Fox News’ senior meteorologist Janice Dean spoke to the Daily Caller about Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who issued a nursing home COVID-19 order that she says resulted in the death of both her in-laws.
Dean lost her in-laws after Cuomo’s March 25 order requiring nursing homes to accept positive COVID-19 patients. The Democratic governor reversed his order in May and publicly acknowledged about 6,500 deaths – but has since repeatedly placed the blame on others.
Since the deaths, Dean has been outspoken against Cuomo and the mandate, often calling for more transparency because New York’s nursing home numbers do not include those who contracted COVID-19 inside a home but died elsewhere. She told the Caller that she wants to make sure no family has to go through what her family did ever again.
“I want a correct tally of deaths that happened here in New York – all of the people that died in the hospital, like my mother-in-law, but got COVID in their assisted living residence or their elder care facility,” she told the Caller, referencing the skewed death toll numbers. (RELATED: Gov. Cuomo Pushes Back Against Report On Nursing Home Coronavirus Death Count)
“I don’t think he [Cuomo] wants people to know what the real numbers are because they are double – probably double – what he’s reporting,” she added. “Also, if we’re going into a second wave of COVID, those numbers should be used so that this never happens again to another family.”
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Dean also spoke about Cuomo’s recently published book about his leadership amid the global pandemic as well as the International Emmy he received for his presence on television. She noted that “at the very beginning” – before knowing about his mandate and prior to the deaths – she did think Cuomo was doing a good job with the daily coronavirus briefings.
“I actually did think he did a good job,” she remembered thinking at first. “He was very calm, stating facts, he even had a powerpoint presentation.” (RELATED: Janice Dean: ‘It’s Jaw-Dropping, It’s Insulting, It’s Sickening’ For Gov. Cuomo To Accept Emmy Award)
“So I watched his news conferences because we were all going through this together,” Dean continued. “But then when I started finding out and I had people in my family dying of COVID and finding out this executive order that he put into place … that’s when I started to become skeptical of him.”
Dean has been open about wanting an independent bipartisan investigation into the incident – so far, this request has not been granted. She told the Caller that her “only hope” at this point is “something federal from the Justice Department.”
The Fox News meteorologist’s ideal situation would result in subpoenas that would “bring in not only Cuomo but Howard Zucker, his health commissioner” and others, she said.
“By the way, I’ve talked to a lot of people that have been in nursing homes that run nursing homes and they say that they felt that they had absolutely no way of saying ‘no’ to these COVID patients,” according to Dean.
Dean also told the Caller that the fight can be difficult, and it’s been made harder by the media’s unwillingness to cover it. According to Dean, Cuomo’s political affiliation may have something to do with the media underreporting the situation.
“The reason why I’m so vocal was I’m not seeing the mainstream media – the CBS’s, the ABC News, the NBC News … They won’t ask him those tough questions, and I think it has to do with the fact that he’s a Democrat,” Dean suggested. “And he’s been revered in New York for many years, he’s from the Cuomo family … He’s also brother to Chris Cuomo, who is a well-known CNN anchor.”
Dean continued on to slam the governor’s brother over softball interviews amid the global pandemic. She noted that shortly after the loss of her family’s loved ones, the duo were “joking about COVID testing.”
“It was so hard to see, and our grief is just made worse by these interviews that he does where he isn’t asked these questions and we still need answers,” she declared.