GOT CUO DEAD TO WRITES
Protest rips his COVID memoir
A silver casket was wheeled to the front of a Brooklyn nursing home on Sunday — with 6,500 copies of the cover of Gov. Cuomo’s new book dumped in it to protest his COVID-19 policies.
The number of photocopied covers of “American Crisis” represented the roughly 6,500 people reported to have died from the coronavirus in nursing homes across the state — although the protesters said they believe the actual death toll is much higher.
“My motherin-law got COVID in an elder-care facility but died in a hospital, [so] her number does not count’’ in New York’s nursinghome tally, said Janice Dean, a meteorologist for “Fox & Friends” who was among the roughly 50 protesters outside the Cobble Hill Health Center.
“At the very beginning, I wouldn’t have blamed anyone. We were in the middle of a pandemic,” she said.
“But then I saw the governor on CNN and the various talk shows talking about his love life and talking about how he brought the curve down to nothing.”
The first thing he should have said was, “I’m sorry for your loss,” Dean argued.
About a dozen people also added photos of their lost loved ones to the casket.
Protesters mainly ripped Cuomo’s March 25 mandate that prevented nursing homes from turning away coronavirus-positive patients coming from hospitals. Critics say the order contributed to the soaring COVID-19 death rates at nursing homes.
Written by Cuomo, “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic” was released on Tuesday. It is described in a press release as a “remarkable portrait of leadership during crisis and a gritty story of gutwrenching choices that point the way to a safer future for us all.”
Protest organizer Peter Arbeeny complained at the rally that Cuomo had not commissioned an independent investigation into the nursing-home toll.
“The families in front of you deserve to know the truth,” said Arbeeny, whose 89-year-old father, Norman, a Korean War vet, was among the at least 56 people to die from COVID-19 at the Brooklyn facility.
“We are all COVID orphans now,” he said.
“And if somebody made a mistake — and with it all that was go
ing on, it was a crazy time — we would forgive,” he said.
“Maybe somebody wouldn’t forgive, but we would forgive. You get a sincere apology when truth comes out, and then we all know, and then we can move on.”
Cuomo has also been accused of failing to divulge the actual number New York nursing-home residents killed by COVID-19.
In August, The Associated Press reviewed federal data for nursing homes in the state covering June and July and found that Cuomo’s administration may have underreported the death toll for that time by about 65 percent.
Asked about nursing homes at a press briefing earlier Sunday, Cuomo acknowledged that his administration could have done a better job of protecting people.
“But can anyone say that a virus that targets the weak and the seniors, [that] we can keep them safe? Nobody can say that,” he said.
Cuomo said nursing homes would have to be put in “a hermetically sealed bubble” to completely avoid the contagion.
And he contended that New York has “the most aggressive” nursing-home policy in the country when it comes to preventing the virus’ spread, including mandated weekly testing of workers.
His office also said the virus was spread in nursing homes by asymptotic staffers and visitors.
WHEN I first heard that Gov. Cuomo was writing a book on his “leadership” during the pandemic, I think I spit out my coffee and thought it was an article from the satirical Web site The Babylon Bee. I laughed. Then I became enraged.
In March and April, my husband’s parents died of COVID-19 in their elder-care facilities. Theirs were two of more than 6,000 deaths that resulted from Cuomo’s now-notorious nursing-home decree — a veritable mass seniorcide.
I wondered if Cuomo would use his memoir to finally tell the truth about the nursing-home tragedy. Up until now, the governor has blamed everyone else for his executive order forcing nursing homes to accept coronavirus-positive patients.
Cuomo has shifted the blame to God, Mother Nature, The Post, Fox News, President Trump, nursing-home visitors and employees and even residents themselves, among other scapegoats.
I wondered: Would the book, “American Crisis,” see him make a long-overdue reckoning with his calamitous mistake?
As a vocal and prominent critic of his decision-making, I made several requests to his publisher to receive review copies, so I could write about it. However, I wouldn’t under any circumstances buy the book, since I suspect he is profiting off the deaths of more than 30,000 New Yorkers.
I e-mailed the publisher, Crown Books, but got no response. Then I e-mailed a co-worker who books guests on cable-news programs to help. No luck. I then asked my editor friend who knows some movers and shakers in the publishing world to find a copy for me. And that didn’t work, either.
I decided then that maybe it was the universe telling me I wasn’t meant to read this book.
But it was hard to avoid news of the governor’s publicity tour. First, CBS “Sunday Morning” did a fluffy profile of the governor and his family. It was a lovely package, but there were no hard-hitting questions about the nursing-home deaths, though numerous families like mine have demanded answers.
Why did the governor order COVID-positive patients into nursing homes for 46 days straight? Why did the other makeshift hospitals, like the USNS Comfort and the Javits Center, go unused? And why do we still not have the total number of nursing-home deaths? By some estimates, adding the deaths of those seniors transferred to hospitals would almost double the figure to some 12,000.
More fawning interviews followed last week: on “Live with Kelly and Ryan” (ABC) and “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen” (Bravo). When Cuomo was finally asked about the nursing-home tragedy on NBC by Willie Geist, he continued his game of ignoring the question first, then blaming others. At one point, he even said his government never needed to send COVID-19 patients into nursing homes to begin with.
I have received e-mails from a number of my journalist friends and reporters who have read the book. They urged me not to torture myself. The governor never used the opportunity to confess to one of the biggest mistakes of his career. Instead, he uses just a few pages to blame others, including Republicans, of course.
It’s extremely hard for me to watch him lie through his teeth and get away with it. The fact that he even had the time to write a book during the last six months of a pandemic is incredible. Imagine if the governor of Louisiana decided to write a book soon after Hurricane Katrina hit?
More seniors died in New York nursing homes than did in Katrina and 9/11 combined. The governor continues to insist all criticism is political. Yet not one of the grieving New Yorkers I’ve met at rallies has brought up whom they or their lost loved ones voted for. We want answers — accountability to ensure this never happens again.
My publishing friends tell me his book is selling OK, better than his last memoir, which moved a little more than 3,000 copies. But instead of writing books about himself and promoting them on every network, Cuomo should be helping his state get through the next six months.
The pandemic isn’t over, businesses are closing, people are losing their jobs and New Yorkers are leaving Gotham in droves. Instead of waxing poetic on his leadership skills, Cuomo could’ve better spent his time, you know, actually leading.
And that includes writing letters of condolence and apology to families whose loved ones died because of his disastrous decisions.