ALBANY – High-level members of the state’s Department of Health were instructed last year by Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker to conduct priority coronavirus tests on governor’s relatives as well as influential people linked to the government, according to three people with direct knowledge of the subject.
Members of Cuomo’s family, including his brother, his mother and at least one of his sisters, were also tested by senior health department officials – some of them several times, the sources said.
Medical officials enlisted to take the tests, which often took place in private homes, included Dr. Eleanor Adams, an epidemiologist who graduated from Harvard Medical School and in August became a special advisor to Zucker. Adams conducted tests on Cuomo’s brother, Chris, at his Long Island residence, according to the two people.
“If their job was to test an elderly woman in New Rochelle, this is one thing – this is really good,” said one of the people with knowledge of the subject. “That was not it.”
Others who received priority tests include Rick Cotton, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and his wife, as well as Patrick J. Foye, head of the Metropolitan Transport Authority, and his wife. Media members, state legislators and their employees have also been tested in a similar way, although there is no indication that the tests were done by high-level health department officials.
Cuomo government officials said testing in the early days of the pandemic in March 2020 was not preferential, and they noted that public nurses were being taken to private homes in New Rochelle – the site of the state’s first outbreak – to test people who were symptomatic or have been exposed to the virus. During this period, State Police soldiers were largely tasked with taking these samples to the laboratory at the Wadsworth Center in Albany, which was initially the primary test site for the coronavirus.
“It is being distorted a little with a tortuous intention. … We made a point of testing the people they believed had been exposed,” said an official in Cuomo’s office in the background. “All of this was being done in good faith in an effort to track the virus.”
Richard Azzopardi, a senior adviser to the governor, characterized the claims of preferential treatment as “insincere efforts to rewrite the past”.
“In the early days of this pandemic, when there was a strong emphasis on contact tracking, we were absolutely going the extra mile to test people – including, in some cases, going to people’s homes and door to door in places like New Rochelle – to harvest samples of those believed to have been exposed to COVID in order to identify cases and prevent others, “said Azzopardi. “Among the people we served were members of the general public, including lawmakers, reporters, government officials and their families, who feared they had contracted the virus and had the ability to spread it even more.”
Still, a person familiar with the matter said that people with close ties to the governor, including their relatives, would have their samples transferred to the front of the line in Wadsworth and would have priority. They were called “critical samples”.
Another person familiar with the matter said that “sampling missions” disturbed some of the senior health department officials in charge of collecting the samples in private homes – including Adams, who had previously worked at the regional office of the New York City health department. York for the Infection Control and Health Epidemiology Program.
“To be doing a kind of direct clinical work was a complete waste of time from his other duties,” said the person. “It was like in wartime.”
Adams was instrumental in efforts to control the state’s first outbreak last year in New Rochelle, where she previously had a private doctor’s office. But she was often removed from these roles to conduct individual tests that could have been done by a registered nurse, a source said.
The state Department of Health declined requests this week to make Zucker or Adams available for interviews. The Times Union told officials it wanted to question Adams about how she felt about being directed to conduct priority tests on people with close ties to the governor, including her brother.
“You are asking professionals who have taken an oath to protect a patient’s privacy to violate that oath and compromise their integrity,” said Gary Holmes, a spokesman for the health department. “More than 43 million New Yorkers have been tested and comment on any of them would be a serious violation of medical ethics. We have built a leading national testing infrastructure to ensure that anyone who needs a test can take one. This work continues today. “
CNN anchor Chris Cuomo announced on March 31 that he had tested positive for coronavirus and would be quarantined at his Long Island residence in Southampton, where he continued to do his evening program despite being ill.
“My brother Chris is positive for coronavirus – I found out this morning,” said the governor during his daily briefing on March 31. “Now, he will be fine. He is young, in good shape, strong – not as strong as he thinks – but he will be fine. But there is a lesson in that. He is an essential worker … He is only concerned with his daughter and his children. He hopes he hasn’t infected them. “
Chris Cuomo’s test took place in the early stages of the pandemic, at a time when many members of the public were struggling to get coronavirus tests.
Although it was not uncommon for those with symptoms to be tested in their homes at that time, much of the work was done by public health nurses, and they were often transported by police, including probation officers.
National Guard troops also helped in the early stages of testing, taking on tasks such as ensuring that people who had been quarantined remained in their homes and delivering food to those who had been asked to stay at home.