Mayor de Blasio talking #coronavirus on Trevor Noah's show just now: "You know Franklin Roosevelt, the famous quote, ‘We have nothing but [sic] fear, but fear itself?’ There is an element of this that is fear that’s been generated beyond the facts, beyond the reality." 
"When you really look at coronavirus, it’s serious—we have to make a lot of adjustments to address it—but I worry that it’s becoming sort of the cause for making a bunch of decisions that actually alter all the rest of our life, including in some very bad ways. Let me give you...
"an example. Some people are saying, 'Close our schools.' Now, we have a lot of evidence that this disease, thank God, does not really have that much of an impact on healthy children. When you think about folks saying close everything...
"A lot of parents say to me, ‘Our kids need the schools not just for their education. It’s where they get their meals'... It’s thinking about the whole picture. We do have to make serious adjustments and government has to act and people have to act...
"But let’s not make this the false idol. Let’s have an honest conversation about what it is and what it isn’t...
“How does this even work?” Noah asks about testing. Mayor replies: "One day, I think, we’re going to have such abundant testing capacity that it’s something that's being really broadly brought out into the population. But until that day…
"the focus [is] on people with symptoms, folks who have travelled to the most affected areas, folks who have been in contact with someone who does have a confirmed case of coronavirus—that’s where you’ve got to start...
“We have 53 people as of today that have tested positive [transcriber’s note: I don’t know the time today when this interview was taped]. A lot of them are at home, they’re healthy, they're seeing it through. They’re having very limited symptoms...
"Some are in the hospital, some are in top shape, others are coming out of it. So, it’s not just one thing. But I do think the idea is, why don’t we as a nation mobilize all of our resources, get the testing truly to be all over the country where it’s needed, get people tested...
"in a really extensive manner, then we’ll know what's what. and we can get people help. Listen, 80% of the people who get it have very little negative experience. It’s like cold or flu in reality. For the other 20%, most of them have a tough time but they’ll come out okay...
"in the end, except that small percentage that, God forbid, and that is typically the oldest and folks who are really ill who may not make it."
Noah: “Is it hard for leaders to just say that ‘Hey, yeah, you are really like already on death’s door, man. This thing is just going to take you out?’ Or do you have to, like—does it make the messaging harder?
Noah: "I know you can’t say it, but it would be gangster if you guys could just come out and say like, ‘Hey, if you are going to die, you are going to die, and corona is just, like, making that happen.’”
De Blasio: “Trevor, I really don’t think you should run for public office.”
“I agree with you,” Noah says. “I agree with you.”
De Blasio: "The president of the United States has committed, I think, a fundamental sin here in terms of being a leader by not saying to people, ‘You know what? This’ll take a lot of work, sacrifice—this is going to be with us a long time'...
"There’s something about being a leader where you don’t discourage people from having faith and strength and create fear. Nor do you tell them, ‘Oh, you know, just look away from the problem, it’s all going to be fine, it’s going to be done by April'...
"You gotta tell people truth and then invite them to be part of the solution. That’s what we’re trying to do here," de Blasio concludes.
Host graciously thanks guest. Crowd roars. Fin.
