You’ve heard already that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office established a secretive program last year wherein state health officials were ordered at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic to prioritize care for Cuomo’s family and friends.
Now, the Washington Post now has more details on the little-known scheme, including that it was an off-the-books situation.
“During the early frenetic weeks in March 2020, officials working at testing sites rapidly assembled a system that gave special treatment to people described by staffers as ‘priorities,’ ‘specials,’ ‘inner circle’ or ‘criticals,'” the Washington Post reports, citing officials who “described how resources were redirected to serve those close to the governor and other cases that were fast-tracked.”
Around the time that state officials were directed to prioritize care for the governor’s inner circle, COVID-19 tests were generally unavailable to the public. Making matters even swampier, state troopers were made to rush the VIP tests, which were administered often in private residences, to the Wadsworth Center laboratory in Albany, New York, where the “critical samples” were moved to the front of the line for immediate analysis.
It’s worth noting here that Wadsworth was the only facility in the state at the time with the authority to perform tests for the virus. As such, it had limited capacity to respond to the deluge of demand. But you had better believe it found the time and resources to serve the governor’s hand-picked list of priority clients.
As for the secretive nature of the prioritization program, the Washington Post reports, “At one of the first pandemic operations hubs in the state, the testing priority status of more than 100 individuals were logged in an electronic data sheet that was kept separate from a database for the general public, according to a person with direct knowledge of the practice.”
That doesn’t sound like something on the up-and-up.
It adds, “Medical staffers who worked at state testing sites said they were told to provide special access for people with ties to Gov. Cuomo, an arrangement they said made them deeply uncomfortable.”
One nurse described “being dispatched from an operations center in New Rochelle — an early hub used to mobilize state resources — with instructions to test patients in private residences and hotel rooms who they were told were part of Cuomo’s orbit,” the report reads.
“We would always hear, ‘This is coming from the governor’s chamber,’” the nurse said. “What the hell does that mean?”
Another nurse recalls the “frantic effort” to prepare for the arrival of VIPs at a state-run testing facility and the subsequent rush to get the “critical samples” to Wadsworth.
“I remember them being like, ‘They’re coming, they’re coming,’” the nurse said, referring to how their superiors would announce the arrival of one of Cuomo’s VIPs. “And they would say, ‘Have the state trooper ready. … Have it ready to go to Wadsworth.’ There was a lot of anxiety over those samples getting to the right place.”
“They were treated like royalty,” the nurse added, referring to Cuomo’s family members. “I didn’t understand why they were able to jump the line.”
Beneficiaries of the program included Executive Director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Rick Cotton, his wife, and Metropolitan Transportation Authority chief Patrick Foye. The governor’s own brother, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, was also among the lucky few to get special treatment.
That’s not all! Designer Kenneth Cole, who is married to the governor’s sister, likewise made it onto the list of prioritized persons, according to the Washington Post.
The report continues, detailing specifically how state healthcare workers were made to track their progress treating the governor’s friends and family:
Cuomo administration officials maintain they did nothing wrong. In fact, they say, it was routine.
However, judging by the reporting, the priority program sure doesn’t sound routine, especially the fact that state officials kept separate records. It sounds as if someone wanted to keep the program hush-hush.
“The word was ‘priority,’” one nurse said. “They would say, ‘We have a priority at 10 o’clock, a priority at 11 o’clock.’ I can’t say that I know that they were all important to the governor, but that is what we were told.”
Dr. Eleanor Adams, who was tasked last year with controlling the state’s first outbreak in New Rochelle, New York, was pulled regularly from her assignment to prioritize the governor’s inner circle, most especially the CNN anchor.
For reference, Chris Cuomo’s home in Southampton, New York, where Adams was sent repeatedly to administer tests personally, is roughly 90 miles from New Rochelle, where she was supposed to be managing the viral outbreak.
“[A] top state physician whose pandemic portfolio involved coordinating testing in nursing homes was dispatched multiple times to the Hamptons home of CNN host Chris Cuomo,” the Washington Post reports, “in testing visits that sometimes stretched hours.”
Speaking of nursing homes, an estimated 11,000 people died in New York last year following Andrew Cuomo’s order forcing infectious coronavirus patients into long-term care facilities. It probably comes as a surprise to the families of those 11,000 victims to know that the resources meant for their ailing family members were redirected specifically to benefit the state’s gilded class.
Chris Cuomo, who enjoyed preferential treatment at the outset of the pandemic, later allowed his older brother, an accused sexual predator, to use his evening program as an unofficial public relations arm of the governor’s office.
The CNN anchor also used the network’s airwaves last year to rail against former President Donald Trump’s handling of the outbreak.
The Trump administration “can say that anyone who wants a test can get one, and they know that’s BS,” the anchor said, “because you and I both know that we know people in our lives who can’t get tested. And when they do get tested, they can’t get results until they’re already over the illness.”
Later, Cuomo, whose employer confirmed that he was prioritized, bragged of his own success battling the virus: “Now look, me, I’m one of these — I’m one of the lucky ones. I got everything I need to get better on this.”
Yes, Chris. Yes, you do.
Meanwhile, at CNN, which has an entire department dedicated to attacking its competition for unethical behavior, not a single person has questioned the ethics of Chris Cuomo, a beneficiary of his brother’s VIP program, rewarding the governor with hours of valuable airtime. Not a single word.
