Relatives of nursing home residents who died from COVID-19 are demanding a “public meeting” with ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo over his handling of the pandemic — saying “he needs to face us” before thinking about another run for office.
The families particularly want to grill Cuomo about the controversial March 2020 edict issued by his health department directing nursing homes to admit or readmit recovering COVID-19 patients discharged from hospitals.
“The last time Andrew Cuomo was in power, he made a disastrous decision that resulted in unnecessary suffering and now he needs to face us before he even thinks about running for another elected office,” said Peter Arbeeny, whose father died from COVID after spending time in a nursing home.
Representatives from the group Voice for Seniors and Fox News Channel meteorologist Janice Dean are part of the coalition wanting to grill Cuomo, who is said to be mulling a run for New York City mayor.
“He cannot outrun the truth. His directive defied federal guidance from health authorities and then contributed to the death of thousands of his constituents,” charged Arbeeny.
“He has since lied about it, covered up the true consequences and refused to talk to us about it. That must end today.”
Arbeeny and the other families want the Cuomo meeting to be held at the Cobble Hill nursing home where 89-year-old Norman Arbeeny had resided.
The lifelong Brooklynite contracted the virus at the facility before his death at home on April 21, 2020, his son has claimed.
The request comes after a House Republican majority report last month accused Cuomo of committing “medical malpractice” and undercounting COVID-related nursing home deaths in New York during the pandemic.
The report also concluded that the ex-governor “likely gave false statements” during his testimony to the GOP-led House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic.
Cuomo spokesman Richard Azzopardi responded that: “More than 2 million Americans died from COVID and every single one of those deaths is a tragedy whose pain their families feel everyday.”
But he added, “The fact is the DOJ Inspector General just put out a report finding that federal officials corruptly used the Department of Justice to target the Governor on COVID nursing home protocols purely because it was a good issue in the 2020 election – even though, as the IG found, New York was following federal guidance and other states had much worse COVID infection issues in their nursing homes.”
The Cuomo rep also suggested that Arbeeny is sore because his family filed a wrongful death pandemic-related lawsuit against the ex-government and lost. He also charged that Arbeeny hasn’t been telling the truth about the circumstances surrounding his father’s death.
“The acts that came out of that [case] clearly show the nursing home he checked his father into did not admit a single COVID- positive patient into their facility until three weeks after his father was discharged,” Azzopardi said.
Cuomo resigned as governor in August 2021 — unrelated to his handling of the pandemic — amid a slew of sexual misconduct accusations, which he denies.
But recent polls show that Cuomo would be the clear front-runner in the Democratic primary for mayor, leading all candidates including incumbent Eric Adams by double digits.
Adams has been politically wounded by a federal corruption indictment and other scandals. He denies the charges and his criminal trial is scheduled for the spring, before the June 25 primary.
Other candidates include former city Comptroller Scott Stringer, current Comptroller Brad Lander and state Sens. Jessica Ramos and Zellnor Myrie, as well as Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, among others.
Lander, for his part, has gone to bat for Arbeeny, a constituent when the comptroller was a councilman representing brownstone Brooklyn.
Last month, Lander requested that US health officials in the Biden administration determine whether Cuomo’s March 25, 2020, violated federal policy and guidance — which some analysts claim contributed to thousands of elderly deaths.
Cuomo’s rep said it was “premature” to discuss a potential mayoral candidacy.
Arbeeny said he’s voted in the past for Cuomo and his father, the late, three-term Gov. Mario Cuomo.
“I became a Democrat because of Mario Cuomo. I have voted for Andrew Cuomo in the past but will I ever vote for him again is the question?” Arbeeny said.
“Why were nursing homes the first and only option for 6,000 NYC discharging hospital COVID patients, and not the absolute last? We need answers, and we need them now.”
