New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) responded Wednesday to a reporter asking about protesters outside his daily news conference in Albany calling for an end to the COVID-19 Chinese coronavirus lockdown, saying that the resulting suicides and domestic violence were worth the price because the cost of the virus is “death” and is needed to save “my life” over those who commit suicide over their lives being ruined by the lockdown or victims of increased domestic violence from being locked in their homes with abusive partners for weeks without end. Shockingly, Cuomo said domestic violence does not equal death, when a recent study in Britain showed women in coronavirus lockdowns are getting killed by their male partners at at rate three times before the lockdowns were imposed.

People upset with the state's @coronavirus lockdown @protest outside the Capitol in Albany, NY @518coronavirus pic.twitter.com/5PSqUfk51D — Lori Van Buren (@curleypic) April 22, 2020

The unknown reporter said to Cuomo that she spoke to the protesters before the press conference and explained to him their desperate situation, saying the protesters’ point was the cure can’t be was worse than the illness itself’. She also asked about those who commit suicide from not being able to pay their bills.

A reporter asked Gov. Cuomo what he’d say to New Yorkers who want to go back to work because they’re running out of money, to which he replied, “economic hardship doesn’t equal death” “You want to go to work? Go take a job as an essential worker” he added https://t.co/BgwoOZsQRy pic.twitter.com/WxGQxtg49p — CBS News (@CBSNews) April 22, 2020

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Reporter: “I don’t know if you can hear but there are protesters outside right now honking their horns and raising signs. We did speak to a few of them before we came in and these are regular people who are not getting a paycheck. Some of them are not getting their unemployment check. And they’re saying that they don’t have time to wait for all of this testing and they need to get back to work in order to feed their families, their savings is running out, they don’t have another week, they’re not getting answers. So, their point is ‘the cure can’t be worse than the illness itself’. What is your response to that?”

Cuomo: “The illness is death. What is worse than death?”

Reporter: “But what if someone commits suicide because they can’t pay their bills?

Cuomo: “Yeah, but the illness is maybe my death, as opposed to your death.”

Cuomo: “You said they said, ‘the cure is worse than the illness’. The illness is death. How can the cure be worse than the illness if the illness is potential death?”

Reporter: “But what if the, what if the economy failing…”

Cuomo: “Worse than death?”

Reporter: “…is, equals death, because mental illness, the people, the people stuck at home…”

Cuomo: “No it doesn’t. No, it doesn’t. It doesn’t equal death. Economic hardship: Yes, very bad, not death. Emotional stress from being locked in a house: Very bad, not death. Uh, umm, domestic violence on the increase: Very bad, not death. And not death of someone else. See that’s what we have to factor in to this equation. Yeah, it’s your life, do whatever you want. But, you’re now responsible for my life. You have a responsibility to me. It’s not just about you. You have a responsibility to me, right?

We started here saying, ‘it’s not about me, it’s about we’. Get your head about, around the ‘we concept’. So it’s not all about you, it’s about me too. It’s about we. Also, I get the economic hardship. Everybody gets it, everybody feels it, federal government is sending out a check uh, for individuals, six hundred dollars, an additional twelve hundred dollars. We are moving heaven and earth to get the unemployment uh, payments going.

So, we get the economic anxiety. The question is how do you respond to it? And do you respond to it in a way that jeopardizes public health and possibly causes more people to die? And think about it as if it was your family that might get infected, right? And that’s what we’re talking about. And when you think about it as your family, you have a different perspective, I’ll tell you the truth.

It’s not an abstract argument, well they say, ‘he says, she says, he says, she says’. I know that’s how it works: ‘Well, protesters say this, governor says this, protesters say this, governor says this’. Okay, think about it as your family might be in the mix. Because of when I see four hundred and eighty-four New Yorkers die, I feel that it’s like people in my family. And nothing comes before the public health risk of somebody else’s life and that’s where we are.”

Reporter: “But they’re also saying, if you can’t afford to pay me unemployment, or you, or your system is not set up…”

Cuomo: “You will be paid. You will be paid unemployment from the day…”

Reporter: “But, they, they can’t wait, they can’t wait for the money. They’re out of money.”

Cuomo: “Yeah. We’re talking about a couple of days lag on the unemployment insurance and they will get the check from the date of unemployment. Does not cost them an extra penny. Now, they can say, ‘unemployment insurance isn’t enough’, I get it. Uh, even with the six hundred dollar check and the twelve hundred dollar check and the unemployment insurance benefit is not enough. I understand the economic hardship, we all feel it. The question is what do you do about it? And do you put public health at risk? And do you drive up the number of deaths, for it? Because you have no idea how to reopen now.”

Reporter: “But they’re saying that, ‘is there a fundamental right to work if the government can’t get me the money when I need it? Is there a fundamental right…”

Cuomo: “Yeah,you wanna, by the way, you wanna go to work? Go take a job as an essential worker. Do it tomorrow.”

Transcript by TGP.