Members of the family of COVID-19 nursing dwelling victims vowed to struggle former Gov. Cuomo’s mayoral candidacy “each step of the best way” — saying his dealing with of the pandemic “disqualified” him from mounting a political comeback.
“While you fail essentially the most weak who want essentially the most assist and are relying on the management to be high notch, he already disqualified himself from this race,” Vivian Rivera-Zayas, whose mom, Ana, died after contracting COVID-19 at a Lengthy Island nursing dwelling, advised The Publish.
“We’re going to proceed to struggle him each step of the best way, hoping that he won’t be elected our mayor.”
On March 25, 2020, the Cuomo administration issued a controversial directive forcing nursing houses absorb COVID-19 sufferers who have been discharged from hospitals, which some consultants mentioned contributed to 1000’s of deaths.
The three-term Democrat, who formally introduced his mayoral bid Saturday after months of public hemming and hawing, additionally has been accused of considerably undercounting the true variety of COVID nursing deaths — whereas penning a $5 million pandemic memoir detailing how he and his administration confronted the pandemic.
“Whereas our dad and mom have been dying, he was nervous about hiding stuff to guard his e-book deal and his picture earlier than the media,” mentioned Zayas, 54, a co-founder of the 5,000-member advocacy group Voices for Seniors.
“It was at all times about him, and I consider in my coronary heart that it’s nonetheless about him.”
Peter Arbeeny, who believes his father, Norman, contracted the virus at a Brooklyn nursing dwelling in March 2020 and died the next month, ripped Cuomo’s callous perspective.
“His most well-known time period was, ‘Who cares the place they died?’” mentioned Arbeeny, 58, referring to Cuomo’s gripe at a 2021 press convention after a state legal professional basic’s report discovered he downplayed the variety of nursing dwelling residents killed by the bug. Cuomo repeated the query throughout a Home committee listening to final 12 months.
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“As governor, his first job [was] to care. As mayor, his first job is to care.”
Cuomo spokesman Wealthy Azzopardi defended the previous governor in opposition to the blistering criticism over his administration’s nursing dwelling scandal.
He mentioned that a number of civil court docket lawsuits over the nursing dwelling points had been dismissed and three US Division of Justice probes and an investigation by the Manhattan DA’s workplace have been closed with out discovering any proof of wrongdoing. He added that an investigation by the DOJ watchdog discovered his administration’s nursing dwelling coverage “was in step with federal steering” and that “no credible research has ever linked nursing dwelling admissions steering to a rise in deaths.”
Azzopardi additionally famous that Arbeeny filed a lawsuit in opposition to the state that was dismissed, however “the info that got here out of that clearly present” his father’s nursing dwelling didn’t admit any COVID-positive sufferers till three weeks after he had been discharged.
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