$1 less than the Daily News! TUESDTAAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2021 / Early rain, 47° / WeILSPINather: P. 18 HH LATE CITY FINAL nypost.com •••• $2.00 n Embattled gov desperate to explain PAGES away lies 2-5 n Still won’t say he’s sorry GOODWIN: ‘Forget the Emmy. Give him an Oscar for pretending to tell the truth when you are Matthew McDermott telling everything but.’ 2 nursing home scandal nypost.com My mother died Andy trots out old excuses amid elder-care furor By Carl CampaNile, NolaN HiCks and BruCe GoldiNG An unapologetic Gov. Cuomo doubled down on a litany of past excuses on Mon- day as he blamed “politics” for the spiral- in NY’s ‘wildfire’ ing scandal that has engulfed his admin- Stephen Yang istration since The Post revealed that his top aide admitted they hid the true num- ber of nursing-home residents killed by VIVIAN ZAYAS COVID-19. During a news conference at which he declined to take a question from The HILE my mom was alone, gasping Post, Cuomo claimed that “there’s noth- for air and unable to cry out for her ing to investigate” regarding the coverup Wfamily’s assistance, Gov. Cuomo to which Secretary to the Governor Mel- and his team were worried about then- issa DeRosa confessed during a video- New York Post, Tuesday, February 16, 2021 President Donald Trump’s tweets. conference call with Democratic law- That is a telltale sign of an out of touch, makers last week. power-hungry narcissist unworthy of his Cuomo never directly addressed DeR- office. osa’s recorded remarks — in which she It’s hard to believe it’s been almost a admitted that the administration did not year since we gave our mother a hug and share an accurate nursing-home death kiss. toll to the state Legislature — or the pub- My mother, Ana Martinez, was receiv- lic — because officials “froze” out of fear ing short-term therapy at Our Lady of that the Justice Department would use Consolation in West Islip, LI. the figures against them in an investiga- She was transferred to the rehabilitation tion. wing in mid-January 2020 while recuper- “Because then we were in a position ating from a wound and knee-replace- where we weren’t sure if what we were ment surgery. Her discharge was almost going to give to the Department of Jus- could” and following guidance from the two months overdue, and our mother was GrievinG: Vivian Zayas holds a photo tice, or what we give to you guys, what federal government. desperate to come home. of her mother, Ana Martinez, who died of we start saying, was going to be used Cuomo repeatedly said he took respon- After our family’s persistent phone COVID-19 after being exposed to the cor- against us while we weren’t sure if there sibility for “the void” of official informa- calls, we finally received a call back from onavirus at a Long Island nursing home. was going to be an investigation,” DeRosa tion that he claimed led to conspiracy the nursing home on Friday, March 27. said in the Wednesday call. theories and “disinformation.” They informed us, “Your mom will be go- We were never informed that she had Cuomo once again insisted that the “No excuses. I accept responsibility for ing home on Monday [March 30].” been exposed, let alone that her symp- state had always reported the number of that. I’m in charge,” he said of withhold- Finally, she’d be back in the comfort of toms were indicative of COVID-19. nursing-home residents killed by COV- ing the correct data. her own home, surrounded by those who Only after her death did we discover ID-19 — even though it began releasing “We were too focused on doing the job loved her most. However, in the days that our mother’s facility was previously the full figures only after a report last and addressing the crisis of the moment.” leading up to that phone call, we had no- cited 31 times for lacking infectious-dis- month by state Attorney General Letitia Left unsaid was that Cuomo had ticed she was experiencing extreme ab- ease protocols. This particular facility James found that the state had been un- enough time to publish a self-serving dominal pain. had reported only 40 deaths and just re- derreporting the toll by half. memoir, “American Crisis: Leadership In our brief phone conversations, she’d cently the numbers were updated to 69. As of Saturday, official figures show, Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic,” wail in pain, saying, “Oh, it hurts, it The New York attorney general’s report 13,407 nursing-home residents had died which made The New York Times best- hurts!” confirms that these facilities were fraught of COVID-19. seller list with the help of the self-pro- When I asked what was hurting, she with inadequate infectious-disease meas- “This past year, there is a toxic political claimed “Cuomosexuals” who turned his cried out, “Everything!” ures and equipment such as PPE, which environment, and everything is political,” daily briefings into must-see TV, also I immediately contacted her nurses, and directly contributed to the wildfire Cuomo said during Monday’s news con- garnering him a special Emmy Award. they dismissed my concerns, reassuring spreading through dry grass. ference in Albany. “There is political po- And Cuomo insisted state lawmakers me they would give her something for the I have since spoken to many families sitions and there are facts.” should have known about the DOJ probe, abdominal pain. Not knowing she was ex- that have poured their heart out to me Cuomo’s news conference marked his despite his not telling them, because The posed to COVID-19, we assumed she sim- within our advocacy group, VoicesForSe- first public comments since The Post re- Post broke a story about it in October. ply had an upset stomach. niors, confirming that the practice of de- vealed DeRosa’s comments. She later is- Cuomo’s news conference sparked out- That evening, when I called her to tell ception is prevalent all around. sued a statement saying the state was rage — just as he did last month when he her the great news, I noticed that she was There are few positives in this story. But “comprehensive and transparent in our responded to the attorney general’s hoarse, and I told her: “Mom, you can’t if we can make our demands known, we responses to the DOJ, and then had to im- damning report by saying, “But who get sick now, you are coming home. Get want an independent investigation with mediately focus our resources on the sec- cares [if they] died in the hospital, died in some rest and eat well, and we will pick subpoena power to enact much-needed ond wave and vaccine rollout.” a nursing home? They died.” you up on Monday.” and frankly overdue laws to protect the On Monday, DeRosa sat to the right of Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Queens), Monday never came. residents who are residing in the facilities Cuomo but didn’t speak. whose uncle died in a nursing home, After an agonizing wait for X-rays, our today, and we beg the Centers for Medi- Cuomo repeated his defense of a much- didn’t hold back. mother went into respiratory distress. care & Medicaid Services to come up criticized March 25 directive from the “All of it is BS,” the lawmaker said. They found she had a collapsed lung, and with an immediate plan for visitation to Health Department that instructed nurs- “They could have given us the informa- only then did they transfer her to the hos- prevent a new wave of deaths in our na- ing homes to accept coronavirus patients tion back in May and June of last year. pital. The hospital confirmed she was tion’s nursing homes. discharged from hospitals. They chose not to.” positive for the coronavirus, and although Vivian Zayas founded the group Voices- The governor said there had been Kim said Cuomo’s comments didn’t she put up a good fight, she died two days ForSeniors after her mother’s death to “im- “much distortion” regarding the since-re- square with what DeRosa said last week, later. prove the quality of life for our most vul- scinded order, which he said was issued when she accused former President Do- We were horrified, shocked and in dis- nerable, elderly communities through by “professionals doing the best they nald Trump of turning the issue of nurs- belief. How could someone cleared for grassroots initiatives and advocacy for discharge suddenly die two days later? protective legislation and reform.” 3 nursing home scandal New York Post, Tuesday, February 16, 2021 Andy trots out old excuses amid elder-care furor Albany, stay on & punish slip and slide show: Gov. Cuomo blames a “toxic politi- cal environment” dur- gov: pol ing a press briefing on Monday in his first Assembly Minority Leader Will nypost.com public comments Barclay urged the Legislature to since The Post re- cancel its winter break this week vealed that his top and hold a special session to address aide admitted that the Gov. Cuomo’s nursing-home death administration had “coverup” — including stripping the withheld data on the governor of his emergency powers. outbreak of COVID-19 Barclay (R-Oswego) referenced in nursing homes. The Post’s bombshell report of a pri- vate meeting between Democratic lawmakers and Team Cuomo last week in which Secretary to the Gov- ernor Melissa DeRosa admitted that administration officials deliberately withheld data showing the extent of the coronavirus death toll for nurs- ing-home residents for months, cit- ing a federal probe of the matter.