Peter Irbiney, son of 89-year-old Norman Irbiney, will speak at a memorial outside the Irbiney family home in Cobble Hill on Sunday, March 23, 2025. The event honored the elderly who died under Andrew Cuomo's executive order that allowed Covid-19 patients to be readmitted during Pandamia classes.
Photo by Paul Frangipane
The mourning families met at Cobble Hill on Sunday to celebrate the fifth anniversary of Covid-19 and defend accountability in the wake of the death of nursing homes during the pandemic.
Surrounded by political candidates from across the spectrum, the family united in opposition to the former president of the pandemic's victims at a nursing home in New York.
The group included six Democratic mayoral candidates. City Council Speaker Adrian Adams, Mayor Brad Lander, Queens Councilman Zoran Mamdany, Brooklyn Sen. Zellner Miley, Queens Sen. Jessica Ramos, and former city counproler Scott Stringer – these candidates were able to readmit Covid-positive patients to their nursing homes, focusing on an order issued by Cuomo's state health department in the spring of 2020.
Cuomo, who recently participated in the mayoral race, is under scrutiny for handling the nursing home crisis during the pandemic. He and his office argue that there is no evidence that the controversial order contributed to the high death toll, but critics point to the deaths of 15,000 nursing homes in New York as evidence of its devastating impact.
For the family, the problem remains personal.
“You need to apologise in the face of us,” said Peter Irvinney, whose father Norman passed away in 2020 after being discharged from the Cobble Hill Health Center. “If you're going to lead, you have to lead for all of us.”
Standing by the monument – a spirit hearth embraced with flowers, photo walls, and cas – the candidate and family demanded that Cuomo be held responsible. The memorial marked the loss of 89-year-old Norman Irvinny, who died just two weeks after his release from the facility. His family's grief has not diminished for years since then, and they continue to assert that Cuomo owes them an apology.
“I would like to say that the Governor Cuomo team contacted his lawyer more than a month ago and were trying to mediate his family and advocacy at his law firm. We declined in honor as we don't think we should meet at the law firm,” Arbeeny said. “So we invited him to his father's house. When he was governor five years ago, we were invited to his father's house for five years, just like we did four years ago, three years ago, two years ago, and a year ago.”
We are still fighting the weight of the monumental loss. The after-family family at a Sunday gathering – held outside the family home in Irbeany's family home – shared a story of horror as they grabbed pictures of their loved ones and small urns, including ashes. Some cried as they remembered the last moments of their parents and grandparents.
City Council President Adrian Adams, whose father also passed away during the pandemic, recalls the last moments she spent with him.
“This is not politics for me. It's personal for me,” Adams said. “We decided to take Dad to North Shore Hospital, and that was the last time I saw his beautiful eyes as my sister and I wouldn't allow him to go to the hospital. And he looked up at me as if to say, 'Don't leave me.' ”
Lander reflected Adams' sentiment and emphasized that the struggle for accountability transcends party boundaries.
“This is not about partisan politics, but about accountability,” he said. “And I don't ask Andrew Cuomo to meet with my family as much.”
Despite the emotional pour, Cuomo's campaign defended the former governor. The spokesman argued that nursing home policies were politicized and there was no evidence to support the allegations that it caused additional deaths.
“Over two million Americans have passed away as a result of the COVID pandemic, and our hearts have been broken for the families of all those who have lost their loved ones,” said Cuomo spokesman Rich Azzopaldi. “But unfortunately, as confirmed by DOJ IG, the pain has been weaponized purely for election purposes for years.”
“Being mayor of the world's greatest city is an incredible job that requires a proven record of experience, accomplishment and management.
But for the continued saddening family (which many call themselves “Cuomo's orphans”), the call for justice remains urgent.
In a statement Monday, the group called for an amendment to the report by Justice Department inspectors. In a letter sent to Attorney General Pam Bondy, they urged action on multiple errors and misleading statements made in a report issued on the last day of the Biden administration.
The family argues that the conclusion of DOJ IG, considered the March 25, 2020 Cuomo directive, is considered “almost consistent” with federal guidelines, but has failed to reflect the devastating impact of the policy.
” Given that Cuomo reported a deception about important facts, the authors of IG should be very skeptical of what the Cuomo administration produced. “The IG report is almost silent (only footnotes 14 and 89 mention the manipulation of death data, but it appears not to be used in the context of the points of the paragraph).
“Cuomo's covid orphans deserve the truth, and you, Attorney General Bondi, can help us get it in the end.”
This version of the story first appeared in Amny
