Come clean about COVID deaths

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an open letter to Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, written before Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s resignation.

First and foremost, I am a proud Democrat. What an unfortunate situation it is for New Yorkers to find themselves in the middle of our COVID-19 and social justice crises while our governor is defending multiple accusations and distracted from effectively leading our state.

We deserve better. This is why I am writing to you.

As the lieutenant governor, you are familiar with these accusations and are likely readying yourself to become New York’s next chief executive.

I have complete faith that you will be the light that New York needs, who will lead us to health, safety, justice, prosperity and truth.

I lost my father to COVID-19 in the nursing home debacle. My brother and I have been very vocal about it, appearing in multiple media outlets. You may have read about the mock funeral we held last October in front of the nursing home where our father contracted COVID-19. We called it the “funeral for Gov. Cuomo’s leadership and integrity.”

A coffin, 6,500 copies of Gov. Cuomo’s book, and many New York nursing home “orphans,” were all part of the demonstration, where we asked the governor publicly for empathy. We wanted an apology. We wanted to understand the numbers. We wanted this issue escalated to discover the truth.

My brother and I publicly invited Gov. Cuomo to my father’s house for an open and honest chat multiple times. All we got back from the governor is a public statement, dismissing us as right-wing political agitators.

I am a lifelong Democrat, not a Republican!

Tom DiNapoli accepted my invitation to my beloved father’s home. All my siblings were there, and the state comptroller listened to our plight with great kindness and empathy. It was very cathartic, but more needs to be done.

As you prepare to be our next governor, my siblings and I wish to extend a heartfelt invitation to you to visit us at our father’s home in Brooklyn. We’d love to share with you our vision for how to make this wrong a right — not just for us, but for all the other COVID “orphans” affected by the nursing home fiasco.

Our family mission has been to learn the true nursing home death numbers and start a fair, bipartisan investigation into why sending the COVID-positive patients into nursing homes was the first and only strategy for discharged hospital COVID-19 patients, and not the absolute last option.

Nursing home families deserve full transparency in the interest of public trust.

We understand that people make mistakes, and this was an unprecedented time for everyone. Even after people questioned the governor about this policy, he publicly stated that the nursing home families should ask the federal government for an apology because he was following guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — although the CDC flatly disputes this.

His ego led him to misdirecting the patients, smearing my family as right-wing political agitators, forging numbers, and all the troubles he has now.

We would have been happy with a simple apology, but he has denied us this dignity.

I hope you can help me restore my faith in our Democratic Party. The media that I grew up on largely ignored Cuomo’s lies because they were preoccupied with the Trump news cycle. But, growing up in my family’s Brooklyn home — the same home my father lived in for 89 years — we were taught that a lie is a lie, and no lie is acceptable.

You have a chance to restore many people’s faith in democracy. The Cuomo administration has been on the wrong side of history. Our elected leadership in Albany would benefit from a clean break.

Please accept my invitation.

Peter Charles Arbeeny

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