Arbeeny Family on Four Year Anniversary of Funeral For Cuomo’s Leadership & Integrity: Still More Work To Be Done To Honor Our Father
BROOKLYN, NY… Exactly four years ago, grieving family members, surrounded by supporters, gathered in front of the Cobble Hill Health Center to demand an apology from Governor Cuomo on behalf of loved ones lost due to his March 2020 Nursing Home Advisory. The event, a funeral for the Governor’s leadership and integrity, featured a coffin filled with copies of the Governor’s book, written during the height of the pandemic in New York, when 32,935 New Yorkers died of COVID-19.
Janice Dean at the funeral for Cuomo’s leadership and integrity, October 18, 2020
Since that day in Brooklyn, the Arbeeny Family have been to City Hall, Albany and our nation's capitol in Washington, DC. They have filed a class action lawsuit, met with Governor Kathy Hochul, Comptroller Tom DiNapoli, Attorney General Tish James, NYC Comptroller Brad Lander (who attended the funeral) and Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, among other local, state and federal elected officials, and provided testimony and information to both Republicans and Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, investigating former Governor Andrew Cuomo and New York State government's pandemic response. They will not rest until they've uncovered the truth for the Cuomo COVID Nursing Home Victims.
They have created a 155 page timeline of events, as it relates to the failings of the Cuomo Administration's pandemic response, which you can access here.
On October 1, 2024, the Arbeeny family, along with Janice Dean and Vivian Zayas of Voices for Seniors sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding a federal investigation and wrote:
"Cuomo's administration initially underreported both the number of COVID-19-related nursing home deaths and the admissions/re-admissions, a decision that many believe was made to protect his political image. When testifying before Congress, Cuomo asserted that he had no involvement in shaping the New York State Department of Health’s July 6th, 2020 report regarding the spread of COVID-19 in nursing homes. However, credible testimony and emails now indicate that Cuomo and his top aides were actively involved in editing and manipulating this report to downplay the disastrous impact of New York State policies directing over 9,000 Covid positive patients into nursing homes. This is not only a betrayal of public trust but a potential federal crime."
You can view the entire letter here.
Peter Arbeeny, a lifelong Democrat, whose beloved father Norman Arbeeny was a casualty of the Cuomo Nursing Home Order said, “Our father was a beloved member of our community, sorely missed by many. We lost him needlessly because of Governor Cuomo’s nursing home directive. When we learned that the Governor was writing a book while our loved ones were dying senselessly and our friends, family and neighbors were losing everything because of unscientific government decisions, it was like a gut punch to New Yorkers suffering through the crisis. What we have learned since, from the VIP Testing Program to downplaying the impact of bad decisions, has been even worse. We will not stop until the COVID Nursing Home Victims get the truth and accountability we deserve and our father can finally rest in peace.”
Daniel Arbeeny said, “We are driven to keep fighting in order to honor our loved ones. We will not stop until we receive the transparency and accountability the 'COVID Orphans' deserve. Many people acted heroically, before, during and after the pandemic. Governor Cuomo was not one of them. At first, we believed that he was merely underestimating the power of an apology, which was all my family was looking for. But now, after years of investigating and fighting, we've come to realize that what happened was far worse and more insidious. Thousands of families were left heartbroken because of our own government's actions and we will not stop until we find the truth."
