{"id":342962,"date":"2021-03-29T16:48:06","date_gmt":"2021-03-29T20:48:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=342962"},"modified":"2021-03-29T16:48:47","modified_gmt":"2021-03-29T20:48:47","slug":"report-cuomo-fast-tracked-family-connected-dems-for-covid-tests-while-ignoring-nursing-home-test-requests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/report-cuomo-fast-tracked-family-connected-dems-for-covid-tests-while-ignoring-nursing-home-test-requests\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Cuomo Fast-Tracked Family, Connected Dems For COVID Tests While Ignoring Nursing Home Test Requests"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Freport-cuomo-fast-tracked-family-connected-dems-for-covid-tests-while-ignoring-nursing-home-test-requests%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=342962&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/fb_image-4335.jpeg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>New York Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his health commissioner, Dr. Howard Zucker, allegedly saved then-scarce COVID-19 tests for connected Democrats and Cuomo family friends while ignoring nursing home administrators begging to test patients returning from hospitals after receiving care for the novel coronavirus, according to a Monday report from <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2021\/03\/24\/gov-cuomo-allegedly-got-his-family-members-preferential-covid-testing\/\">the New York Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Cuomo is already under fire for twin scandals, one related to an order forcing nursing homes and other adult and long-term care facilities to accept patients recovering from bouts of COVID-19, regardless of whether those patients remained positive for the virus and contagious, and another related to the governor\u2019s behavior towards female staff.<\/p>\n<p>The Post reports Monday, though, that the nursing home scandal may go deeper than just the effects of Cuomo\u2019s policy, which could have led to tens of thousands of COVID-19 deaths in New York, particularly among populations most at risk for the virus \u2014 the elderly and minorities. Cuomo\u2019s administration reportedly ignored calls from medical facilities needing an increased number of COVID-19 tests, then hard to come by. At the same time, the Post reports, Cuomo and Zucker allegedly \u201cdirected that members of the governor\u2019s family and bigwigs with ties to his administration should get priority coronavirus testing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRelatives of Cuomo, including his brother, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, one of their sisters and their mom, Matilda Cuomo, were tested several times during the early days of the pandemic,\u201d the Post reported, citing the Albany Times-Union, which has been digging into the nursing home scandal. \u201cThe testing was done by high-level members of the state Health Department, often at private homes, the newspaper said, citing three sources with direct knowledge of the matter.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Chris Cuomo, notably, tested positive for the novel coronavirus last spring and was forced to quarantine in his home. He hosted his CNN show from his basement while he was recovering from the virus.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOthers who were given priority testing included the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Rick Cotton, and his wife, as well as Pat Foye, the head of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Some state legislators and their staff were also tested,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesunion.com\/news\/article\/High-level-health-officials-were-tasked-with-16044748.php\">the Times-Union added<\/a> in its report.<\/p>\n<p>Although it comes as no surprise that Cuomo fast-tracked friends and family for coronavirus testing, the Post notes, it now appears that, at the same time that Chris Cuomo was gaining access to then-scarce testing kits, the Cuomo administration was denying requests for testing kits from nursing homes who were taking in recovering patients they feared were still positive for the virus and likely to expose both nursing home residents and nursing home staff to COVID-19.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTroubled by reports of COVID-19 running roughshod through nursing homes early in the pandemic, Jack Wheeler, the manager of upstate Steuben County, requested in April 2020 that the state Department of Health provide enough tests for every resident and staff member of three facilities in his jurisdiction,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/politics\/cuomo-admin-kept-covid-19-tests-from-nursing-homes-as-dems-relatives-got-them\">Fox News reported Monday<\/a>. \u201cThe DOH, however, only came through with enough supplies for one of the three facilities, Hornell Gardens, with the precious diagnostic tests then hard to find.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Another nursing home manager says she also requested tests and was approved \u2014 until the morning the tests were supposed to be delivered when her request was suddenly canceled. She was told that \u201cdecisions were being made in Albany\u201d that would restrict her access.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThose nursing homes were raging with positive cases and deaths and the purpose of universal swabbing of both residents and staff was to identify positive cases, isolate the positive staff and \u2026 get the positive residents cohorted together to prevent further spread,\u201d she told the Post. \u201cWe had to beg, borrow, and steal basically and were able to get test kits from other counties,\u201d she continued. \u201cNow knowing [that] what limited supply there was was being hoarded now for friends and family \u2014 it\u2019s criminal. It\u2019s just really hard to understand.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Some nursing home managers turned to lower-level New York bureaucrats, who combed the state \u2014 sometimes driving as much as eight hours at a time \u2014 looking for spare tests so that they could screen their residents.<\/p>\n<p>Cuomo\u2019s office and the New York Department of Health accused nursing home managers of \u201crewriting history.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the absence of any real federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic, New York State stepped forward and from the very beginning did everything we could to protect our most vulnerable population,\u201d DOH spokesman Jonah Bruno told Fox. \u201cAnyone can attempt to rewrite history or rehash out of context conversations a year later, but that doesn\u2019t change the facts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Cuomo\u2019s spokesman, Rich Azzopardi, called the report an \u201cinsincere effort to rewrite the past.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the early days of this pandemic, when there was a heavy emphasis on contact tracing, we were absolutely going above and beyond to get people testing \u2014 including in some instances going to people\u2019s homes, and door-to-door in places like New Rochelle \u2014 to take samples from those believed to have been exposed to COVID in order to identify cases and prevent additional ones,\u201d Azzopardi told the Post.<\/p>\n<p><i>The Daily Wire is one of America\u2019s fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a&nbsp;<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/subscribe\"><i>member<\/i><\/a><i>.&nbsp;<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New York Democrat Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his health commissioner, Dr. Howard Zucker, allegedly saved then-scarce COVID-19 tests for connected Democrats and Cuomo family friends while ignoring nursing home administrators &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2311331,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/fb_image-4335.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"Report: Cuomo Fast-Tracked Family, Connected Dems For COVID Tests While Ignoring Nursing Home Test Requests","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-342962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/fb_image-4335.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"Report: Cuomo Fast-Tracked Family, Connected Dems For COVID Tests While Ignoring Nursing Home Test Requests","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2311331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}