10 March 2022: New Evidence of Andrew M. Cuomo's COVID "Friends and Family" Scandal Emerges

Chris Cuomo was offered hard-to-get COVID plasma while brother Andrew was governor, emails reveal

This report documents part of Andrew M. Cuomo's "Friends and Family" COVID scandal, in which members of Cuomo's family and close political associates benefitted from the diversion of public health resources during the early phase of the coronavirus pandemic in New York. It also features the journalism ethics-challenged Chris Cuomo, the governor's hapless brother, who hosted CNN's Primetime news broadcast and exercised considerable influence over the news network's coverage of Andrew M. Cuomo's gubernatorial administration during that period. Here are some selected excerpts from the report:

At the height of the pandemic, the CEO of New York’s blood bank personally offered a coronavirus-stricken Chris Cuomo special access to an experimental therapy — virtually unobtainable by anyone unrelated to then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo, emails reveal.

The half-billion-dollar New York Blood Center’s boss, Chris Hillyer, offered “convalescent plasma” to the then-governor’s CNN host brother Chris Cuomo, on April 17, 2020.

“Should the Cuomo family elect to take Dr. Hillyer up on his offer, his cell number is [redacted],” Mary Ann Tighe — a real-estate mogul who acted as a go-between — wrote, according to emails obtained by The Post through a Freedom of Information Law request.

During the pandemic’s early days, when no therapeutics or mRNA vaccines were available, scarce convalescent plasma — drawn from people recovered from COVID-19 and laden with potentially life-saving antibodies — was in high demand.

For his part, Chris Cuomo declined the offer of special treatment:

Chris Cuomo, 51 — who wasn’t above taking priority COVID-test house calls from a top state doctor in March 2020, when regular New Yorkers couldn’t get tested for love or money — rejected the blood delivery.

“I dont want to try something that extreme when I Am not dying,” he wrote. “But thanks.

Chris Cuomo, CNN "journalist", never publicly disclosed having received the offer for the special medical treatment. The report also describes how Chris Cuomo influenced Andrew M. Cuomo's media strategy for addressing its COVID nursing home strategies after it blew up nearly a year later in early 2021:

In March 2021, Chris Cuomo advised Executive Chamber staff as they planned a response to an article on the unfolding nursing-home COVID-19 death scandal.

“For this to be effective the … caption must may say something abt times being wrong or being misleading … Then say why … Say you werent given time to respond,” he wrote.

The broadcast journalist was copied on hundreds of emails between government workers and outside advisors — even ones as mundane as making grammatical changes to draft statements.

Episodes like this example are why Chris Cuomo is frequently described as "journalism ethics-challenged" in the timeline.

This story re-emphasizes the extent to which Andrew M. Cuomo's family members and other close political associates benefited from the older Cuomo's political influence in New York.

This entry was added to the timeline on 13 March 2022.