“Cuomo Gives VIP Access to Corona Tests for Family Members”: New York Governor Stops Tangling
After the sexual harassment scandal, and the scandal of sending the elderly to die in corona-infested nursing homes, it seems that Cuomo is once again at the heart of a public outcry, now on a special treatment on a very sensitive issue – everyone’s lives
Sources tell The Times and The Washington Post that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has instructed state health officials to “prioritize” virus testing for his family members, including his brother, CNN presenter Chris Cuomo.
High-level officials from the Ministry of Health were instructed last year by the governor and health inspector, Dr. Howard Zucker, to conduct preferred tests of the virus on the governor’s relatives as well as on influential people connected with the administration.
Kaumo’s family members, including his brother, mother and at least one of his sisters, have also been examined by senior health department officials – some several times, sources said.
“As part of the program, a state laboratory immediately processed the result, even when average New Yorkers struggled to get tested in the first days of the plague because of a lack of resources,” the Washington Post said.
“Initially, the lab was able to run only a few hundred tests a day to a country with 19 million inhabitants,” it read.
The paper claimed that the use of state resources “to benefit people close to the governor raises serious ethical questions.” In March 2020, the governor’s brother Chris Cuomo announced that he had contracted the virus.
“I knew it was only a matter of time, to be honest, because of the frequency with which I was exposed to people,” Cuomo said, according to the AP news agency.
He said he would work from home and host the Prime Time program from his basement.
A “senior physician from the New York Department of Health” visited Cuomo at his home to obtain test specimens from him and his family.
The governor scolded his brother during one of his famous press conferences after the discovery that the younger brother was at their 88-year-old mother’s house.
“This is my family, this is your family, all our families,” said Elder Andrew Cuomo. “This virus is so cunning, and we must remember it.”
Meanwhile, officials at the governor’s estate have defended his handling of the issue.
“We must refrain from rewriting the past,” said spokesman Rich Azfardi, who added that certain inspections were done in door-to-door homes.
“Among those we assisted were the general public, including lawmakers, journalists, civil servants and their families who feared they were infected with the virus and that they were able to spread it even further,” he said.