Sunday, October 24, 2021

24 October 2021: Probes Into Cuomo Priority Friends and Family COVID Testing Scandal Are Stalling

Lawmakers benefited from priority COVID-19 tests

Brendan Lyons of the Albany Times-Union has continued digging into what we've called the "Looking Out for Número Cuomo" scandal, in which the friends and family members of those politically connected to Andrew M. Cuomo received priority COVID testing when test kits for confirming coronavirus infections were in very short supply.

The report leads with bad news for how seriously investigators are taking their tasks in investigating the misconduct:

Multiple investigations into preferential COVID-19 testing that former Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's administration had provided for the well-connected — including state lawmakers and their families — have stalled, and individuals with intimate knowledge of the practice said they were never interviewed in connection with any of the inquiries.

Lyons however digs into how the preferential treatment operation was conducted, which screams the participants knew it wasn't on the up-and-up. The "chamber" referenced in the following excerpt refers to the Executive Chamber of the Governor Andrew M. Cuomo's office:

Recent interviews with nurses and health department officials who worked at major COVID-19 testing sites downstate last year, including at Glen Island Park in New Rochelle and Jones Beach State Park on Long Island, have revealed new details of the practice, including the use of code words when Department of Health officials relayed VIP test results to members of the governor's Executive Chamber.

The department developed the system because officials concluded that by law only physicians or medical practitioners could inform someone if their test results were positive. But if they were negative, administrators and others were directed to reveal results to Cuomo's staffers using carefully worded code language.

"The chamber controlled the priority list," said a health department official involved with the VIP testing, who spoke on the condition of not being identified. "If somebody from chamber called ... and says, 'I want the test results for Abraham Lincoln,' you could say, ‘Nothing to worry about,' and the chamber official would understand that meant the result was negative for COVID-19."

But health officials said the chamber's involvement in facilitating the delivery of test results for VIPs and others may have violated medical privacy laws. Even Cuomo, they said, at times would be informed of and announce someone's test result before the person may have been notified. Sources with knowledge of the matter said Cuomo also would personally inform his relatives, including his brother, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, of their results.

And then, there's a short snippet of how the Cuomo-test rationing scandal was exposed:

The former administration's control and knowledge of the VIP testing program became more evident when a law enforcement official at a downstate testing site had classified his test as "priority" because he was going on vacation out of state and needed a negative test result to travel.

The official "tried to hijack the system and made himself a priority," the health department employee said. "But he didn’t understand all this stuff that happened in background, so when this priority test came through and it didn’t match the approved list of priority tests, because we had to get permission from chamber, the whole thing kind of blew up."

The governor's office's actions trip over Section 74 of New York's Public Officers Law, which prohibits government officials from using or attempting to use "his or her official position to secure unwarranted privileges or exemptions for himself or herself or others". The same law applies in Andrew M. Cuomo's pandemic "leadership" book deal scandal, from which Cuomo personally profited to the tune of $5.12 million.

The report suggests a significant number of influential state officials, including legislators and New York's chief judge, benefited from Cuomo's friends and family priority COVID testing operation. It remains to be seen whether the probes into this particular scandal are stalling to protect them.

Here's previous coverage from the timeline:

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