According to a new report, former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo “edited” a state report that minimized the death count in nursing homes from COVID-19.
The House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, which will interview Cuomo on Tuesday, said Cuomo’s office made “demonstrably false” statements while engaging in a “cover-up,” the New York Post reported.
In June 2024, Cuomo blamed federal and state health officials for the nursing home directive. “They [Cuomo and his then-staff] want to assert that that order is exactly the same as the federal CMS, which it is not,” Rep. Marc Molinaro said. “The state order says, ‘You shall take back individuals and you cannot deny them solely on the basis of COVID,’ which left them no option but to accept individuals that we knew would cause risk to the other patients.”
“Andrew Cuomo was attempting to shift blame for what was a clear directive,” Molinaro continued. “When they identified and knew that the order was causing great loss, they subsequently cooked the books to suggest that the numbers of those who died in nursing homes were much less than we knew.”
On March 25, 2020, the New York Department of Health issued an advisory that stated nursing homes had to accept residents returning from hospitals whether or not they had a diagnosis of COVID-19. The advisory stated:
During this global health emergency, all NHs must comply with the expedited receipt of residents returning from hospitals to NHs. Residents are deemed appropriate for return to a NH upon a determination by the hospital physician or designee that the resident is medically stable for return. Hospital discharge planners must confirm to the NH, by telephone, that the resident is medically stable for discharge. Comprehensive discharge instructions must be provided by the hospital prior to the transport of a resident to the NH.
No resident shall be denied re-admission or admission to the NH solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19. NHs are prohibited from requiring a hospitalized resident who is determined medically stable to be tested for COVID-19 prior to admission or readmission.
In the fall of 2020, speaking to Finger Lakes Daily News, Cuomo defended himself from the charge that his policies caused more deaths from COVID in nursing homes, the New York Post reported. In response to a question about the issue, Cuomo blamed the federal government, attacked Florida’s state government, claimed that New York “flattened the curve effectively,” and said, “It just never happened in New York, where we needed to say to a nursing home, ‘We need you to take this person even though they’re COVID positive.’ It never happened.”
New York State has reported “more than 6,600 nursing home COVID-19 related deaths,” Finger Lakes Daily News reported, “but that number is likely much higher since New York does not include residents who initially contracted the virus at a nursing home but died after being transferred to a hospital.” State Senator Tom O’Mara co-sponsored a bill requiring the Department of Health to provide the accurate death toll from those in nursing homes. “He said many believe that number could be twice as high,” the Daily News noted.
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The outlet asked Cuomo, “Governor, you said earlier that you lie down at night and you can sleep knowing that you saved lives. What would you say to New York residents who lost their loved ones in nursing homes due to your mandate back in late March regarding sending COVID-positive patients back to nursing homes?”
“Yeah, I would say, first of all, that’s not why they lost a loved one,” Cuomo protested. “Your premise, the premise of your question, is just factually wrong. People who were lost in nursing homes were lost because that’s where the virus preys. The virus preys on senior citizens. The virus was introduced in this country in Washington, state of Washington in a nursing home. That’s who succumb to this virus, are immune-compromised senior citizens, and they’re predominantly located in nursing homes.”
“Number two: you look at the nursing home deaths in this state; do you know what number we are by percentage before you made that statement? We’re number 46 out of 50 states,” Cuomo boasted. “And we had the worst problem, and we’re number 46 in terms of percentage of deaths in nursing homes.”
