Naturally, just like we saw with Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s nursing home scandal, it was not the useless and corrupt national media who broke Cuomo’s VIP testing scandal. It was local media, the Albany Times Union. And already, in a desperate effort to save CNN’s Chris Cuomo, the corporate media are working overtime to water down the story in their reports.
So let’s stick to the original source and highlight the most damning facts of the case…
- Gov. Cuomo Put Family Members and VIPs at Head of China Flu Testing Line
This matters because this was happening during a time when testing resources were scarce and supposed to be used to 1) protect the most vulnerable (sick and elderly) and 2) use these precious resources to stop the spread of the virus by focusing on hot spots.
- CNNLOL’s Chris Cuomo Was Tested “Numerous Times”
This is outrageous:
Members of Cuomo’s family including his brother, his mother and at least one of his sisters were also tested by top health department officials — some several times, the sources said.
By the time the China Virus hit New York, thanks to what had happened in Europe, Andrew and Chris Cuomo were already well aware of exactly who was at risk and who wasn’t. While those at risk were unable to get these precious tests, Chris, who was 49 and healthy as a horse, received “numerous” tests.
Hang on. It gets much, much worse…
- CNNLOL’S Chris Cuomo Received VIP Service at His Home
While everyday New Yorkers couldn’t get tested, and those who could were waiting in long drive-thru lines, Andrew’s VIPs, like his brother Fredo, were receiving concierge service at home:
The medical officials enlisted to do the testing, which often took place at private residences, included Dr. Eleanor Adams, an epidemiologist who graduated from Harvard Medical School and in August became a special adviser to Zucker. Adams conducted testing on Cuomo’s brother Chris at his residence on Long Island, according to the two people.
That’s not even the worst of it…
- Andrew Cuomo’s VIP Service Was Tested by “Top Health Officials”
While those everyday New Yorkers were tested by “public health nurses,” Andrew’s VIP picks were tested by New York’s elite of the elite:
The medical officials enlisted to do the testing, which often took place at private residences, included Dr. Eleanor Adams, an epidemiologist who graduated from Harvard Medical School and in August became a special adviser to Zucker. Adams conducted testing on Cuomo’s brother Chris at his residence on Long Island, according to the two people.
…
Another person familiar with the matter said the “sampling missions” had unsettled some of the high-level health department officials tasked with collecting the samples at private residences — including Adams, who had previously worked in the health department’s New York City regional office for the Healthcare Epidemiology & Infection Control Program.
“To be doing sort of direct clinical work was a complete time-suck away from their other duties,” the person said. “It was like wartime.”
That’s not even the worst of it… Get this…
- VIP Samples Rushed by State Troopers for Testing
While everyday New Yorkers who, unlike the young and healthy Chris Cuomo, waited and fretted for the results…
During that period, State Police troopers were largely being tasked with driving those samples to the Wadsworth Center laboratory in Albany, which was initially the primary testing spot for coronavirus.
That’s not even the worst of it…
- VIP Samples Jumped the Testing Line
Unforgivable:
Still, one of the people familiar with the matter said that the people with close ties to the governor, including his relatives, would have their samples moved to the front of the line at Wadsworth and be given priority. They were referred to as “critical samples.”
And now, we get to the worst of it…
- VIP Samples Were Not Used to Aid the Overall Pandemic
Sure, at the time, other people were being tested at home, and state troopers were driving in samples, but — and this is important — no one else’s tests were jumped to the head of the line, and those tests that did not come from VIPs, like the young and healthy Fredo, were being used to further the overall public health. VIP tests did nothing to aid the overall public health:
The person said the names of the patients were closely held by an assistant working for state Health Commissioner Howard Zucker and obscured throughout the priority testing process, often through the use of numbers or letter initials or aliases. Such a process also skirted the effort to collect demographic data used to drive public health decisions in response to the deadly pandemic.
“It made it impossible to reconcile the data at the end of the day,” the individual said.
So in the case of the Cuomo VIPs, no small amount of the scarce and precious resources that were supposed to be targeted to protect the most vulnerable and to get a handle on the virus in hot spots like New Rochelle were used only to ease the minds of the rich and privileged and connected (like Chris Cuomo, who was 49 and perfectly healthy). And then, in order to keep all this corruption and wrongdoing secret, none of the VIP test results were used to benefit the overall public health.
You know, until she got vaccinated, my wife was dead-center in the coronavirus danger zone, and despite her getting a few colds and flus over the past year, we still never got her tested. We knew how scarce these resources were, especially early on, so we waited to be sure about her symptoms — which, thankfully, never turned out to be anything other than a cold or flu.
Our concern about wasting precious resources on ourselves doesn’t make us heroes or special. It makes us human beings. It means that like almost everyone else, we have a shared humanity — something sorely lacking in Chris and Andrew Cuomo.
America’s self-appointed elite are nothing less than monsters.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.
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