Janice Dean: Remembering COVID victims – We care and we will honor them. Here's how you can join us
'Who cares [if they] died in the hospital, died in a nursing home? They died,' Gov. Cuomo said
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Who cares [if they] died in the hospital, died in a nursing home? They died."
That quote is one I will never forget from Gov. Andrew Cuomo when he was responding to the attorney general’s report released in January revealing his administration deliberately undercounted the number of nursing home residents that died from getting COVID in their long-term care facilities.
For so many months the governor lied, blamed and covered up the numbers. He would always use flawed statistics when asked about the nursing home deaths:
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}JANICE DEAN: CUOMO'S COVID NURSING HOME POLICIES ROBBED MY IN-LAWS OF THEIR 60TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY
"If you look at New York state, we have a lower percentage of deaths in nursing homes than other states."
"A third of all deaths in this nation are from nursing homes."
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"New York state, we’re only about 28% – only – but we’re below the national average in number of deaths in nursing homes."
I hope his words are used against him in the ongoing federal, FBI and Justice Department investigations.
And while it’s true that he deserves to be punished for what he did to all the young women coming forward with sexual harassment allegations over the years, I pray what he did to families with loved ones in nursing homes is never forgotten. The over 15,000 elderly whose deaths I believe could’ve been prevented.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}We still don’t know why the governor issued the March 25 order or why he never sent the infected patients to the Comfort ship or the Javits Center instead.
Our grief turned to rage seeing him celebrate his book about leadership, the awards and the poster he sold featuring all the things he loved about himself.
Our governor doesn’t care, but we do.
While we’re not allowed to have funerals or wakes to celebrate the lives of our family members.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"Who cares [if they] died in the hospital, died in a nursing home? They died."
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We care, Governor.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}And that’s why on Sunday, March 21, we will remember those we lost both in nursing homes AND the hospitals at 12 p.m. in front of 380 Henry St. (between Congress and Warren Streets), in Brooklyn, N.Y.
To submit a photo of a loved one lost to COVID in a nursing home for the We Care Memorial Wall: wecarewall@gmail.com.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}We will honor them. Remember them. Celebrate them.
Our governor doesn’t care, but we do.