Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino says New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo caved on Ebola quarantines due to pressure from the White House, proving his "incompetence" in running the Empire State.
"What you're seeing right now is incompetence at the federal level, incompetence in politics at the state level, and as a result you've got a very confused public that does not know what to do," Astorino said Monday on "The Steve Malzberg Show" on
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"That's the last thing we need in a crisis or in a situation that requires calm and education like we have right now."
Under pressure from the White House, Cuomo has dropped the stricter guidelines for mandatory Ebola quarantines he had announced on Friday, The New York Times reported on Sunday.
Cuomo had joined New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie at a news conference to announce the mandatory guidelines for healthcare workers returning from treating Ebola patients in West Africa, where the outbreak is severe.
The announcement was made after a doctor who had returned from West Africa tested positive for the virus in New York. But the mandatory 21-day quarantines were immediately criticized by health officials and the Obama administration, which pressed the governors to reverse them.
Astorino said he is renewing his call of earlier this month to establish a clear protocol banning anyone from flying to the U.S. from West Africa "until we can get the situation here under control and know what we're dealing with."
"The World Health Organization has said that they expect over 1 million cases of Ebola by the end of December with a 71 percent mortality rate," Astorino said.
"And yet we still have our gates open to flights that are carrying passengers from [West African] nations who will be for the most part asymptomatic when they come her but at some point if they had contact with the virus will start to show symptoms.
"Not all of them are going to follow the right protocols and they could infect people along the way. I say let's use common sense, let's just actually err on the side of caution, not worry about offending any nation."
Astorino charged that Cuomo, a Democrat, has presented a "mish
-mash of different strategies and protocols" to fight the virus.
"Gov. Cuomo loves to do things by politics, by headline, there's not much substance behind it. When you've got an unfolding public health crisis, what you need is calm but you also need clarity in protocol and policy. We haven't gotten that," Astorino said.
"Nobody knows what's going on, there's mass confusion. You've got the governor not coordinating with the mayor of New York City and the city's health department, no coordination with the Health and Hospitals Association … the medical community, you go through the whole list.
"He's in some ways becoming unhinged. His public demeanor is very angry, he is unfortunately going to the lowest depth of politics and throwing out the race card, having his people attack me, and he called me mentally ill the other day."
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