Rep. Dan Goldman is again taking aim at ex-Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s handling of the COVID outbreak — just as the congressman preps for an expected primary from an ally of Zohran Mamdani.
Goldman (D-Manhattan/Brooklyn) has asked the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention whether the Cuomo administration’s controversial March 25, 2020, directive requiring nursing homes to admit recovering COVID-infected patients complied with or violated federal guidelines.
“I am requesting clarification on whether this order was consistent with federal public health guidelines at the time,” Goldman wrote in his Friday letter to acting CDC Director James O’Neil, a copy of which was obtained by The Post. “This directive put many residents at risk of increased harm.
“Although reversed six weeks later, over 15,000 New York nursing home residents died of COVID-19 during the early pandemic.”
That directive, Goldman penned in his letter, also barred nursing homes from testing residents prior to being allowed or re-allowed entry into the facilities.
The timing of the request seems curious considering Goldman is anticipating a stiff primary challenge from outgoing City Comptroller Brad Lander, a Democrat who dropped out of this year’s mayoral race to back Mamdani over Cuomo in the runup to the avowed socialist’s historic win.
It also comes as a surprise given that ranking Democrats on the House Select-Subcommittee on the COVID-19 Pandemic already issued their own report scorching Cuomo for “interfering” with the accounting of nursing home deaths, and undercounting the toll by excluding fatalities that happened after patients were taken to the hospital.
But the two-term congressman cited that report, in his letter, in seeking a more definitive answer.
“Though we cannot bring back the loved ones lost, we must provide families with accountability and resolution,” Goldman wrote, while requesting a response from CDC by Dec. 12.
Some analysts claim Cuomo’s COVID-19 edict contributed to thousands of elderly deaths.
The Republican-led House panel’s report went even further, claiming Cuomo’s controversial directive was “medical malpractice” and “antithetical to known science” — while accusing his administration of attempting “to cover it up.”
Cuomo, through a rep, defended his actions and claimed Goldman was playing politics with the pandemic because he’s likely facing a primary from Lander, with the possible backing of Mamdani.
“The congressman is a lawyer and I’m sure he knows that the Department of Justice Inspector General, the AG [state Attorney General] and New York State’s independent after action report all reviewed this and said the DOH guidance was consistent with general guidelines,” said Cuomo spokesman Richard Azzopardi.
“It’s sad and pathetic that primary politics have made him stoop to Brad Lander’s level — especially after seeing that didn’t work out so well for him.”
Last December, Lander wrote his own letter requesting US health officials determine whether Cuomo’s March 2020 order violated federal policy and guidance.
The Post has reached out to the CDC for comment.
Robert Kennedy Jr., the Health and Human Services secretary who oversees the CDC, is the former brother-in-law of Cuomo.
Peter Arbeeny, whose dad, Norman, 89, died from COVID after a rehab stint in a nursing home in the Cobble Hill section of Brooklyn, said he persuaded Goldman to write the letter.
The Arbeeny family and others filed a negligence suit against Cuomo and other state officials in federal court over the nursing home edict, but the case was dismissed twice.
