead In Encounter In Rural Victoria State
Vietnam Evacuates Hundreds of Thousands as Typhoon Kajiki Strikes; China’s Sanya Shuts Down
UK Government Delays Decision on China’s Proposed London Embassy Amid Concerns Over Redacted Plans
A 150-Year Tradition to Be Abolished? Uproar Over the Popular Central Park Attraction
×