Commending elected officials for showing leadership during pandemic
The past few weeks have been busy and ever-changing with update after update related to the coronavirus.
Each day has been filled with last-minute changes along with longer and busier days.
Although the coronavirus has impacted so many New Yorkers, Americans and people from around the world in a negative way, as a journalist, although it has made our days busier, however, I feel like we have the obligation to inform the public about this pandemic.
I’m glad our papers made the decision to have any coronavirus stories not be blocked online by our paywall since
I do believe that it is important to keep the public updated with what elected officials are saying each day.
Covering a pandemic also has me think about how this storyline will be something that I will always remember covering and could end up being one of the biggest stories in my career.
One thing that I’ve noticed during our coverage of COVID-19 is how Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Albany County Executive Dan McCoy have shown strong leadership. Since the virus made its way to New York, Cuomo has been given multiple updates each and every day and has taken action to try to stop the virus from spreading so much.
McCoy has done the same thing since Albany County announced its first two positive cases last week. Since that day, McCoy and other officials in Albany County have been out front each day informing the public about new cases and have been open and honest about the seriousness of the virus.
As a resident of Albany County and with confirmed cases in my town of Guilderland, I appreciate McCoy for showing leadership during a hard time.
On Monday, Cuomo had to make some tough decisions with mandating that restaurants and bars be closed except for take-out and delivery services as well as closing movie theaters, casinos, and gyms. He also made the decision to force all schools to shut down for two weeks.
Although everyone may not like these choices, I think he is doing what he thinks is best to try to lessen the spread of the virus across the state.
I’m also glad to see other counties and municipalities across the Capital Region take precautionary measures even if those counties like Rensselaer County do not have any confirmed cases yet (as of Tuesday morning).
I hope that these measures do help to lessen the spread of the virus and that within a few months that this virus will be behind all of us.