For years, the cries of grieving households have echoed within the halls of energy — dismissed, deflected and ignored.
Now, with the Division of Justice lastly opening a prison investigation into former Gov. Andrew Cuomo for allegedly mendacity to Congress about his administration’s function in New York’s nursing house COVID deaths, we have now our first actual glimmer of hope.
This can be a second of reckoning. And it’s lengthy, lengthy overdue.
Greater than 15,000 seniors perished in New York’s nursing houses after Cuomo’s notorious March 25, 2020, directive compelled amenities to just accept COVID-positive sufferers.
The outcome was as lethal because it was predictable.
However what adopted was arguably even worse: a calculated coverup.
Cuomo and his interior circle allegedly doctored a state Well being Division report in July 2020 to hide the true demise toll.
Whereas households buried family members, Cuomo polished his picture, revealed a guide and picked up accolades — together with an Emmy — constructed on fiction.
This wasn’t only a coverage failure.
It was a betrayal.
And for over 5 years, grieving households like ours had been gaslit and advised to maneuver on.
That’s why Voices for Seniors was shaped — not simply by us after the tragic deaths of our family members however by a collective of heartbroken, decided residents who got here collectively to talk for the unvoiced.
We signify over 15,000 households demanding what we had been by no means given: solutions, transparency and justice.
We’ve spent years preventing for the reality whereas Cuomo performed politics with our ache.
And now, some are performing shocked that the DOJ is investigating him?
Please.
After all Cuomo lied.
The prison investigation will not be solely justified — it’s mandatory.
He knowingly misled Congress by downplaying his administration’s function in obscuring the true variety of nursing house deaths, all to guard his political ambitions.
This isn’t hypothesis; it’s the explanation federal prosecutors are actually concerned.
The investigation exists as a result of the info — not political vendettas — demand accountability.
Not partisan warfare
Let’s be clear:
This isn’t about partisan warfare.
The virus didn’t discriminate alongside social gathering traces — and neither ought to justice.
That is about human dignity.
About whether or not public officers can knowingly mislead the nation throughout a public well being disaster and stroll away unscathed.
The truth that it took this lengthy for a DOJ investigation to be launched speaks volumes concerning the political insulation that has protected Cuomo.
However nobody — regardless of how highly effective — is above the regulation.
And no household must be compelled to spend years screaming into the void for the reality.
This investigation will not be “election interference.”
It’s not a “witch hunt.”
It’s the naked minimal accountability for a person who has finished every part in his energy to flee it.
And let’s not ignore the timing: Cuomo is floating a political comeback — a run for New York Metropolis mayor — relying on voters to overlook the trauma he inflicted on hundreds of households.
However we haven’t forgotten.
And we gained’t let others overlook, both.
Voices for Seniors will proceed to combat on behalf of those that not can.
We’re dedicated to full cooperation with the DOJ and won’t relaxation till the reality is absolutely revealed and accountability is served.
The period of impunity should finish.
The coverup should finish.
And the silence?
That ended the second we stood up and stated: Sufficient.
Vivian Zayas is founding father of the advocacy group Voices for Seniors, the place Tracey Alvino is a board member.
