New York’s wonder nepots strike again
That’s the power of gov.
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It's as if the Cuomo boys are in a race to see who can lose his job first.
Last year, at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo quietly ordered state health officials to prioritize care for his friends and family, even before healthcare workers, according to the Times Union.
Members of New York’s Department of Health were directed to administer then-scarce COVID-19 tests to those privileged enough to be in the governor’s inner circle. The tests were then rushed to Wadsworth Center laboratory in Albany, New York, where the “critical samples” were moved to the front of the line for immediate analysis.
One such beneficiary of this members-only program was none other than CNN anchor Chris Cuomo. A state trooper reportedly chauffeured a public health official to the anchor's home in March 2020 to test him for the virus, back when it was all but impossible for members of the general public to obtain coronavirus tests. That same state trooper then drove the COVID-19 sample six hours to a lab for testing.
Chris Cuomo, a supposed journalist, never reported New York's elite were prioritized over everyone else. He never disclosed he was on the receiving end of the governor’s beneficence. He certainly never mentioned any of this during his many kid-glove interviews with his big brother, whose order forcing infectious coronavirus patients into long-term care facilities may have led to as many as 11,000-plus deaths.
Facts first, indeed.
“High-level members of the state Department of Health were directed last year by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker to conduct prioritized coronavirus testing on the governor's relatives as well as influential people with ties to the administration,” the Times Union reports.
It adds, “Members of Cuomo's family including his brother, his mother and at least one of his sisters were also tested by top health department officials — some several times … The medical officials enlisted to do the testing, which often took place at private residences, included Dr. Eleanor Adams, an epidemiologist who graduated from Harvard Medical School and in August became a special adviser to Zucker. Adams conducted testing on Cuomo's brother Chris at his residence on Long Island.”
Adams, the report states, was tasked last year with controlling New York’s first outbreak in New Rochelle. However, the report adds, citing an anonymous source, “she was often pulled from those duties to conduct the individual testing that could have been done by a registered nurse.”
“While it was not unusual for those with symptoms to be tested in their residences at that time,” the report reads, “much of the work was done by public health nurses, and they were often being transported by law enforcement officers, including parole officers.”
Others who received special treatment from the New York Department of Health include Executive Director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Rick Cotton, his wife, and Metropolitan Transportation Authority chief Patrick Foye.
Now, insofar as state troopers being roped into a scheme that prioritized Cuomo’s friends, family, and political allies, the following passage from New York State Public Officers Law seems relevant:
No officer or employee of a state agency, member of the legislature or legislative employee should use or attempt to use his or her official position to secure unwarranted privileges or exemptions for himself or herself or others, including but not limited to, the misappropriation to himself, herself or to others of the property, services or other resources of the state for private business or other compensated nongovernmental purposes.
As for Chris Cuomo, CNN confirmed this week he was given prioritized treatment last year.
“We generally do not get involved in the medical decisions of our employees,” said network spokesman Matt Dornic.
He adds, “However, it is not surprising that in the earliest days of a once-in-a-century global pandemic, when Chris was showing symptoms and was concerned about possible spread, he turned to anyone he could for advice and assistance, as any human being would.”
Sure, CNN may not “get involved in the medical decisions” of its employees, but it sure didn’t mind when Cuomo used the company’s airwaves last year to regale his viewers with tales about his family’s brush with the virus.
Chris Cuomo announced on his show last year that he had COVID-19. Cuomo then broke quarantine while he was still COVID-19-positive to gallivant around New York, even getting into a shouting match with an understandably irate cyclist. CNN's Sanjay Gupta later confirmed on-air that Cuomo was still showing symptoms. Chris Cuomo then hosted his big brother, an accused sexual predator, to discuss the anchor’s wife, Cristina Cuomo, and her struggles battling the virus. Chris Cuomo then faked the moment he supposedly emerged from his basement for the first time since contracting the virus, staging some sort of bizarre Lazarus moment (he definitely left his basement and home prior to his "resurrection"). Remember, this all happened on CNN's time.
But, sure, other than that, CNN doesn't get involved in its employee's medical business.
That Gov. Cuomo, whose state has the second-highest overall COVID-19 death toll and the second-highest per-capita death rate, used his political power to prioritize his friends and family at the outset of the pandemic is bad enough. That Chris Cuomo, who role-plays on weeknights as a fearless journalist, withheld all of this information from the public is unforgivable.
Then again, this behavior is exactly what one should expect from New York's wonder nepotists.