It’s Been One Year Since Chris Cuomo Told Us ‘We’re All in This Together’

Typically, when a politically connected millionaire television host tells viewers “we’re all in this together,” it’s rightly seen as transparent “every man” pandering. But, one year ago, when the COVID pandemic began in earnest, most people suspended their cynicism for a few weeks. After all, we were facing a global pandemic that didn’t respect racial, class or any other societal divides. It felt for a few moments like we might actually be in it together.

So, when Chris Cuomo appeared on television on March 31 to announce his positive COVID diagnosis, CNN leveraged the spectacle, instructing Cuomo to describe his symptoms in dramatic detail from his basement and to put himself forth as an example — no, a martyr — for the terrified masses.

“I tested positive. Scary, yes, as you might imagine, but better me than you,” Cuomo began the basement broadcast. “My concern is what I may have put upon my family just like you would. That is hurting me more than anything the virus can do.”

“So let’s focus,” he continued. “Let’s use this example of me having it as proof that you can get it, too, God forbid. We have to do everything we can to avoid being sick. We have to do it for ourselves, our families, and for those on the front lines who are saving people like me and many of you. Together as ever as one. That is our remedy. “

Was he scared of the ravages of COVID? Of course. But the 49-year-old fitness enthusiast put on a brave face for his viewers.

“And yet, I’m hesitant to talk about me because who cares?” he continued. “This is so small compared to what so many are facing. And we’re going to all go through this together. You’re going to have stories like mine pop up all over you and your life. You probably do already. Why? Because testing is just starting to catch up and pulling back the curtain on what we know to be true for so long. It’s not if, it’s not even when — we are in it.” (Emphasis mine.)

Well, as it turns out, we weren’t all going through this together. In fact, the reason that Cuomo was able to hold himself up as a martyr for the cause of COVID-awareness is that he was given access to a test, at that point a luxury good, by his older brother Andrew Cuomo.

Per The Albany Times Union:

ALBANY — 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.

The medical officials enlisted to do the testing, which often took place at private residences, included Dr. Eleanor Adams, an epidemiologist who graduated from Harvard Medical School and in August became a special adviser to Zucker. Adams conducted testing on Cuomo’s brother Chris at his residence on Long Island, according to the two people.

“If their job was to go test an old lady down in New Rochelle, that’s one thing — that’s actually good,” one of the people with knowledge of the matter said. “This was not that.”

But don’t let this latest news leave you with the impression that you and the Cuomo family are not “in this together.” In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. According to CNN spokesman Matt Dornic, Chris Cuomo acted “as any human being would.”