#Grandstanding Cuomo should follow science and end NY’s mask mandate

Ridiculous: Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s COVID grandstanding in insisting he needs to do his own review before he can follow Biden administration guidance saying the fully vaccinated don’t need to wear masks indoors or out.

And he has the nerve to put the review in the hands of Health Commissioner Howard Zucker, who with Cuomo gave New York the deadly mandate forcing nursing homes to accept COVID-positive patients.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidance is unmistakable: “Anyone who is fully vaccinated can participate in indoor and outdoor activities — large or small — without wearing a mask or physically distancing,” CDC chief Rochelle Walensky declared Thursday. She said the agency would soon revisit its recommendations for schools and other settings.

President Joe Biden called it “a great day for America”: “If you’ve been vaccinated, you don’t have to wear your mask and you can shake hands. . . . You can even give each other a hug.”

It’s a great reason for the vax-hesitant to finally get jabbed — except that the delay by Cuomo (and some other Democratic leaders) feeds doubt even if he eventually gets on board.

In fact, the CDC guidance merely acknowledges well-established science — which Cuomo has throughout the pandemic loudly insisted he’s following. To claim he and Zucker need to review it before he acts is just another example of the gov’s arrogance.

It’s a repeat of last year, when Cuomo made a grand show of commissioning a panel to review the vaccines after they’d gained federal approval. “The way the federal government has handled the vaccine, there are now serious questions about whether or not the vaccine has become politicized,” Cuomo pontificated, utterly without evidence. (Notably, Dr. Anthony Fauci reproached the gov for needlessly undermining confidence in the jabs.)

In fact, Cuomo’s panel gave its OK just hours after the feds did. Did the members actually do anything? Team Cuomo has stonewalled a Freedom of Information inquiry into its activities.

There’s no need for Cuomo and Zucker to reinvent the wheel. More than half of adult New Yorkers are fully vaccinated, with nearly two-thirds having received at least one dose. COVID cases and hospitalizations have plummeted, along with the transmission rate. The vaxxed should be able to go without masks in almost every setting. It would encourage those who haven’t gotten the shot, too.

But Andrew Cuomo just can’t stop putting his ego ahead of the interests of New York’s citizens.