Today I watched the press conference with Mayor Andrew Cuomo of New York.  For the most part, I saw his understanding of the situation to be so much clearer and more concisely stated that the Federal Government’s.  I do have one beef that I’ll state up-front.  I know when US officials say “we don’t want to be like Italy”, they really mean that they see our plight, and would love to avoid some of the consequences of not acting as quickly as you can.  However, in reality, outside of maybe China, which is an AUTHORITARIAN country, Italy has actually done a pretty stellar job!  I know that what they mean is that they would like to avoid the outcomes we’ve had in Italy, but they way it is said is highly offensive to me, because I think Italy has really taken the lead in understanding how serious this situation is, and has taken extraordinary, exemplary action in this crisis.  You DO want to be like Italy when it comes to your dedication to stopping this virus.  You just want to act more quickly, take lessons from what we’ve learned, and try to avoid some of the dire consequences of not acting quickly enough!