I wanna make sure everyone understands
what we're doing with this coronavirus
we are trying to contain the spread of
the virus how do you contain the spread
of the virus by testing as many people
as you can find the positives and then
isolate the positive people that's how
you contain the spread of the virus why
do we want to contain the spread of the
virus what happens if you don't contain
the spread two things happen first you
would have to take more drastic measures
what do you what we have seen in China
what we're seeing in Italy you'd have to
do massive quarantine which would be
very disruptive to society in the
economy China basically closed down
everything for two weeks
closed restaurants closed schools closed
businesses closed down everything it is
massively disruptive for society for
people and for the economy the second
consequence is the vulnerable
populations here senior citizens people
with a compromised immune systems people
with underlying illnesses this is a
dangerous disease for them for the
vulnerable populations for most people
you'd get ill you'd recover you'd go on
with life so those are the two reasons
we are trying to contain the virus
basically we want to reduce as much as
possible situations creating density so
I've been saying to business leaders
first have a liberal sick leave policy
for your employees if somebody is sick
stay home
if you feel symptoms stay home and I'd
like the companies to communicate that
to their employees that they will pay
them liberal sick leave policy to stay
home to the extent private sector
companies can stagger
they're workers
shifts of workers so one shift comes in
early one shift comes in late to the
extent the private sector company can
say stay at home non-essential workers
work from home more and more this is a
digital economy to the extent workers
can work at home let them work at home
we want to reduce the density citizens
have a role that they can play yes
wash your hands let's not handshake now
the great new elbow bump looks like they
could be good to get beginning of a new
dance move
Commissioner Zucker recommends to me
every flu season that we should tell
people don't shake hands so this is not
an extraordinary precaution but it's
something that citizens can do to help
if citizens are making taking mass
transit if you can move to a train car
that is not as dense if you see a packed
train car let it go by wait for the next
train same with the if you're taking a
bus it's the density the proximity that
we are trying to reduce the single best
thing we can do is testing why because
the more you test the more positives you
identify the more people you can isolate
and stop the spread that's why so much
of this is about testing on testing we
need more help from the federal
government and the CDC the CDC I believe
was slow to begin with they were not
ready for this they should have been
ready for this we saw what was happening
in China anyone who didn't realize that
someone from China was going to get on a
plane and come to the United States was
delusional frankly second the CDC has
been slow in allowing stay
and other commercial laboratories to
test we were asking the CDC which in the
beginning was doing all the tests
themselves we said let the state of New
York do tests we have a great lab called
the wodsworth lab let us use wodsworth
there was a delay in letting the states
do the testing finally they let the
states do the testing now we're saying
the testing capacity is more than the
state lab can handle let us bring in
private labs to help do the testing why
because we want more capacity we need
more capacity