CNN host Chris Cuomo was reportedly seen headed for a COVID-19 vaccination on Tuesday – just days after it was reported that he previously received preferential testing from his governor brother.
Last year, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo is alleged to have ordered state officials to give preferential COVID tests to Chris and other family members.
Chris, 50, is the host of “Cuomo Prime Time,” and previously documented his battle with the coronavirus on his show last year.
In pictures published by the New York Post on Tuesday, Cuomo was seen leaving a vaccination site in the Hamptons, at one point appearing to give a peace sign to a nearby photographer.
The sighting comes a day after the Washington Post reported that a top state physician allegedly made numerous hours-long trips to visit Cuomo at his Hamptons home in 2020, so that the presenter could be tested for the virus.
The Albany Times-Union reported that Gov Cuomo and state Health Commissioner Dr Howard Zucker directed health officials to prioritize Cuomo family members as well as other influential people with ties to the governor’s administration.
Three people with direct knowledge of the matter reportedly told the outlet that the testing was often done at private residences, including Chris Cuomo’s home on Long Island.
Sources reportedly told the outlet that Dr Eleanor Adams, an epidemiologist and special adviser to Zucker, conducted testing on Chris at his home.
The CNN anchor was diagnosed with Covid-19 during the early days of the pandemic, last March, when testing was still scarce.
He quarantined at his home, where he continued to do his nightly show.
The executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, Rick Cotton, and his wife were reportedly among those who also got priority testing, as were MTA head Patrick Foye and his wife.
FAMILY FAVORS
It was reported that other members of the media, state legislators and their staff were also given priority testing.
The coronavirus test specimens were then rushed to the state’s Wadsworth Center in Albany, where they were processed immediately, according to reports.
Employees at the lab were sometimes kept late to make sure the samples of those close to Cuomo were processed, the report said.
In a statement to Trending In The News, Cuomo Senior Adviser Senior Rich Azzopardi derided “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 — including 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 prevent additional ones,” he said.
“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.”
The news comes as Gov Cuomo is embroiled in a sexual harassment scandal, facing allegations of misconduct from several current and former female staffers.
