{"id":211556,"date":"2021-03-26T05:01:18","date_gmt":"2021-03-26T02:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/drug-firm-honcho-given-special-access-to-state-run-covid-19-tests-report\/"},"modified":"2021-03-26T05:01:18","modified_gmt":"2021-03-26T02:01:18","slug":"drug-firm-honcho-given-special-access-to-state-run-covid-19-tests-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/drug-firm-honcho-given-special-access-to-state-run-covid-19-tests-report\/","title":{"rendered":"#Drug firm honcho given special access to state-run COVID-19 tests: report"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Drug firm honcho given special access to state-run COVID-19 tests: report<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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A powerful drug company honcho with ties to Gov. Andrew Cuomo was given special access to state-run COVID-19 tests during the onset of the coronavirus crisis last spring \u2014 when the swabs were nearly impossible to find, according to a report Thursday.<\/p>\n

George Yancopoulos, president of the pharmaceutical firm Regeneron, was brought the tests by state officials after a \u201cmember of his household became infected with COVID-19,\u201d according to the New York Times<\/a>, which cited a company spokeswoman.<\/p>\n

The tests were conducted at the home of Yancopoulos\u00a0 \u2014 who has a history of investments backed by Cuomo and his family \u2014\u00a0 last March amid a statewide shutdown and panic over the then-widely-unknown virus, according to the paper.<\/p>\n

In other cases, influential people were rushed by state troopers to the Wadsworth Center, a state-run lab in Albany, where workers were instructed to process the tests immedia<\/a>tely, sources told the paper.<\/p>\n

\"Andrew
Andrew Cuomo speaks during a news<\/a> conference at his offices in NYC.<\/figcaption>
Brendan McDermid\/Reuters<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The preferential testing treatment was also allegedly extended to Cuomo\u2019s family members, including his brother, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, his mom, Matilda Cuomo, and at least one of his sisters, it was revealed on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Investigators in the New York State Assembly on Thursday said they are looking into who got special access to state-run coronavirus tests early in the pandemic, the paper reported.<\/p>\n

Assemblyman Charles Lavine, chair of the judiciary committee, said lawmakers would probe the matter as part of an investigation into allegations of sexual harassment and\u00a0hidden nursing home death data against Cuomo and his administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything brought to the committee\u2019s attention is going to be considered and investigated,\u201d Lavine told the Times. \u201cI will only say inquiries have been made. We\u2019re paying attention to it and will act accordingly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The improper use of a government role in order for an official get \u201cprivileges or exemptions\u201d for themselves or others is illegal under state law, the paper reported.<\/p>\n

In April, Regeneron created 500,000 testing kits and provided them to the Empire State at no cost. It later played a key role in efforts to lower the risk of hospitalization and death among high-risk coronavirus patients.<\/p>\n

Ties between the Cuomo family and the firm have run deep for decades. Mario Cuomo, the governor\u2019s father, invested $250,000 in Regeneron in 1991 when he was governor to support the firm.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2018,\u00a0the current administration granted the firm up to $140 million in incentives to expand its operations in the Albany area, the paper reported.<\/p>\n

A spokeswoman for the company said they requested the tests and that Yancopoulos was not involved in requesting them.<\/p>\n

\u201cDr. Yancopoulos has directly led the company\u2019s ambitious and successful efforts to advance a groundbreaking therapy for this devastating pandemic,\u201d said the company spokeswoman, Hala Mirza. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs an essential worker, leading and meeting regularly with his research team, and to ensure Dr. Yancopoulos was not posing a risk to this team, Regeneron requested testing from the state for his household after a household member became infected with Covid-19,\u201d Mirza added.<\/p>\n

A spokesman for Cuomo called the preferential treatment allegations \u201cinsincere, hypocritical efforts to rewrite the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 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 tested,\u201d Richard Azzopardi said.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

\"George
According to the report, Yancopoulos had the COVID tests brought to his home.<\/figcaption>
Brendan McDermid\/Reuters<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The effort included \u201cin some instances going to people\u2019s homes\u201d to identify cases and prevent others from falling ill, he said.<\/p>\n

He added, \u201cAmong those we assisted were members of the general<\/a> public, Democratic and Republican legislators, and reporters \u2014 including local and national reporters \u2014 state workers and their families, and those believed would be in direct contact with the governor.\u201d\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#Drug firm honcho given special access to state-run COVID-19 tests: report” A powerful drug company honcho with ties to Gov. Andrew Cuomo was given special access to state-run COVID-19 tests during the onset of the coronavirus crisis last spring \u2014 when the swabs were nearly impossible to find, according to a report Thursday. George Yancopoulos,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":211557,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/03\/cuomo-allies-preferential-treatment-index.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[99246,70430,1545,3885,73840,71007],"class_list":["post-211556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-3-25-21","tag-andrew-cuomo","tag-coronavirus","tag-new-york","tag-pharmaceuticals","tag-scandals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/211557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}