Assembly committees investigating the spread of COVID-19 are preparing to meet with family members of New York nursing home residents who died during the closures and grill former Gov. Andrew Cuomo about the pandemic.
Members of the Republican-led COVID-19 subcommittee received a detailed 121-page timeline from Peter Irbiny, whose father, Norman, died of an infection after being released from a Brooklyn nursing home.
of A scathing document To We Care Wall The website alleges that decisions and cover-ups by Governor Cuomo and his administration led to COVID-related deaths in nursing homes.
This will be Cuomo’s first time being formally interviewed by congressional investigators, but the interview will be private and recorded.
“Tracking down Governor Cuomo’s numerous lies, manipulations and misconduct is exhausting,” Irbeney, who recently met with House investigators, said in the written statement.
“The now infamous [Cuomo] The $5.2 million book deal was the dark cloud hanging over New York’s nursing home scandal, a dynamic that has spawned corruption, greed and betrayal at the highest levels of state government.”
The COVID-19 committee, which includes Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-Staten Island/Brooklyn), has interviewed family members of other COVID victims involved in the controversy as well as state ethics officials.
The committee interviewed Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), last week.
“By issuing orders forcing nursing homes to accept positive patients even if they cannot provide care, Governor Cuomo has stymied our commission for nearly four years as it seeks to prevent the next pandemic, improve our government’s preparedness and response plans, and gather answers for families who have lost elderly loved ones,” Malliotakis said.
“We are hopeful that we will finally get answers, transparency and accountability for New Yorkers.”
According to Messrs. Malliotakis and Albini, as well as other sources consulted by the Committee, the questions that will undoubtedly be asked are:
- The infamous decree of March 25, 2020, directing nursing homes to accept COVID-19 positive patients discharged from hospitals. Whose idea was this, who wrote it, and why was it in place for six weeks when it was clear the virus was spreading in nursing homes?
- Why were acute care hospitals like the Javits Center and the USS Comfort, with thousands of acute care beds, underutilized?
- Why would Cuomo decide to write a $5 million profitable book about his response to COVID-19 in the middle of a pandemic that has killed thousands of New Yorkers?
- Did the decision to write the book influence the governor’s decision to make himself look good?
- Why did they drastically undercount or mislead the public about nursing home residents who died from COVID-19?
Bill Hammond, a senior fellow for health policy at the Empire Public Policy Center, which has published a critical report on the Cuomo administration’s actions, was also consulted by the committee, as was a state ethics official tasked with reviewing the controversial book deal.
Cuomo, who resigned as governor amid numerous accusations of sexual harassment and misconduct that he denied, is looking forward to defending his response to the once-in-a-century pandemic.
“The Department of Justice has reviewed this issue three times, and the Manhattan District Attorney, [state] “The Attorney General and the New York State Assembly have both determined that the actual facts and evidence do not support the allegations of wrongdoing, and no MAGA farce of a legislative hearing will change that,” said Richard Azzopardi, a spokesman for Governor Cuomo.
A spokesman for Governor Cuomo also said that the government’s March 25 directive to nursing homes to accept or readmit positive COVID-19 patients from hospitals was not the cause of Arbreni’s father’s death.
“We understand Ms. Irbinie’s pain. Losing a loved one is difficult under any circumstances. However, as the court and Ministry of Health public documents attest, the Ministry of Health’s March 25th directive had no impact on the loss of her father. He was admitted to Cobble Hill Medical Center on March 20, 2020, discharged on April 8, and tragically passed away on April 21st. More importantly, Cobble Hill Medical Center did not admit a single COVID-19 positive patient until three weeks after Ms. Irbinie was discharged,” Azzopardi said.
A representative for Governor Cuomo said the March 25 notification to nursing homes about accepting COVID-19 positive patients discharged from hospitals was based on guidance from federal health officials.
He noted that in May 2020, New York state became one of only eight states to include estimated nursing home deaths in its COVID-19 death toll, and the number of nursing home deaths in New York state increased dramatically.
Azzopardi said the facts “run counter to the MAGA conspiracy theory that there was an attempt to undercount the number of nursing home deaths.”
He also argued that the federal government’s own guidelines prohibit COVID patients from receiving treatment on the USS Comfort.
“By the time they reversed course, the number of cases among New Yorkers was declining and concerns about hospitals being overwhelmed were no longer an issue,” Azzopardi said.
