A group of people who lost family members in New York's nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic has requested that state Attorney General Letitia James provide an update to her report of former Gov. Andrew Cuomo's directive that ordered facilities to accept COVID patients.
"We are approaching the five-year anniversary of the infamous March 25, 2020 directive that forced nursing homes to accept over 9,000 COVID patients," read a letter sent to James, dated Monday. "Your report correctly exposed the real death toll of over 15,000 of our cherished loved ones who were lost to COVID in nursing homes and for that we are thankful."
Still, the letter's writers said that the public deserves to know if they were lied to by Cuomo's administration on other related issues, including compliance with federal guidelines.
The letter was sent by Peter Arbeeny and Janice Dean, who lost parents in New York nursing homes, and Voices for Seniors, a group of people who lost family members to COVID-19.
Peter Arbeeny said in the letter that the group is "focused on finding the truth regarding our lost loved ones" and is seeking questions about whether Cuomo's directive on nursing homes was consistent with federal guidelines from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Cuomo has defended the nursing home order, saying he was following guidelines from the CMS and CDC. He has cited James' report, which was last revised and published on Jan. 30, 2021, as confirmation that his directive fully complied with federal guidelines.
But the group writing the letter said it is questioning James' report, saying it found errors regarding its questions about Cuomo.
"These errors need to be corrected because they have been used in congressional testimony as a weapon to further hurt nursing home families and erode the trust we have in our political system," the letter said. "As the people's lawyer, you know better than anyone that it is imperative that you stand for the rule of law and that your conclusions are supported by facts."
The group pointed to federal guidelines from President Donald Trump's first administration, saying there was a difference between Cuomo's order and those guidelines, which stated that a nursing home should only admit COVID-positive residents if it could follow CDC guidelines.
It also said James' initial report had contradicting conclusions about the suspension of state regulations on admitting COVID patients.
Their letter to James comes after the group wrote to then-President Joe Biden in December about whether Cuomo's directive followed the Trump administration's 2020 CDC/CMS guidelines.
"That letter was to no avail, and the families will now be requesting help from President Trump," the group said.
Cuomo testified in September about his administration's handling of the pandemic and testified in a private hearing last June.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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