People are responding to the coronavirus in many ways that aren’t directly related to their physical health. One prime (time) example of this can be found in the person of CNN host Chris Cuomo, who also happens to be the brother of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. Chis came down with COVID-19 earlier this month and went into the usual quarantine protocols at this home. But he’s still been working, including doing a regular radio show on SiriusXM. It was during that show yesterday that Cuomo seemed to face a personal and professional crisis, realizing that he really doesn’t like his job anymore and suggesting that he might be done with it. (NY Post)

Chris Cuomo’s coronavirus-induced fever may have subsided but the CNN anchor was red hot on Monday.

The longtime cable host, 49, had a mini-existential crisis on his SiriusXM show, lashing out at his lucrative primetime gig and blasting President Trump as being “full of sh-t.”

“I don’t want to spend my time doing things that I don’t think are valuable enough to me personally,” Cuomo said.

“I don’t like what I do professionally… I don’t value indulging the rationality, hyper-partisanship, I don’t think its worth my time anymore.”

I would first like to say that I don’t care what differences I may have with Chris Cuomo when it comes to politics and policy or even how he handles his job as a political analyst. I wouldn’t wish this virus on anyone and I hope that he continues on to a full recovery and good health.

Further, I can’t really blame him for this moment of self-revelation and the way he seems to be feeling. I’m guessing that a positive test for a potentially deadly disease could give anyone pause, causing them to reflect on their own mortality and whether or not they are really spending their time on this Earth in the best way possible. It sounds like Cuomo is really having doubts along those lines.

He cited the way his job forces him to “talk to Democrats about things that I don’t really believe they mean” and “talking to Republicans about them parroting things they feel they have to say.” And for what? He went on to state that he really doesn’t think he can change anything, so why is he still doing it?

I think that’s a feeling that many of us in the punditry business can relate to at times. The vast majority of people who are so interested in politics and policy that they regularly consume cable news, political blogs and related media are already quite settled in their views. The much larger number of Americans who don’t bother with the political sideshow until just before an election generally aren’t listening, watching or reading.

The other part of Cuomo’s complaint was a bit less philosophical. He told a story about some “loser biker” who confronted him on Sunday because he was outside of his home while being contagious. His big regret on that score was apparently his inability to get in the guy’s face and tell him to “go to hell.” If he had, it would become another story about him losing his temper as he has in the past.

Cuomo went on to point out that he has the freedom to stop working if he wishes. CNN pays him a lot of money and he claims he’s saved a bunch of it. Not everyone is so fortunate.

So does this mean that we’ll be getting word of Cuomo’s retirement in the near future? Possibly. But then, I hear from a lot of people on social media who have been rethinking their career and personal options during the lockdown. Part of this may simply be the reality that many people are more isolated than normal, leaving them with plenty of time for introspection. Others may be dealing with concepts of their own mortality as I mentioned above. But this strange story of a rant on an internet radio show should remind us all of one thing. The coronavirus is changing America and the rest of the world, sometimes in very unexpected ways.