Letter to Kyle B Olsen

March 27, 2023

Kyle B. Olsen
President
The Olsen Group, Ltd.
11 Canal Center Plaza, Suite 103
Alexandria, VA 22314

Dear Mr. Olson,

My father, Norman Arbeeny, passed away from COVID-19 because of the New York State nursing home COVID crisis. His death is still not counted by the State as a nursing home fatality, or even a COVID death. He is not alone.

For three years, my family and I have spoken to public officials, nursing home staff, and the loved ones of other victims, as part of our tireless efforts to understand what happened. We have researched, investigated, and made a detailed timeline of all the events related to this debacle we could find. However, there’s still more to learn. Governor Hochul has agreed to review the State’s COVID response, including nursing homes, and that is our focus.

To aid in the review, we propose the attached investigative guidelines and questions, which, if followed, will support the speedy procurement of the answers we earnestly seek about our lost loved ones. They are divided into categories (with some overlaps) for ease of reference. A thorough accounting by a dedicated, politically neutral team has the potential both to restore public trust and to put a proper punctuation mark at the end of this tragic chapter. We are also including a detailed timeline of all the events related to this tragedy that we’ve been able to find in our three years of research.

To be successful, the review should be transparent, available to the public, and based on data, facts, and science. Investigators should have a thorough understanding of their scope of work in order to proceed effectively. Most importantly, the answers should come in the form of truth, not political posturing, and so investigators should have the subpoena power necessary to uncover the origins of the fateful decision to direct COVID positive patients into crowded, vulnerable nursing homes. Otherwise, witnesses will evade and omit facts, just as they did during the 2022 NYS Comptroller Audit, and the truth will remain buried.

This will not be easy, and it will take time. As the New York Comptroller revealed in his March 2022 New York Daily News op-ed: “The public was misled at the highest levels of State government and given a distorted version of reality that suppressed facts when they deserved the truth.”

To that end, we trust that you will do your best to uncover the truth about the poor decisions, misguided edicts, hubris, and mistakes that have brought us all to this place of confusion, heartbreak, and pain. May we never have to seek the whys of such a horror ever again.

Sincerely yours,
Peter Arbeeny

Cc:
New York State Governor Kathy Hochul
New York State Lt. Governor Antonio Delgado
New York State Comptroller Thomas. P. DiNapoli
New York State Attorney General Letitia James
New York State Inspector General Lucy Lang
New York City Comptroller Brad Lander
Public Advocate for the City of New York Jumaane D. Williams
New York State Assemblyman Ron Kim