Demonstrators hit the streets of Cobble Hill, Brooklyn to protest Governor Cuomo's leadership during the pandemic, especially singling out his response to nursing homes across the state.
The protesters claim that Governor Cuomo's advisory in March directed nursing homes in the state to accept patients who had or were suspected of having COVID-19.
According to the New York Department of Health, there have been more than 6,500 confirmed or presumed coronavirus-related deaths in nursing homes. Families are demanding Governor Cuomo take responsibility for his actions, in addition to an apology.
"Any pandemic plan, which we spent a billion dollars on here in New York, would say 'protect the most vulnerable population,' first thing you do. Here's the most vulnerable population—nursing homes, like Cobble Hill Health Center. And we didn't do that. In fact, we did just the opposite,” said one demonstrator.
Meanwhile, Governor Cuomo responded to the continued criticism of his actions regarding nursing homes saying the state did everything it could. He added the deaths were the result of nursing home staff getting into the homes at a time when there was no wide-scale testing, and people believed you had to be symptomatic to spread the disease.
He called the federal investigation into the state's nursing homes deaths a "political argument."