Nursing homes and the families of victims, who suffered under Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s mismanagement of COVID-19 throughout the state’s nursing homes, are celebrating the governor’s long-awaited resignation on Tuesday.
Cuomo finally decided to resign amid multiple scandals. His resignation will become effective in 14 days and will leave Lieutenant Governor of New York Kathy Hochul as the state’s new governor. While Cuomo’s resignation statement seemed to primarily address findings from an independent investigation commissioned by New York Attorney General Letitia James that found Cuomo sexually harassed or assaulted 11 women, the families and individuals who have been impacted by his nursing home scandal welcomed the governor’s resignation.
Fox News meteorologist Janice Dean, who lost both her mother-in-law and father-in-law to COVID-19 in New York nursing homes, has been one of the most outspoken critics of Cuomo’s pandemic policies. To Dean, Cuomo’s resignation came both as a shock and a relief.
Prior to Cuomo announcing his resignation, Dean tweeted her prediction of what the governor would say. “My prediction of @NYGovCuomo’s statements coming up today: blame, blame, blame, didn’t mean to, didn’t do it, they’re out to get me. And I’m not resigning. The end.”
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When it became clear Cuomo was going to resign, Dean posted a string of tweets.
Holy is he going to resign?
— Janice Dean (@JaniceDean) August 10, 2021
He. Is. Out. God bless America.
— Janice Dean (@JaniceDean) August 10, 2021
During a phone interview with Fox News’ Harris Faulkner, Dean said, “I didn’t think he was going to do it, Harris. I thought he was going to blame everybody else. Blame her, blame them, God, mother nature, The New York Post, all the things he blames for his nursing home decision.”
“Instead he said he was resigning,” Dean continued, “I’m in shock, I’m not going to lie. I got a text from my sister-in-law and I texted my husband and I said he’s gone.”
“I will say that I believe that being on the side of the angels has helped us. He has nowhere to go. He had nowhere to go. He was in a corner. People were jumping off the sinking ship like rats,” she added.
Ty Bryant, whose grandmother died after a battle with Alzheimer’s disease last year alone in a nursing home because of COVID-19 restrictions that forbid familial visitations, told the Daily Caller, “I’m thankful that the Governor made the decision to step aside for the good of New York. I’m glad the 11-women were able to share their stories and be heard.”
However, Bryant said, “I think most NY’s would have been okay with Gov. Cuomo remaining in office until the end of his term.”
“The state should consider term limits for all elected officials,” Bryant added.
Jeff Jacomowitz, the director for corporate communications for Centers Health Care, which operates nearly 50 nursing homes around the country primarily located in New York state, told the Daily Caller in a phone interview that, “it’s hard to say” what the impact of Cuomo’s resignation will be moving forward, but added, “whoever is in charge in Albany, and basically oversees the New York Department of Public Health is what we’re most concerned about.”
Right now, Jacomowitz told the Caller that Centers Health Care’s primary concern is to “keep everybody safe at the nursing home” by encouraging residents and employees to get vaccinated to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in their nursing homes now and in the future.
Jacomowitz also said Centers Health Care will commit to working with Hochul’s administration to keep their residents safe.
Corporate media outlets initially heralded Cuomo’s COVID-19 response. The title of a March 16 piece published by The New York Times read: “Andrew Cuomo Is the Control Freak We Need Right Now.” Later in the pandemic, President Joe Biden claimed that Cuomo’s leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic was the “gold standard.” However, these plaudits have proven to be premature, given Cuomo’s handling of COVID-19 in nursing homes, and his administration’s subsequent cover-up of that data, paired with a number of sexual harassment scandals.
Cuomo signed a March 25 executive order that forced nursing homes and long-term care facilities to accept recovering COVID-19 positive patients. Cuomo eventually rescinded the order on May 10, but over that time period of about six weeks when the order was active, more than 9,000 patients recovering from COVID-19 were placed back in nursing homes, a Feb. 11 report from the Associated Press revealed.
Just after Cuomo rescinded the order, the Daily Caller News Foundation reported on May 15 that Cuomo’s administration was undercounting an unknown number of nursing home deaths because the state was not counting individuals who caught COVID-19 in their nursing home and died in the hospital in their tally of nursing home deaths.
Cuomo’s administration then attempted to secretly update nursing home death figures, and subsequent reporting from the New York Post revealed that the governor’s office had withheld nursing home death data from New York lawmakers out of fear from prosecution by then-President Donald Trump’s Justice Department.
About a year after Cuomo signed the infamous March 25 executive order, more than 15,000 New Yorkers had died from COVID-19 in nursing homes or similar care facilities.
LifeNews Note: Mary Margaret Olohan writes for Daily Caller. Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience.
