Cuomo desperately doles out celebs to sell new face mask executive order amid nursing home deaths debacle

With New York Governor Andrew Cuomo facing scrutiny over his treatment of nursing homes during his Covid-19 response, he turned to celebrities Chris Rock and Rosie Perez to help him sell his latest order regarding the pandemic.

‘Grown Ups’ star and ‘Birds of Prey’ actress  joined Cuomo at his Thursday press conference where the governor announced a new executive order allowing businesses to deny service to people not wearing masks.

“You don’t want to wear a mask? Fine, but you don't have a right to then go into that store if that store owner doesn't want you to,” the governor said.

“People have a right to jeopardize their own health (I don’t recommend it),” he later added in a tweet. “People don’t have a right to jeopardize other people’s health.”

The CDC has recommended wearing masks in situations where social distancing is not possible, a sentiment that has been echoed by Anthony Fauci.

Amateur virologists and full-time actors Rock and Perez were doled out at one point during the press conference to take turns heaping praise on Cuomo and help shame people into following the government’s orders.

“I watch you every single day and you bring me calm. You bring me joy,” Rock said to Cuomo.

Neither Rock nor Perez wore masks during the press conference — though they did arrive wearing them and they were quickly removed — but both sported medical gloves, which means businesses may not allow people not wearing masks, but press conferences with the New York governor do. 

Both performers will use their vast medical experience to reportedly be part of a public service campaign throughout New York encouraging citizens to wear masks and abide by any other orders the state puts in place to help combat the spread of Covid-19.

Perez tried to help Cuomo sell wearing masks by saying, “this is not a joke.”

“Please spread love the Brooklyn way. Get tested. Wear a mask,” she said. “Mi gente, wear a mask please. This is not a joke, this is not a hoax.”

“I see hipsters and yuppies walking around without a mask. What is it, arrogance? Do you think you’re not going to be affected? OK fine, but you’re affecting me too. That I really do not understand,” she later added.

She even gave a shout out to her performance in Spike Lee’s ‘Do the Right Thing’ by telling people to “do the right thing” and wear a mask.

Rock meanwhile called not wearing a mask a “status symbol” and said at least 40 percent of people he sees do not wear masks in public.

“It’s sad…that our health has become sort of a political issue. It’s a status symbol almost to not wear a mask,” he said.

There has been opposition to wearing masks, including from President Donald Trump who has skipped doing so on several occasions, though he has said he’s worn masks behind the scenes like during his recent visit to a Ford plant in Michigan. But the president admitted he did not wear the mask in front of the press because he didn’t want to “give [them] the pleasure of seeing it.”

New York using celebrities to push their Covid-19 response is a tired trick at this point, as New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio at one point recruited everyone from Danny DeVito to Ben Stiller to create public service announcements encouraging people to stay home.

Cuomo’s mask order got the sarcastic support of Janice Dean, a senior meteorologist with Fox News, who lost both of her in-laws to coronavirus. Dean previously slammed Cuomo over his nursing home order forcing establishments to take in positive coronavirus patients and responded to his new order by saying faces “aren’t the only thing you’re covering up,” a clear nod to the governor’s nursing home fiasco.

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