We still need a COVID reckoning about how Cuomo bungled the crisis

"The nursing homes have seen in many ways the most intense issue here. And when you think about where this even started, it started in a nursing home in state of Washington. The vulnerable population, our senior citizens, people with comorbidities, compromised immune systems, and a nursing home is a aggregation of those people. And that’s how it started. And that is where it is most dangerous in the nursing homes.  

I understand that. I understand the nursing home staff, people who staff these nursing homes have been doing a fantastic job because it really is very difficult. And we had to put some precautions in place that are just so harsh.  

I mean, we can’t have, we said no visitors to a nursing home during this entire time. I mean, just think how harsh that is, right? But all it takes is one person to walk into that nursing home with the virus and then you’re off to the races." 

-- Andrew Cuomo May 4, 2020 

In early March, the House select subcommittee committee investigating the Coronavirus pandemic issued a subpoena for former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to appear for questioning over his failure to cooperate with a probe into New York state’s COVID-19 nursing home policies.  

Then-New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo spoke during a March 23, 2020, news conference alongside the National Guard at the Jacob Javits Center that temporarily housed patients in response to the COVID-19 outbreak. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)

As many of you know, I have been fighting for four years when it comes to truth and accountability into the deadly decision that I believe helped kill thousands of seniors here in New York in the spring of 2020, including my husband’s parents.  

Today, March 25, is the fourth anniversary of the must-admit directive for nursing homes to accept COVID-positive patients. It was issued by the Cuomo administration and the New York State Health Department. That executive order was in place for 46 days, in which time over 9,000 sick people were brought into the homes where our most vulnerable resided.   

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The former governor has never formally been questioned as to why he signed this order that defies all science and despite all the dire warnings that were issued by experts and even Cuomo himself in the spring of 2020. 

A subpoena is a start to try to finally find the truth. I look forward to hearing him finally go on the record, but there also has to be a thorough, after-action review here in New York to make sure this Category 5 disaster never happens again. 

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So far, the only state to release an independent report is New Jersey, conducted by former assistant state attorney general Paul Zoubek. The publication is over 900 pages long and had many brutal observations.  

One of the biggest takeaways was that the New Jersey Department of Health had a previous pandemic plan in place, but apparently no one knew it existed. Many of the situations in that potential scenario came true, and had leaders followed it, concludes Zoubek, many "meaningful gaps in New Jersey’s level of planning and preparation" that could have been avoided.  

Like New York, New Jersey also had a similar executive order that admitted people that were diagnosed with COVID-19. The report found that these homes, including those that were veteran’s facilities, were "a profile in incompetence" that, according to NorthJersey.com, "allowed the virus to spread uncontrollably in the earliest days of the pandemic and kill at least 200 residents."  

The report also detailed the "negligence and dysfunction at multiple levels." NorthJersey.com said that, "combined with inadequate training, insufficient infection control measures and longstanding staff shortages helped contribute to one of the highest nursing home death tolls in the U.S." 

During the COVID-19 crisis, then-CNN host Chris Cuomo (left) joked about virus testing for his brother, then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The incident sparked outrage, given that people were dying from the virus while the brothers laughed on air. (CNN/screenshot)

Our current governor, Democrat Kathy Hochul (who was Andrew Cuomo’s lieutenant governor at the time), told families (including mine) in a closed-door meeting several years back that she wanted to get to the bottom of what happened to our loved ones.  

And although there have been several reports issued by the attorney general and the comptroller, a few hearings and bill proposals, we still have not seen anything in the way of a thorough top to bottom investigation for one of the worst-hit states in the country.  

Meanwhile, our disgraced, former governor has been on a media tour criticizing people in his own party for enforcing laws and decisions he made while in office. He’s been appearing on local radio stations, writing newspaper editorials and doing television interviews about congestion pricing, the influx of migrants, homelessness, unemployment and high taxes.  

These are all things Cuomo campaigned on and helped facilitate during his 10 years as governor. The fact that media outlets are helping to rehabilitate his career without challenging him once again is infuriating. I had to laugh when I saw a disclaimer on one of his interviews by a local reporter here in New York City that said: 

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"It is important to point out that Cuomo only agreed to do the interview if it was on topic, so Kramer (Marcia Kramer from CBS) couldn’t ask him about being subpoenaed to testify before Congress on COVID nursing home deaths." 

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The fact that Cuomo continues to have a platform without being questioned about the catastrophic decisions that were made during the Coronavirus pandemic is one of the biggest reasons I’ve been so loud and persistent.  

It’s important on this day, especially on the anniversary of what I believe was a death warrant to thousands of elderly, to remember and remind people of what happened to our loved ones. And the fact that, four years later, there is still no justice or accountability for their deaths.  

A subpoena is a start to try to finally find the truth. I look forward to hearing him finally go on the record, but there also has to be a thorough, after-action review here in New York to make sure this Category 5 disaster never happens again. 

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And although the headlines have died down about what happened during COVID-19, and many choose to forget the incredible danger our relatives faced because of disastrous decisions by the ones who were elected to protect them. I will never give up. No matter how long it takes.  

It’s up to us, the living, to seek justice for our family members who died, and whose memories will always be a blessing.  

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