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In October 2021, New York Governor Kathy Hochul met with grieving families who lost loved ones in nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
I was with my husband Sean whose parent’s Mickey and Dee were among over 15,000 seniors who died from contracting the virus in their long-term care facilities.
I remember feeling optimistic that if she heard our stories and saw our grief first hand, she would help us find answers. The day of the meeting she listened to us, offered her condolences and promised to be fully transparent and to help us get to the bottom of what happened in the spring of 2020.
At the time, I believed her.
NEW YORK, UNITED STATES - 2022/06/24: Governor Kathy Hochul speaks as hundreds protesters gathered on Union Square to protest against Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe vs Wade effectively banning abortions in the US. ( (Photo by Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images))
But now, over two years later, we still don’t know why Andrew Cuomo and the New York Heath Department ordered over 9,000 COVID-19 positive patients into their residences without alerting our families.
The administration never took responsibility for their reckless decisions and death toll cover up. There is now strong evidence that Cuomo purposely hid those numbers to profit from a $5-million book he was writing about leadership in a pandemic.
Hochul listened sympathetically to my husband Sean as he painfully explained what it was like losing both his parents within two weeks of each other and not being able to see or comfort them.
My friends Peter and Daniel Arbeeny gave Hochul their father’s death certificate and asked why he wasn’t counted in the whitewash of nursing home fatalities.
I commented after our meeting that Hochul’s actions would speak louder than words, and almost a year later we have seen nothing to indicate she has been true to her promise to help grieving families.
Peter, a lifelong Democrat, says he often wonders if Cuomo were a Republican would we "still be here two years later waiting for the Democratic machine to start an investigation with subpoena power?"
This past week, there have been a chorus of newspaper editorials from the New York Post, Daily News and the Times Union asking why Hochul is dragging her heels on her promised "blue ribbon panel" to go through all the "good, bad and ugly decisions that were made during the pandemic here in New York.
Congressman Lee Zeldin, the Republican who is running against Hochul for governor, says he thinks that she believes that "eventually families will go away and forget about what happened to their loved ones; no longer demanding justice or accountability."
A woman holding a sign hugs another woman in front of a section of a memorial wall at a news conference in New York, Sunday, March 21, 2021. The families gathered to grieve but want an investigation into and accountability from Gov. Andrew Cuomo. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
But Zeldin promises it will be one of his priorities if he wins to "appoint a special prosecution my first day in office to investigate and prosecute any crimes regarding the order and the cover-up."
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New York State Sen. Sue Serino, who was one of the first lawmakers to speak out about how dangerous it was to admit sick patients into nursing homes, says they have a duty to find out what went wrong during the pandemic to ensure that deadly mistakes are never repeated. She said, "this administration is out of excuses for dragging its feet on a long-awaited pandemic review. Now is the time to do the right thing and fulfill the promises made to thousands of families impacted by the states’ nursing home policies and get the answers and accountability families deserve."
My friend and fellow advocate New York State Assemblyman Ron Kim, who helped facilitate the meeting between grieving families and Hochul last year, is still holding out hope that she will be true to her word, but argues this can’t just be a review by consultants that she chooses to do the report. It needs to be an "independent commission with full subpoena and investigative powers. This cannot be like the 2020 DOH report that went back to then-Governor Cuomo where he controlled the facts and the narrative."
In the meantime, families like mine are trying to figure out what we can do on our own. One thing that we’re counting on is the passage of New York State Senate bill S74A, known as the "Grieving Families Act." This legislation would "help in future lawsuits when a loved one’s life wrongfully ends and consider the emotional loss when awarding damages."
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The bill would also increase the statute of limitations to file a claim, giving families the chance to have their day in court. However, the bill, if it’s passed would also require action and a signature from the very same Gov. Hochul.
I wish I could be more optimistic, but if history is our guide, the same woman who looked us in the eye and told us she cared and wanted to help, has so far done nothing to make us believe her.
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