THE LAWLESS LAWYER CLASS - GAMING IT AND PUTTING IT IN THEIR POCKEST - 2:53 A billionaire pharmaceutical company founder with links to embattled New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) received special access to coronavirus tests at the start of the pandemic, according to a Thursday report.

 

Report: Executive with Ties to Andrew Cuomo Received Special Access to Coronavirus Tests

Kevin P. Coughlin/State of New York via AP

JOSHUA CAPLAN

26 Mar 2021218

2:53

A billionaire pharmaceutical company founder with links to embattled New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) received special access to coronavirus tests at the start of the pandemic, according to a Thursday report.

The New York Times reveals:

[Regeneron] requested tests from the state for its president, Dr. George Yancopoulos, and his family after a “member of his household became infected with Covid-19,” a company spokeswoman said. State officials granted the request and tested the family at home in March. By then, New York had already become the epicenter of the pandemic, with a frightened populace suddenly confronted with a widespread shutdown in the face of a virus that little was known about. On April 1, Governor Cuomo then announced that Regeneron would create 500,000 kits for testing samples and provide them free of charge to New York State.

The Times‘ report comes after the Times-Union reported that Cuomo instructed state health officials to “prioritize” testing for members of his family, including his mother, Matilda Cuomo, and brother, Christopher Cuomo, a high-profile host at CNN. Both the governor and Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker also asked state Department of Health officials to prioritize testing for influential individuals with connections to the Cuomo administration, according to the Albany-based newspaper. In a separate report, the Washington Post said the results of prioritized tests were immediately processed at a state laboratory.

Chris Cuomo announced back in March 2020 that he had contracted the virus, later telling the Associated Press in an interview: “I knew it was just a matter of time, to be honest, because of how often I was exposed to people.” The Post reports that a top New York Department of Health doctor visited the CNN host at his Hamptons home to obtain testing samples from him and members of his family.

A spokesperson for Cuomo attempted to dismiss the reports about prioritized testing, saying in a statement to Reuters, “We should avoid insincere efforts to rewrite the past.”

“We should avoid insincere efforts to rewrite the past. 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,” Cuomo spokesman Richard Azzopardi said.

News of prioritized testing comes as Cuomo faces dueling scandals — allegations of sexual harassment brought forth by multiple women and an alleged cover-up of data regarding nursing home deaths during the pandemic.  The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is investigating whether aides to the governor provided false data regarding the number of deaths in such facilities, according to the New York Times.

Report: Andrew Cuomo’s Family, Including CNN’s Chris Cuomo, Received ‘Prioritized’ Coronavirus Testing

BRENDAN MCDERMID/POOL/AFP via Getty Images

KYLE OLSON

24 Mar 20213,020

2:54

Sources told the Times Union and Washington Post that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) instructed state health officials to “prioritize” coronavirus testing for members of his family, including his brother, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo.

The Times Union reported:

High-level members of the state Department of Health were directed last year by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker to conduct prioritized coronavirus testing on the governor’s relatives as well as influential people with ties to the administration, according to three people with direct knowledge of the matter.

Members of Cuomo’s family including his brother, his mother and at least one of his sisters were also tested by top health department officials — some several times, the sources said.

“As part of the program, a state lab immediately processed the results of those who were tested, the people said, even as average New Yorkers were struggling to get tested in the early days of the pandemic due to a scarcity of resources,” according to the Washington Post.

“Initially, the lab was only capable of running several hundred tests a day for a state with 19 million residents,” it said.

The paper claimed the use of state resources “to benefit people close to the governor raises serious ethical questions.”

In March 2020, Chris Cuomo announced he had contracted the virus.

“I knew it was just a matter of time, to be honest, because of how often I was exposed to people,” Cuomo said, according to the Associated Press.

He said he would work from home and hosted his primetime show from his basement.

A “top New York Department of Health doctor” visited Cuomo at his home to obtain testing samples from him and his family.

The governor scolded his brother during one of his famed press conferences after the revelation and that the anchor had their 88-year-old mother at his home.

“It’s my family, it’s your family, it’s all of our families,” Andrew Cuomo said. “This virus is so insidious, and we have to keep that in mind.”

Cuomo’s administration defended his handling of testing.

“We should avoid insincere efforts to rewrite the past,” spokesman Rich Azzopardi said in a statement, according to the Post, adding some testing was done in homes and door-to-door.

“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,” he said.

Kyle Olson is a reporter for Breitbart News. He is also host of “The Kyle Olson Show,” syndicated on Michigan radio stations on Saturdays–download full podcast episodes. Follow him on Parler.