12 August 2021: Op-Ed - Don't Forget Cuomo's Nursing Home Deaths Scandals

It’s good Cuomo’s gone, but don’t forget the nursing home scandal

Janice Dean has played a major role in keeping Andrew M. Cuomo's COVID nursing home deaths scandals alive when many in New York's state government and their allies in the media have sought to sweep it under the rug. In this op-ed, she explains why what happened in New York's nursing homes during the coronavirus pandemic is a much larger scandal than the sexual harassment allegations that led to his announced resignation:

I’ve always said it doesn’t matter what ultimately brings down Gov. Cuomo. In the end, it turned out to be a report on sexual harassment. The abuse, detailed in state Attorney General Letitia James’ report last week, was repulsive. Those of us who lost parents, grandparents and in-laws to Cuomo’s killer nursing-home order can’t begrudge his other victims their victory.

Still, it would be a tragedy of the downfall of Cuomo were to spell the end of the inquiry into his catastrophic nursing-home decision and the subsequent attempted cover-up. That would allow many Cuomo cronies and malefactors to carry on with their political and administrative careers without getting to the root of how the decision came to be made —and how the soon-to-be-former governor managed to hide its toll for months....

This should be one of the biggest stories of the pandemic. Against all scientific evidence, governments ordered infected patients into the homes where our most vulnerable resided. That doesn’t deserve our attention? Shouldn’t we know the origins of the mandate? Or does the truth just get buried along with our precious family members?

My friend Assemblyman Ron Kim, who lost his uncle in a nursing home recently, assured me that he and his colleagues will continue the probe into nursing homes here in New York. But he says we have to get the governor out first. Once his power is gone, we can finally hold him accountable for the thousands of unnecessary deaths under his leadership.

This is not a partisan position. Nor is it hindsight - it was known that what was done was wrong at the time. There needs to be consequences for those who developed, implemented, and enforced the Cuomo administration's deadly 25 March 2020 directive.