New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo “fails to take responsibility” for deaths related to coronavirus nursing homes in the state, Fox News senior meteorologist Janice Dean, who recently lost her elderly in-laws to COVID-19, told Fox & Friends on Tuesday .
Dean made the comment days after she found she was taken off the list to testify at a hearing focused on understanding why and how the pandemic took root in nursing homes in New York.
“I have filled out all the paperwork, I wrote the letter to all the legislators to write to and I received a confirmation that the chair allowed me to speak,” she said on Tuesday, adding that she was expected to testify at the second hearing. which took place Monday.
‘I had to hear it back this weekend. “I never heard a word and I heard during the hearings yesterday that they did not know me,” she continued.
She said Sen. Thomas O’Mara, a New York State Republican, had allowed her “that she [the Senate Majority] were uncomfortable with [her] as a witness, “that they took her off the list.
Dean spoke the day before on the “Brian Kilmeade Show”, Dean said she believed Cuomo as his administration was behind the decision.
Dean said she had correspondence with New York Assemblyman Kevin Byrne and that he was the one who “emailed her back and forth” and said he was talking to the chair [Assembly Health Committee Chair Richard Gottfried] and that the chair absolutely said she would get her day on August 10th. ”
Kilmeade asked Dean “why” she was removed from the list.
“I can only guess at this point,” she replied. ‘I think it went higher than the chair. I think it was Andrew Cuomo as his administration who decided that they did not want my voice to be heard and that is really sad. ”
In a statement sent to Fox News, Rich Azzopardi, Goai Cuomo’s senior adviser, said the legislature “is a separate branch of government and they conduct their hearing on how they feel fit.”
Fox News talks to Byrne, who provided some context about what happened.
CUOMO DOWNPLAYS CALL FOR FEDERAL EXAMINATION TIN OF DISCLOSURE HOME CORONAVIRUS DEATHS: ‘ASK PRESIDENT TRUMP’
Byrne said he received an email from Gottfried on Friday in which the chairman of the Assembly Health Committee wrote, “I’m told’s the Senate is not comfortable with her on the witness list, so we will not include her in order to to witness. ‘”
Fox News reached out to Gottfried’s office for comment and was told that Gottfried had no comment on the matter other than to advise Fox News to “contact the Senate majority for comment.”
When Fox News asked the Senate majority why they were “not comfortable,” including Dean on the witness list, Senator Majority Communications Director Mike Murphy said, “That assessment is not accurate.”
In a statement to Fox News, Murphy said: “There are so many families suffering because of this terrible pandemic.
“We had so many brave families who wanted to share their heartbreaking stories, including those who testified today and at last week’s hearing,” he continued. “As was made clear if you cannot testify in person, we will accept all written testimony to be part of the written record.”
On Tuesday, host Steve Doocy Dean said, ‘They may have taken you off the list, but they did not take you off television and no one has been more vocally or brutally honest about what happened in the nursing homes in New York. and you Janice. ”
He then asked her what she would say in her testimony.
In response, Dean said she wanted to tell the story of her in-laws and how they were ‘New York tough’.
The couple was “born and raised in New York” and raised three children.
“They became ill and they could not take care of themselves or each other and they sat in separate facilities for assisted living, in the hope that we would get them together,” she continued. “Then COVID-19 came into play and took the lives of both of them. I want answers. I want accountability. ”
She pointed out that her mother-in-law was transported to a hospital and died there.
“She got coronavirus in her assisted living facility, but her number does not count,” she continued.
Dean said “the governor has gone into hiding”, noting that Cuomo “would not investigate” the deaths of the nursing home during the coronavirus pandemic in New York on Monday.
“There’s something wrong with that, because if he was not guilty of something, why would he not welcome an investigation into his government?” Dean asked.
Cuomo has received harsh criticism for his early order that required nursing homes to accept COVID-19 patients discharged from hospitals, and effectively place them in the same facilities that are demographically most vulnerable to the virus.
Cuomo has acknowledged that New York’s original nursing home policy was in line with a March 13 directive from the Trump administration’s Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). which went out to all states on how to control nursing homes.
New York, among other states, said at the time that nursing homes could not refuse to take patients out of hospitals just because they had the coronavirus. After raising criticism that the policy put the most vulnerable people at risk and contributed to a large number of deaths, New York returned the course on May 10th. Hospitals can now only send patients who have tested negative for COVID-19 to nursing homes.
CLICK HERE TO CLICK THE FOX NEWS APP
Cuomo and his administration have been furious since March over the scale of deaths and infections at the state’s more than 600 nursing homes, and Cuomo has refused to acknowledge any misunderstandings.
Brooke Singman of Fox News and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
