24 September 2023: Op-Ed - Cuomo Health Commissioner "Dr. Howard Zucker Should Not Be at the CDC"

Why did Biden hire N.Y.’s COVID doc? Dr. Howard Zucker should not be at the CDC

Peter and Daniel Arbeeny, whose father died of COVID in a New York nursing home during the period Andrew M. Cuomo's deadly 25 March 2020 directive was in effect are shocked that former New York Health Commissioner Howard Zucker, who participated in developing and implementing the fatally-flawed policy, has been hired by the CDC. They voice their shock and dismay in a letter to President Biden in this New York Daily News op-ed. Here's he text of their letter in full:

Dear President Biden,

Our family was shocked to learn that your administration appointed Dr. Howard Zucker to a high-ranking position at the CDC. This was a huge mistake. In his previous job as New York State health commissioner, Zucker played a direct and willing role in many of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s most disastrous and corrupt actions during the pandemic. He should be fighting to keep his license to practice medicine. Instead he was elevated to represent the CDC on a world stage.

We write this as proud lifelong Democrats who lost a loved one who contracted COVID in a New York City nursing home in March of 2020. Our father, Norman Arbeeny, was admitted to the nursing home for reasons unrelated to COVID. Less than 24 hours after our family took him home, he became sick. He passed away just before his COVID-19 test came back positive.

Because he died at home, his death was never included in the nursing home death toll. We have been outspoken critics of former Gov. Cuomo and his administration for their lies and cover-ups. We are also suing the former Cuomo administration in an effort to hold accountable all the people who made decisions without the public’s best interest in mind.

In her first interview as the new CDC director, Dr. Mandy Cohen, said she is refocusing the agency on more transparency. We agree that “trust” is the foundation of the hard work the agency faces as it moves forward. It is no secret that missteps were made and that we can learn from them. However, we need to draw a clear line between missteps and deliberate actions that were meant to hide the truth and deceive the public. Let us explain:

In early 2020, New York nursing homes were wholly unprepared to accept COVID-positive patients, let alone thousands of them. Knowing this, the CDC released a report on March 18, 2020, cautioning nursing homes to take steps to avoid the spread of COVID given its “substantial morbidity and mortality.” Yet on March 25, the state Health Department issued an order requiring nursing homes to accept COVID-infected patients being discharged from hospitals. More than 9,000 such transfers were completed over the next six weeks — which undeniably contributed to the 15,000-plus deaths of long-term care residents in the pandemic’s first year.

Instead of acknowledging his mistake, Zucker chose to aid and abet Cuomo’s efforts to mislead the public. His agency published a politicized report on July 6, 2020, which gave a death toll of 6,432 when the real count was closer to 12,000. It also falsely claimed that the March 25 order had not contributed to that total.

In a March 2022 audit of the Health Department, state Comptroller Tom DiNapoli concluded: “The public was misled at the highest levels of State government and given a distorted version of reality that suppressed facts when they deserved the truth.”

That shamefully politicized DOH report is still on the state’s website, and most of its lies have not been removed or corrected.

California Congressman Ami Bera — an M.D. with public health experience — spoke for many at a public hearing: “For the life of me, I can’t understand why anyone would take a COVID-positive patient and put them in a nursing home,” Bera said. “That’s medical malpractice.”

Bill Hammond of the Empire Center authored an August 2023 report revealing that “of lives lost — New York’s response was not merely sub-par or below average, but among the least effective in the world.”

The facts clearly demonstrate that Zucker repeatedly chose to support falsehoods propagated by the former administration rather than prioritize the lives of New Yorkers he vowed to protect. Zucker claimed he was following CDC guidelines when allowing hospital-discharged COVID-positive patients into nursing homes without testing. Far from acknowledging his mistakes, Zucker has doubled down and said he would do it all again.

Since trust and transparency are the hallmark of new leadership at the CDC, we respectfully request that you launch an investigation into Zucker’s actions — and share the findings with the public. This would go a long way toward rebuilding the country’s faith. As you clearly know, a loss of public trust bankrupts good governance and statesmanship. How can we provide genuine solutions if we cannot come to a mutual understanding of the truth? After Zucker’s demonstrably false statements and reports, there is little justification for him to continue practicing medicine. Howard Zucker must be held fully accountable for his extensive misdeeds, which have left New Yorkers sicker, poorer, and prematurely deceased.

We opted to present the full text of the letter because it provides a sound overview of Andrew M. Cuomo's ongoing COVID nursing home deaths scandals.

This entry was added to the timeline on 8 October 2023.