Fox News senior meteorologist Janice Dean attacked New York governor Andrew Cuomo Wednesday, calling for an investigation into his handling of nursing homes amid the coronavirus pandemic crisis.
Dean, whose mother-in-law and father-in-law died of coronavirus in one of the state’s elder care facilities, penned an op-ed for USA Today, ripping the governor for his bantering appearances on brother Chris Cuomo’s CNN program and “New York tough” messaging.
“At first, we didn’t blame anyone for their deaths,” she wrote of her in-laws. “This is a pandemic, and the virus is particularly dangerous for the elderly. Then we learned about the Cuomo administration’s March 25 order that recovering coronavirus patients be placed into nursing homes. The mandate also barred nursing homes from requiring incoming patients ‘to be tested for COVID-19 prior to admission or readmission.’”
Dean slammed Cuomo for the order, which lasted 46 days, and called attention to the fact that over 6,500 New York seniors have died of the virus in elder care facilities. She also faulted the media — not just CNN, but “Good Morning America” and People Magazine, among others — for doing “puff pieces” on Cuomo that didn’t touch on the nursing home subject.
“The insensitivity of it was infuriating,” she wrote. “The death toll in our senior living facilities in New York alone was bigger than 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina combined. Where is the outrage?”
She called for “a non-partisan investigation on both the state and federal level so that this never happens again,” then concluded, “My in-laws Mickey and Dee Newman were New York tough. The governor? He’s as weak as they come.”
Dean has spoken about the issue before, writing pieces for Fox News’ digital site and tweeting about it, too.
Former Fox News host Megyn Kelly and former CNN anchor Soledad O’Brien sparred on Twitter Monday after Kelly defended Dean’s criticism of New York state’s response to the coronavirus, leading O’Brien to quip, “Meteorologist weighs in.”