Leaders of an advocacy group for nursing house residents who blame ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo for the COVID-related deaths of 1000’s of kin, urged New York Metropolis voters to reject his anticipated comeback bid for mayor.
“New York deserves higher than Andrew Cuomo, and we’ll be there each step of the best way as a reminder,” an open letter to the three-term Democrat drafted by the group Voices for Seniors stated.
“We won’t overlook,” the letter, obtained by The Submit, stated. “Silence just isn’t an possibility.”
Chief among the many group’s grievances is the Cuomo administration’s controversial March 25, 2020 edict that directed nursing houses to confess recovering COVID-19 sufferers discharged from hospitals.
Additionally they slammed Cuomo for undercounting reported deaths of nursing houses — whereas drafting a $5 million profit-making memoir on his and his administration’s dealing with of the pandemic.
“As you put together to announce your comeback and run for Mayor of New York Metropolis, it’s paramount that we bear in mind what your former failed management left behind,” the 5,000-member group advised Cuomo.
“Over 15,000 seniors useless in nursing houses—livelihoods shattered—households shattered—companies shattered—communities shattered—desires shattered—all due to your reckless, egocentric, and heartless choices that put your personal agenda and ambitions above the lives of these you had been supposed to guard,” the searing letter stated.
The missive was ready by Vivian Zayas and her sister, Alexa Rivera, Tracy Alvino and Grace Colucci — all of whom had family members who died from the coronavirus after being discharged to nursing houses or whereas being handled there.
“It’s as much as us grieving households to ensure the voters of New York always remember how your gross negligence value over 15,000 lives,” the group’s leaders wrote.
“It was our family members this time, however we’re all in danger if you happen to ought to ever climb your approach again into workplace.”
The letter cautioned New Yorkers to not fall for Cuomo’s show of “narcissistic lust for energy and management” by in search of public workplace once more.
“Your corruption and incompetence prompted dying, chaos, and destruction. We all know you’re relying on the passage of time to fade our recollections—the place bullying and tyranny had been the tenets of your rule,” they wrote.
“We are able to’t be on the mercy of a person who prioritizes his self-interest above the perfect pursuits of New Yorkers,” the letter stated.
“And whereas New York bled, you turned inward, centered solely on your self. You lied in regards to the variety of deaths—to not shield the general public, however to guard your $5 million guide deal. You stood earlier than the tv cameras, patting your self on the again to your so-called management when you hid the true depth of the tragedy you prompted. When households cried out for solutions, your response was soulless, callous, and dismissive: ‘Who cares the place they died?’”
The group stated whereas New York’s most weak, immunocompromised aged residents had been relying on Cuomo for defense, he “left them gasping for air.”
“Again and again,” Voices for Seniors stated, “you place your self first.”
“Mr. Cuomo, your time as governor has confirmed you unfit to carry workplace!” the group charged. “We’ll demand justice with out relaxation.”
Cuomo’s rep defended the ex-governor’s report through the lethal once-in-a-century pandemic.
“Two million Individuals died from COVID and our coronary heart breaks for each one of many households impacted by these deaths,” stated Cuomo spokesman Richard Azzopardi.
He cited a US Division of Justice watchdog report into leaks to the media in regards to the company’s investigations into pandemic-related nursing house deaths in New York and New Jersey that concluded the disclosures had been partisan hits on Democrats and aimed toward impacting the 2020 election.
“It is usually indeniable that the inspector common investigated this problem and located that the Division of Justice corruptly used its energy to go after Governor Cuomo and different Democratic governors over COVID in nursing houses for purely political functions,” Azzopardi stated.
“It additionally concluded that New York’s nursing house coverage was in keeping with federal steering, {that a} dozen states — Democratic and Republican — had comparable protocols, and that these states had worse an infection and dying charges than New York,” he stated.
Civil court docket instances involving this nursing house problem had been dismissed and three separate DOJ probes, in addition to one executed by the Manhattan district lawyer’s workplace, had been closed after concluding no legal guidelines had been damaged and there was no proof of wrongdoing, Azzopardi stated.
The Cuomo spokesman additionally claimed “no credible research has ever linked nursing house admissions steering to a rise in deaths, however relatively to group unfold that introduced COVID into nursing houses months earlier than the US authorities was even conscious it was right here.”
However the Republican-led Home Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic launched a report in December that claimed Cuomo dedicated “medical malpractice” and publicly undercounted the overall variety of COVID-related nursing house deaths in New York through the worst interval of the pandemic, and “probably gave false statements” about his function in pandemic decision-making.]
Even Home Democrats on the panel launched their very own investigative report on the COVID disaster that scorched fellow Dem Cuomo for “interfering” with the accounting of nursing house deaths.
Just a few unbiased research claimed the March 25, 2020 nursing house directive, through the six weeks it was in impact, did trigger extra deaths of nursing house residents.
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