NEW VIDEO: Arbeeny Family Meets With Brad Lander, Details Their Struggle For Accountability & Justice After Cuomo Nursing Home Scandal

As governor, Cuomo’s infamous order to send COVID patients into nursing homes defied CDC guidance & contributed to deaths of thousands of NYers

Arbeenys lost their father Norman in April 2020 and have fought for years alongside Brad to get answers 
Watch the VIDEO HERE

NEW YORK, NY — In a new video, the Arbeeny family pays tribute to their father Norman, who tragically died during the pandemic after Governor Andrew Cuomo’s notorious order sending COVID-19 patients into nursing homes. The family details the pain of losing their father, and their subsequent years-long battle to get justice and accountability. 

“He was a wonderful man and he was a strong man, and he suffered and we were insulted. And that’s what drove us,” Peter Arbeeny tells Brad in the video. “We got a lot of resistance from political people. What are you doing, going against King Cuomo? When no one was on the streets during COVID, you came to Cobble Hill nursing home. You were the first to stand with our family. You were the first politician to support us. And time has shown that you were right. And you were ahead of your time. And you were on the right side of history.”  

As governor, Cuomo issued an order in March of 2020 mandating that New York nursing homes accept residents that are medically stable, stating, "[n]o resident shall be denied re-admission or admission to the NH [nursing home] solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19." 

While Cuomo said it was based on CDC guidance, in fact guidelines issued by the entity specifically stipulated that COVID-19 patients could be discharged from a hospital to a nursing home "only if the nursing home can implement all recommended infection control procedures.” Following the implementation of his policy, thousands of New Yorkers died of COVID-19. 

After this fateful error, Cuomo was found by the Attorney General to have understated the number of COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes by as much as 50 percent. He then was referred for criminal prosecution after a House subcommittee found him to have given false statements about the state report undercounting the deaths, claiming he had not seen it, before emails revealed he had not only seen it but edited it himself.

Norman Arbeeny died from COVID-19 in April 2020, and caught the virus shortly after the Cuomo administration forced his nursing home in Brooklyn to accept COVID-positive patients. 

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