Nursing home disclosures taint Cuomo's pandemic performance
State lawmakers called for investigations, stripping Cuomo of his emergency powers and even his resignation after new details emerged this week about why certain nursing home data was kept under wraps for months, despite requests from lawmakers and others.
Top aide
The new salvos from
“He stepped in it, more than a little bit. It would be bad enough if this had come out and he had not been publicly sort of celebrating, and been celebrated, for his handling of the pandemic," said
The Cuomo administration for months dramatically underreported the statewide number of COVID-19 deaths among long-term care residents. It is now nearly 15,000, up from the 8,500 previously disclosed.
The new toll amounts to about one-seventh of the roughly 90,000 people living in nursing homes as of 2019 in
Cuomo has pointed to a small but growing body of research suggesting unchecked community spread is the biggest factor in nursing home outbreaks, and he has said inadequate federal government help with travel restrictions, testing and protective gear left
He has dismissed criticism as political and noted that the thousands of nursing home residents' deaths in hospitals were always counted in the state's overall tally.
“Died in a hospital, died in a nursing home — they died," he said
The uproar might not have the same impact on the third-term Democrat as it would if he were facing reelection for the first time this year, Zaino said. But it could make him less likely to be tapped for a post in the Biden administration.
And Cuomo — who says he will run again in 2022 — is now facing criticism that is increasingly coming from members of his own party.
“The governor’s lack of transparency and stonewalling regarding his administration’s nursing home actions is unacceptable," said state Sen.
The higher death tolls were only divulged hours after a report late last month from Democratic state Attorney General
Nursing home residents' advocates and relatives have questioned whether the virus's spread in nursing homes was fueled by a
“They had people coming up, sent from downstate hospitals up here,” Diehl said. “It just seemed like Typhoid Marys, just spreading it further. He did not know what he was doing, or he did not care.”
In reply to a Freedom of Information request from the AP in May, the state
The state issued a report insisting the patients didn't drive the virus's transmission in nursing homes, though it didn't rule out whether the directive played any role.
Cuomo has said the facilities had a responsibility to accept only patients they could care for. State health inspectors have uncovered infection control violations at dozens of nursing homes amid the pandemic and levied at least
Still, DeRosa has estimated that
The disclosure of DeRosa's comments this week in a conference call with Democratic lawmakers essentially brought months of complaints to a boiling point.
She said the state “froze” in responding to lawmakers August request for the number of nursing home residents who died in hospitals because officials were also responding to a
DeRosa issued a statement Friday saying that the state was slow to respond to the lawmakers because it was dealing with the
“It gave the impression of them trying to whitewash the information," said Sen.
Senate Republican Leader
The criticism could resonate because it fits with a common complaint that for all of his ability, Cuomo’s controlling nature can undercut his effectiveness.
Cuomo has dismissed that idea, writing in his book: “You show me a person who is not controlling, and I’ll show you a person who is probably not highly successful.”
To
”It’s definitely cast a bad shadow on the administration," she said.
Peltz reported from
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