9 May 2020: Damning Death Toll in NY Nursing Homes

NY’s Cuomo criticized over highest nursing home death toll

This PBS News Hour article provides some damning figures, which to put into perspective, we'll note that Johns Hopkins is reporting a total 77,180 deaths for the entire United States through 8 May 2020, with 26,243 of them in the state of New York. Here's an excerpt:

Of the nation’s more than 25,000 coronavirus deaths in nursing homes and long-term care facilities, more than a fifth of them — about 5,300 — are in New York, according to a count by The Associated Press, and the toll has been increasing by an average of 20 to 25 deaths a day for the past few weeks.

“The numbers, the deaths keep ticking up,” said MaryDel Wypych, an advocate for older adults in the Rochester area. “It’s just very frustrating.”

Across the U.S., the 25,000+ deaths attributed to COVID-19 that have occurred in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities represent at least 32% of the nation's total death count, with deaths in the state of New York's nursing homes resulting from Governor Cuomo's policies alone contributing nearly 7% of the national total.

These figures are almost certainly underestimates, where we suspect they do not fully reflect deaths that occurred among New York's nursing home patients who became infected thanks to the Cuomo administration's policies, who were subsequently transferred to hospitals where they passed away. One nurse describes Governor Cuomo's policies as "irresponsible, negligent, and stupid".

Meanwhile, at least 38% of all 9,116 lab-confirmed COVID-19 deaths in New Jersey occurred in that state's nursing homes and long term care facilities. Having followed the Cuomo administration's lead in forcing the state's nursing homes to admit infected patients beginning on 31 March 2020, the state has seen 97% of its coronavirus-confirmed deaths in the period since. Following Governor Cuomo's lead in exposing high-mortality risk patients to the coronavirus is proving especially deadly.