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A2 UP FRONT
Wednesday 19 January 2022
Ex-NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio won't run for governor

By MICHELLE L. PRICE Democrats, in particular, to came into office with a lib-
Associated Press shore up support. The Buffa- eral agenda but struggled
NEW YORK (AP) — Former lo native had won endorse- with unsparing and mock-
New York City Mayor Bill de ments from key figures in ing tabloid headlines dur-
Blasio announced Tuesday de Blasio's turf, like the chair ing his time running the na-
he will not run for governor, of the Brooklyn Democratic tion's largest city.
but will instead devote him- Party and the Manhattan De Blasio, who was born
self to fighting inequality in borough president. in Manhattan and raised
New York. De Blasio had been eyeing in Cambridge, Massachu-
His decision to not enter the a campaign for months. setts, launched a short-lived
Democratic primary further He filed paperwork in early presidential campaign in
strengthens the campaign November with the state 2019, when he kicked off his
of Gov. Kathy Hochul, who Board of Elections to cre- first day as a candidate by
already has a command- ate a fundraising commit- trading insults with Trump.
ing start locking up en- tee — New Yorkers for a Fair But he faced pushback
dorsements and fundrais- Future — to allow him to from skeptical New Yorkers
ing. De Blasio, 60, frequently Suozzi, a Democrat who raise money for a statewide over his bid, punctuated
"No, I not going to to be run- clashed with former New represents Long Island and campaign. In November, by him failing to qualify for
ning for governor of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, has touted his work to get he unveiled a campaign- several debates, flubbing
York state. But I am going who resigned from office in Congress to raise a tax de- style statewide education a campaign appearance
to devote every fiber of my 2021 amid allegations he duction cap that benefits plan calling for universal in Miami by quoting Che
being to fight inequality in sexually harassed numer- a high-tax state like New pre-K and "3-K," and stayed Guevara and a techni-
the state of New York," the ous women. York. coy in a series of interviews cal glitch that distorted his
former mayor said in a vid- Hochul, who was Cuomo's State Attorney General Le- as to whether he intended voice when speaking to
eo posted on Twitter. lieutenant governor and titia James, who investigat- to run. In 2013, de Blasio union workers in Iowa via
De Blasio did not offer more became the first woman ed the allegations against became the first Democrat videoconference.
detail about how he plans to serve as New York's gov- Cuomo, dropped out after to serve as New York City Before serving as mayor,
to fight inequality. ernor when she took over a short-lived bid and opted mayor since 1993 in a city de Blasio was both a public
De Blasio, who left office at for Cuomo in August, faces to instead run for reelec- where Democrats outnum- advocate and a city coun-
the end of 2021, had been two main challengers in tion. ber Republicans 7 to 1. He cil member. q
hinting for months about a the Democratic primary. De Blasio — and Williams
2022 run for governor, say- Jumaane Williams, who — would have counted on Continued from Front peer reviewed, comes
ing he would like to stay in serves as a citizen ombuds- a base of voter support in Some unknown portion of from researchers at Kaiser
public service and is proud man in his elected office of Brooklyn, but Hochul has these deaths are among Permanente and Univer-
of his eight years as mayor New York City Public Advo- been making frequent people infected with the sity of California, Berkeley.
of the largest city in the cate, is also in the primary trips to New York City and delta variant, but experts "It's hard for me to say
country. race, as is U.S. Rep. Tom hobnobbing with Brooklyn say omicron is also claim- straight out it's good
ing lives. news," said study co-au-
"This is omicron driven," thor Sara Y. Tartof, a Kai-
Shea said of the com- ser Permanente research
ing wave of deaths. The scientist. "Maybe there's
combined models proj- good news in the sense
ect 1.5 million Americans that if you are infected
will be hospitalized and your chance of becom-
191,000 will die from mid- ing severely ill are de-
December through mid- creased, but from a soci-
March. Taking into ac- etal perspective it's a very
count the uncertainty in heavy burden for us. It re-
the models, U.S. deaths mains a serious situation,
during the omicron wave and we need to maintain
could range from 58,000 practices and behaviors
to 305,000. we know protect us."
Yet, it's become increas- Overburdened hospi-
ingly clear that the risk tals could also contrib-
from omicron is lower ute to more deaths, said
than from previous vari- Marc Lipsitch of Harvard
ants. New evidence from T.H. Chan School of Pub-
nearly 70,000 patients in lic Health and scientific
Southern California sug- director of the Centers
gests omicron is causing for Disease Control and
milder illness than delta. Prevention's forecasting
A study, posted online center. "In places with ex-
and cited during a re- tremely short staffing and
cent White House brief- overloads of patients, as
ing, found patients with the medical professionals
omicron had a 53% lower have been telling us, the
risk of hospitalization with quality of care begins to
respiratory symptoms, a suffer," Lipsitch said. "That
74% lower risk of ICU ad- may also lead to higher
mission, and a 91% lower death rates, but that's not
risk of death. The study, in any of the models that
which has not yet been I'm aware of."q