Fox News senior meteorologist Janice Dean, who recently lost her elderly father-in-law to COVID-19, told the ‘Brian Kilmeade Show’ on Monday that she was taken off the list to testify at a hearing on why and why how the pandemic took root in nursing homes in New York.
She said she thinks New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo as his administration sat behind the decision.
“I should be on the list,” Dean said Monday.
‘I have actually filled out all the paperwork and sent the letter to all the legislators I believe 28 July, a few days before the first hearing. They told me they could not get me on that day, last Monday, but that I would be today. I have several emails saying that this happened. ”
She 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 10 today. ”
“I had to hear something over the weekend, which I never did, and was told I was removed from the list,” Dean said.
Kilmeade then 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.
Byrne confirmed that he agrees with Dean and told Fox News on Monday that Dean “has every right to be angry and resentful.”
When asked if he had any concerns about what happened and why Dean was removed from the list, Byrne said the committee leaders control the agenda of their hearings.
Byrne told Fox News that in an email sent to him on August 2, “We were led by the majority via email to believe she could testify,” so he passed that information on to Dean.
Byrne, however, said he received an email Friday from Gottfried, in which the chairman of the House of Commons wrote, “I’m told that the Senate is not comfortable with her on the witness list, that we will do not record them to testify. ”
Byrne, a Republican, said later Friday that he finally got the witness list, but Dean was not on it. 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.”
Byrne told Fox News: “Every victim should have heard her story and it is deeply disturbing that she [Dean] was not given the opportunity to testify at today’s hearing. “
He thanked Dean and said she “has been a remarkable, outspoken voice and advocate for the thousands of families who have lost loved ones to this virus, particularly in health care facilities and nursing homes.”
Byrne added, “My personal opinion is out of pressure probably from the governor’s administration after sharp criticism of the August 3 hearing did not want [Dean] witness. ”
CUOMO DOWNPLAYS CALL FOR FEDERAL EXAMINATION TIN OF DISCLOSURE HOME CORONAVIRUS DEATHS: ‘ASK PRESIDENT TRUMP’
Dean told Kilmeade that she intended to attend Monday’s hearing, ‘but I do not feel like watching anymore because it’s just another indication that she does not want any real investigation. This is a complete disgrace. ”
Speaking last week, speaking on Fox & Friends, Dean called for a “full” and “bipartisan” investigation into the death of a New York City nursing home during the coronavirus pandemic.
Dean raised the question the day after New York State lawmakers grilled the state’s top care official over the steep, though ultimately unknown, death toll at nursing homes in the state amid the pandemic.
Members of the Democratic-led legislature have held hearings to understand why and how the pandemic took root in nursing homes in New York, after the state Department of Health reported that nearly 6,600 residents, who were likely to have COVID-19, died at nursing homes and assisted living facilities.
The state has not disclosed how many nursing home residents died at hospitals or how many were infected with COVID-19.
At last Monday’s hearing, State Health Commissioner Howard Zucker defended the administration’s response and refused to provide key data points sought by Democrats and Republicans, including a rough estimate of the number of nursing home residents in hospitals. have died due to the new coronavirus. Zucker cited concerns that those numbers could include double counts of deaths.
“I will not provide information that I have not provided is absolutely accurate,” Zucker said. “This is too big a problem and it’s too serious a problem.”
Dean told Fox News last week that her husband’s father, who was in a nursing home and rehab center, died the same day she and her husband found out he was ill.
She said that “we did not find out he had coronavirus until the death certificate.”
Dean stated that her husband’s mother “coronavirus dried up in her assisted living facility and was transported to the hospital and died at the hospital.” Her mother-in-law died on April 14, about two weeks after her father-in-law died of the novel coronavirus.
Dean joins many New Yorkers whose loved ones have died in nursing homes amid the pandemic. Last week, they called for an independent inquiry into whether nursing homes kept coronavirus patients divorced, had enough staff, followed workers who worked at multiple health care facilities and provided staff with adequate protective gear.
State officials and Attorney General are investigating whether nursing home operators follow federal and state directives, including warning families of COVID-19 cases and deaths.
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.
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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.
Speaking at a news conference Monday, Cuomo said he “would not investigate” the deaths of the nursing home during the coronavirus pandemic in New York State.
Brooke Singman of Fox News and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
