Democratic New York Governor Andrew Cuomo reportedly cashed in on the COVID-19 virus, pocketing $5.12 million for his memoir on the pandemic.
Cuomo’s “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic,” published in mid-October as the pandemic still raged on in the state, came out as reports of the governor mishandling the elderly in nursing homes during the height of the virus.
“Cuomo’s contract — which he got despite his administration being accused of sending COVID-positive patients back into nursing homes, potentially spreading the deadly virus among the vulnerable elderly there — paid him $3.12 million last year and he was left with a little more than $3 million after editing expenses, according to his tax returns,” the New York Post reported. “He’s also set to receive another $2 million this year and next, the returns show.”
The governor — a darling of the mainstream media throughout the pandemic, which praised Cuomo for his handling of the crisis — is under investigation for nursing home deaths and later his administration’s alleged efforts to cover up COVID-19 deaths among the elderly, which is now near 14,000.
On March 25, 2020, the Democratic governor enacted a statewide directive that forced nursing homes to take recovering COVID-19 patients, regardless of whether or not they remained contagious.
“No resident shall be denied readmission or admission to the NH [nursing home] solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19. NHs are prohibited from requiring a hospitalized resident who is determined medically stable to be tested for COVID-19 prior to admission or readmission,” Cuomo’s order stated.
Before the order was rescinded on May 10, thousands of infected patients were sent into nursing homes.
“More than 4,500 recovering coronavirus patients were sent to New York’s already vulnerable nursing homes under a controversial state directive that was ultimately scrapped amid criticisms it was accelerating the nation’s deadliest outbreaks, according to a count by The Associated Press,” the AP wrote in May 2020.
The number was even higher according to a later account by the AP, which reported that “the state’s own count [shows the order] ushered more than 6,300 recovering virus patients into nursing homes at the height of the pandemic.”
Cuomo later claimed that the staggering death toll in New York nursing homes was the fault of the federal government. “We followed federal guidance on the nursing homes,” Cuomo said in late June 2020 on NBC’s “Today Show.”
“We had more people die than any other state. That’s a fact,” Cuomo said. “The reason that happened was because we had the virus coming from Europe when the federal government told us the virus was coming from China. And we had no screening on people coming from Europe.”
Meanwhile, in March, a sixth woman came forward to accuse Cuomo of sexual misconduct, claiming the Democrat touched her without her consent last year when she was inside the governor’s mansion, according to a report.
“The alleged incident took place after the woman, a member of the governor’s Executive Chamber staff, had been summoned to the mansion to assist the governor with a work-related matter,” the Times Union reported. “The woman’s supervisors recently became aware of the allegation and alerted the governor’s counsel of it on Monday.”