New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo provoked outrage this week when he falsely claimed that his administration did not send elderly COVID-19 patients into nursing homes and boasted about the lives his policies saved.
“Every time I see an interview where someone actually asks him about the nursing home policy,” said Janice Dean, a Fox News meteorologist whose in-laws contracted COVID-19 in assisted living facilities and died. “All of a sudden, you know, he gets very defensive pointing fingers and blame game and won’t give answers.”
Cuomo this week brushed off criticism of his mandate enacted in March that prohibited nursing homes and long-term care facilities from turning new residents away because they had tested positive for the coronavirus. He has argued that it was nursing home visitors and staff who exposed nursing home residents to the coronavirus, rather than newly admitted residents who had tested positive for COVID-19.
He told reporters on Wednesday that the advisory was a precaution in case hospitals became overwhelmed, calling it an “anticipatory rule,” adding that it never happened.
“We never needed nursing home beds because we always had hospital beds,” Cuomo said. “So, 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.”
He added, “I put my head on the pillow at night saying I saved lives, that’s how I sleep at night.”
Cuomo’s assertion was false. From March 25 when Cuomo signed the mandate through May 8, two days before changing the advisory, “approximately 6,326 COVID-positive residents were admitted” to long-term care facilities, the New York State Department of Health reported.
According to the COVID Tracking Project, 6,656 people have died of COVID-19 in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities in New York, accounting for 26% of the state’s 25,439 deaths from the virus. The true total is likely much higher because New York does not count the deaths of nursing home residents who are transferred to hospitals and die there as nursing home deaths.
“Sometimes, I feel like … small little ants, pushing a big boulder up a hill because he’s ruled for so long, with an iron fist in the state, and people are afraid of him,” Dean told the Washington Examiner. “Journalists are afraid of asking questions, and he is a bully.”
Donald Trump Jr. accused Cuomo of sociopathy for his remarks.
A whole new level of Sociopathy. https://t.co/BTUbsKhjVN
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) October 1, 2020
James Tedisco, a state senator from New York, introduced a bill in the Statehouse that would bring in an independent commission to investigate the actual death toll and report it to the Legislature. The bill has bipartisan support but not enough support to pass. Tedisco, meanwhile, says the Cuomo administration is actively trying to conceal the numbers from the public.
“There are just some issues, which rise above politics in the health, welfare, and well-being of our most vulnerable population is one of them,” Tedisco told the Washington Examiner. “I mean, this is overwhelmingly people saying, ‘Governor, you promised transparency.’”
Cuomo’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
