When New York’s former governor Andrew Cuomo ordered nursing homes to accept Covid-positive patients in 2020, more than 15,000 elderly residents died. The policy, intended to ease pressure on hospitals, became one of the darkest chapters of the state’s pandemic response — and a wound that has not healed for many New Yorkers.
Grief-stricken New Yorkers still unsure
Vivian Zayas, whose 78-year-old mother, Ana Celia Martinez, died in a Long Island care home, said Cuomo’s return to politics feels like an insult. “We’ve always been surprised he’d have the gall to run again,” was quoted as saying to The Times. “Then he came back as an independent — like the vampire that just doesn’t die. It shows his ego.”
Zayas co-founded Voices for Seniors, an advocacy group that represents thousands of families affected by the policy. Even so, she has yet to decide whom to support in the upcoming mayoral election. “We’ve listened to Sliwa, and he has heard us,” she said, referring to Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa, though she stopped short of endorsing him.Stacie Druckman, 52, lost her father, Arthur, in a Bronx nursing home during the pandemic. “Cuomo shouldn’t be able to run,” she said. “He wasn’t honest about everything, and I don’t think he ever will be.” Druckman said she is leaning towards Sliwa. “He’s always around on the streets, trying to help people. He’s promising to fix crime.”
‘I like Zohran but…’
For Peter Arbeeny, the pain is deeply personal. The 59-year-old Brooklyn businessman lost his father, Norman, an 89-year-old Korean War veteran, to Covid in 2020. Norman contracted the virus at Cobble Hill Health Center, one of many facilities that accepted infected patients under Cuomo’s order.“There is no choice to elect a person who failed to own his mistakes,” Arbeeny said. “All I seek is the truth. And I have the resources and the tenacity to keep pressuring the lie.”Arbeeny and his brother have spent years lobbying for a full investigation into the decision. “I promised my father when he died that I wouldn’t go visit him at the grave until I got an investigation,” he said.“I like Zohran but I’m a capitalist because I’m a business owner,” said Arbeeny, who has run his own air-conditioning company for nearly four decades. “I don’t align with socialism.”He attended Wednesday’s debate as Sliwa’s guest, hugging both Mamdani and the Republican, but refused to say whom he would vote for. “I vote for people that protect my family,” he said.“Cuomo failed us once,” Arbeeny said quietly. “He can fail us again”
How Cuomo’s administration undercounted nursing home deaths
A 2021 report by New York’s attorney general confirmed what grieving families had long suspected — that Cuomo’s administration had undercounted nursing home deaths by as much as 50 per cent. Cuomo later said he withheld accurate figures because he feared political attacks from the Trump administration.Despite the scandal, 67-year-old Cuomo is once again on the ballot, running as an independent after losing the Democratic primary to 34-year-old socialist Zohran Mamdani. His comeback has divided older, moderate Democrats who are unsure whom to trust.Cuomo’s spokesman, Rich Azzopardi, insisted the former governor had been cleared of wrongdoing. “The former governor has expressed his sorrow and sympathies multiple times,” he said. “That pain has been weaponised and politicised for purely electoral purposes.”
How the generational gap is influencing vote banks in NYC
An AARP poll released this week found that more than 25 per cent of New York City voters remain undecided, with nearly 80 per cent of them aged over 50. Many of these older voters — once reliable Democrats — find themselves torn between Mamdani’s left-wing vision and Sliwa’s tough-on-crime agenda.“The indecision among such voters shows the Democratic Party’s generational divide,” Zayas said. “We do have questions about Mamdani’s record and who he is. He’s young, and some of his vision feels unrealistic. We want someone with a little more wisdom.”
