We're playing a bit of catch up following our last "live" post on 13 October 2022. We added this story to the timeline on 30 October 2022.
- I believed Hochul, but her probe of COVID nursing-home deaths in New York is ‘damn’ late
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As we suspected, there have hardly been any news items covering Andrew M. Cuomo's 25 March 2020 directive and its deadly consequences as the media has been mostly focused on the runup to the 8 November 2022 mid-term elections.
But not entirely, as this op-ed from Janice Dean demonstrates. As a member of one of the thousands of families who were harmed by Andrew M. Cuomo's negligent policies, she expressed her disappointment in this op-ed. Here's an excerpt:
Hochul listened sympathetically to my husband, Sean, as he painfully explained what it was like losing both his parents within two weeks of each other and not being able to see or comfort them. My friends, Peter and Daniel Arbeeny, gave Hochul their father’s death certificate and asked why he wasn’t counted in the whitewash of nursing-home fatalities. I commented after our meeting that Hochul’s actions would speak louder than words, and a year later we have seen nothing to indicate she has been true to her promise. Her “blue-ribbon panel” into the “good, bad and ugly” decisions made during the pandemic has never happened.
Peter Arbeeny, a lifelong Democrat, says he often wonders: If Cuomo were a Republican, would we “still be here two years later waiting for the Democratic machine to start an investigation with subpoena power?”
Rep. Lee Zeldin, the Republican running for governor against Hochul, has promised families if he wins to “appoint a special prosecution my first day in office to investigate and prosecute any crimes regarding the order and the cover up.” That’s something that should happen regardless of who wins in November.
My friend and fellow advocate, Assemblyman Ron Kim, who helped facilitate the meeting between grieving families and Hochul last October, is still holding out hope that she will be true to her word, but argues she can’t choose consultants to do the report. It needs to be an “independent commission with full subpoena and investigative powers. This cannot be like the 2020 DOH report that went back to then-Governor Cuomo where he controlled the facts and the narrative.”
Replacement NY Governor Kathy Hochul's failure to follow through on such an independent probe raises legitimate questions about her leadership. Which we view as entirely self-inflicted. Why she, as someone who had no role in the formation, implementation, or execution of Andrew M. Cuomo's deadly 25 March 2020 directive would not pursue an independent investigation of excess COVID deaths in New York's nursing homes during the coronavirus pandemic is a glaring, unanswered question.
