There is a truth that the media and other people who defended Governor Cuomo did not want to hear: that his executive orders were one of the main reasons why many of our parents and grandparents died of COVID in their elderly care facilities.
We lost more older people from COVID in nursing homes than 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina together. This includes my husband’s parents, Mickey and Dee Newman. Why did this fact not provoke indignation?
We now know why, and this is what we suspected for many months: why this administration has been doing everything possible to keep this information hidden by blaming, intimidating, lying and covering up.
Personally, I have been attacked by the governor’s spokespersons, as well as my family and the rest of the brave who dared to go against this administration. I was told that he was not a credible person in anything but the weather and that he was part of a cult of death that would not cease to haunt Cuomo or his office. I was warned to “watch your back” and “be careful”. He was too powerful, revered and feared by those who covered him and worked for him.
Meanwhile, our grieving families continued to watch the mainstream media about him and never asked the questions we so desperately wanted to know: why he wrote that executive order to take infected patients to nursing homes and why he was covering up the total? number of elderly people who died, including those who died in hospital?
We never heard the answers. Instead, we saw him promote and celebrate, write his leadership book, and win an Emmy Award.
He was enraged. Frustrating. Crushing soul. And, in spite of all my attempts at accountability, I was beginning to believe that we could never see the day that this governor and his administration were called to task.
Bye now. A 76-page report from the New York Attorney General’s Office that finally gave us reason to believe that the nightmare we were going through was very real.
Our feelings of pain, dismay, anger, and betrayal from this leader and his Department of Health were valid. What we knew in our hearts was the truth.
In his report, James wrote:
“While we cannot recover the people we have lost in the face of this crisis, this report seeks to provide the transparency the public deserves and drive greater action to protect our most vulnerable residents.”
That’s the part that made me cry. Because we can’t get my husband’s parents back, but I think they helped give me the strength not to give up.
I called my husband and sister and told them Mickey and Dee didn’t give up. They helped us move forward.
Because the ones we have lost are the ones we fight for.
This report is a door that opens, with a light beam that is observed. Maybe there can be justice and their deaths will not have been in vain.
I hope we see a full investigation into the killing of nursing homes here in New York. These deaths could have been prevented. Maybe this is the beginning of protecting other families in the future.
But first, we need the whole truth and nothing but the truth. From this governor, his Department of Health and all those who helped cover him up. Because we deserve it. My husband’s parents deserve it.
Governor Cuomo said this week in an interview on one of the channels that he never asked him questions about the tragedy of the nursing home:
“An incompetent government is killing people. More people died than needed to die in COVID. That is the truth. ”
Turns out he was talking about himself.
Janice Dean is a senior meteorologist and anchor for Fox News.