Cuomo’s Family Is Said to Have Received Special
Access to Virus Tests
Top health officials tested Chris Cuomo, the
governor’s brother, when testing was not widely available, two people with
knowledge of the matter said.
By J. David
Goodman and Ed Shanahan
March 24,
2021
Gov. Andrew
M. Cuomo’s administration arranged special access to government-run coronavirus
testing for members of his family and other influential people as the pandemic
descended on New York last year, according to two people with direct knowledge
of the matter.
The move to
make testing of people closely tied to Mr. Cuomo a priority was carried out by
high-ranking state health officials, one of the people said. It mostly happened
in March 2020, as the seriousness of the virus was still becoming clear to the
broader public and testing was not widely available .
Among those
who benefited from the special treatment was the governor’s brother, the CNN
anchor Chris Cuomo, and his family, who were tested several times in the
pandemic’s early phase, this person said. The governor’s mother, Matilda Cuomo,
and at least one of his sisters were also able to take advantage of the
state-administered tests, the two people said.
Chris Cuomo
announced on March 31 last year that he had tested positive for the virus.
That the
governor’s administration effectively let well-connected people cut the line to
determine whether they had been infected with a deadly virus that was ravaging
the state was reported earlier by The Times Union of Albany, N.Y., and The
Washington Post.
The
revelation comes as Mr. Cuomo confronts the most significant crisis of his
political career, with many of his fellow elected New York Democrats calling
for him to resign in the face of multiple sexual harassment allegations and
questions about his administration’s handling of the virus-related deaths of
nursing home residents.
The State
Assembly opened an impeachment investigation this week to examine both issues,
while the state attorney general has started a separate inquiry, and federal
agents are investigating the nursing home matter.
The
revelation of preferential tests could present an additional challenge to the
already embattled administration. State law prohibits officials from using
their position to obtain “privileges or exemptions” for themselves or others,
or to attempt to do so.
Richard
Azzopardi, a spokesman for Mr. Cuomo, did not explicitly deny that the
administration had extended special treatment to anyone while also seeking to
dispute the notion.
“In the
early days of this pandemic, when there was a heavy emphasis on contact
tracing, we were absolutely going above and beyond to get people testing,” he
said, adding that the effort included “in some instances going to people’s
homes — and door-to door-in places like New Rochelle — to take samples from
those believed to have been exposed to Covid in order to identify cases” and to
prevent others from developing the disease.
He added:
“Among those we assisted were members of the general public, including
legislators, reporters, state workers and their families who feared they had
contracted the virus and had the capability to further spread it.”
As the
behind-the-scenes effort to secure tests for those with ties to the governor
and the administration unfolded, most New Yorkers who believed they might have
been exposed to the virus were confronted with what doctors, hospital
administrators and health officials described as a confused and troubled state
testing system. The result was widespread frustration and, for many people,
concern about an illness that might be going undetected.
With the
federal government scrambling to meet the demand for testing and New York
becoming the U.S. epicenter of the pandemic, the state-run Wadsworth Center in
Albany was for a time the only laboratory in the state that was approved to
perform virus tests. Even then, the Wadsworth lab had the capacity to process
only a few hundred samples.
Many state
residents could not get tested, and those with mild symptoms were often told to
quarantine at home rather than attempt to be tested. Many never learned whether
their Covid-like symptoms were the result of the novel virus.
Lab
capacity in the state increased quickly last March but was still limited as of
late in the month, when Chris Cuomo was tested, according to one of the people
with direct knowledge of the matter. His test came back positive.
A CNN
spokesman said the company did not typically comment on its employees’ medical
decisions.
“However,”
the spokesman, Matt Dornic, added, “it is not surprising that in the earliest
days of a once-in-a-century global pandemic, when Chris was showing symptoms
and was concerned about possible spread, he turned to anyone he could for
advice and assistance, as any human being would.”
Some of the
preferential tests, including those administered to Chris Cuomo and his family,
were conducted by Dr. Eleanor Adams, an epidemiologist and top aide to the
state health commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker, the two people with direct
knowledge of the matter said.
Once
collected, the samples were rushed to the Wadsworth lab with State Police
escorts, the people said, and staff at the lab were instructed to stay late
into the night to process the tests. Results were often delivered by phone to
those who were tested within hours after the samples were taken.
William
Duffy, a State Police spokesman, said there was “nothing extraordinary” about
troopers being involved in the transfer of test samples to the state lab.
“That was
the case for virtually all collections sent to Wadsworth early on,” Mr. Duffy
said. “During the first weeks of the pandemic, troopers transported thousands
of samples from around the state to Wadsworth for testing.”
State
officials privately expressed concern at the time about some of the tests,
particularly those for Mr. Cuomo’s family. But other efforts at turning tests
around rapidly appeared to be more appropriate.
Rick
Cotton, the head of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and his
wife, Elizabeth W. Smith, who is the president of the Central Park Conservancy,
also tested positive for the virus in early March as part of the effort.
After the
couple’s results came back, health officials quickly performed tests on Mr.
Cotton’s senior staff members who had been in proximity to him, one of the
people said.
The
approach made sense to health department officials because the senior officials
were involved in the pandemic response. Also tested early in the pandemic via
the same preferential means were Mr. Cuomo; his health commissioner, Dr.
Zucker; and the chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Patrick
J. Foye, one of the people said. Mr. Foye tested positive.
The same
sort of approach followed a positive test within the Mr. Cuomo’s press team in
March. Health officials engaged in a large contact-tracing effort, and several
members of the governor’s staff were tested.
But the
requests to test members of Mr. Cuomo’s family appeared to be different and
raised concerns among those with knowledge of the effort. The directive to
prioritize the tests — collecting them at home and rushing them to the lab in
Albany — came from the governor, according to one of the people.
After Mr.
Cuomo’s brother’s result came back positive, the governor spoke about it during
a news conference on March 31, one of his daily appearances that garnered a
national following for the New York governor, a Democrat.
“This virus
is the great equalizer. My brother, Chris, is positive for coronavirus. Found
out this morning,” the governor said, without mentioning the preferential
treatment the samples received. “But there’s a lesson in this. He’s an
essential worker, a member of the press, so he’s been out there.”
Mr. Cuomo
also appeared with his brother — who was quarantined in his basement — on CNN
the same day.
“I know
you’re working your tail off for everybody,” Chris Cuomo told the governor
during the televised appearance. “I love you. I respect you. Stay safe.”
Luis Ferré-Sadurní
and Jesse McKinley contributed reporting.
J. David
Goodman covers the economic and health impacts of the pandemic in New York and
beyond. He has written about government, lobbying, criminal justice and the
role of money in politics for The Times since 2012. @jdavidgoodman
Ed Shanahan
is a rewrite reporter and editor covering breaking news and general assignments
on the Metro desk. @edkshanahan
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