Monday, June 28, 2021

28 June 2021: Opinion - Cuomo "Must Be Held Accountable"

Commentary: Cuomo must be held accountable for COVID choices

Tracey Alvino believes she lost her father as a direct consequence of the Cuomo administration's deadly 25 March 2020 directive. In this op-ed, she calls for Governor Cuomo to be held accountable for the deaths that resulted:

Cuomo ordered 9,000 COVID-positive patients into nursing homes all over New York, an order that led to thousands of preventable deaths. My dad, Danny Alvino, was one of them. He might be an inconvenient number that was omitted from a report so Cuomo could nab a lucrative book deal, but to my family, he was everything and we are irrevocably broken.

More than 53,000 New Yorkers have died of COVID and we may never know the true number of deaths that were caused by the governor’s mishandling of the virus in nursing homes. Estimates are that over 15,000 senior citizens lost their lives due to contracting the virus in long-term care facilities. Celebrating the “end” of pandemic restrictions in the wake of so much death is callous.

She's concerned New York's political establishment will not hold the Governor accountable for the deaths of so many seniors from COVID in the state's nursing homes. What makes this op-ed stand out however is her call for the resignation of two State Senate Judiciary committee members for engaging in ethically suspect conduct that raises questions of their integrity:

Will Cuomo be held accountable for his fatally flawed directives and his attempt to cover up the truth about the nursing home tragedy? I’m increasingly skeptical after learning that two members on the Assembly Judiciary Committee — which is handling the Cuomo impeachment inquiry — recently dined with him at the Executive Mansion.

While the topic may have been infrastructure in Western New York, it was wholly inappropriate for Assembly members Monica P. Wallace and Karen McMahon to socialize with the governor while serving on a committee charged with investigating multiple accusations against him. It calls into question the integrity of the impeachment inquiry, and it’s a breach of trust for those of us seeking justice, leaving us to doubt whether our concerns will be heard or whether the inquiry will be fair and impartial. These Assembly members must resign their Judiciary Committee seats to bring the appearance of integrity back to the investigation.

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