29 July 2020: Clawback of Liability Protections Doesn't Cover Period of Deadly Directive

Healthcare Lobby Holds Sway In Shielding NY's Nursing Homes And Hospitals From COVID-19 Liability

This report reveals the nursing home liability legislation that passed in New York's legislature will not apply retroactively to the period in which the Cuomo administration's directive forcing nursing homes to admit sick coronavirus patients was in effect, which ran from 25 March 2020 through 10 May 2020.

29 July 2020: Families Blocked from Visiting Nursing Homes by Cuomo Restrictions

Nearly all CNY nursing homes still ban visitors because of tough reopening rules

The abbreviation CNY refers to Central New York. The report also describes how a combination of the state government's rules and the inefficiency of New York's current coronavirus testing regime are preventing oversight of the facilities by volunteer ombudsmen:

... ombudsmen, volunteers who advocate for residents, cannot enter nursing homes yet because of lengthy waits for Covid-19 test results. They must get a negative test result within the seven-day period before entering a nursing home.

But it often takes longer than seven days to get test results, making it impossible for an ombudsman who wants to go to work to comply with the rule.

Just imagine how many lives in New York's nursing homes could have been same if the Cuomo administration had applied the same rules for patients transferred to nursing homes after receiving treatment for coronavirus infections under Governor Cuomo's 25 March 2020 directive instead of forcing the nursing homes to admit the infected patients.

27 July 2020: Who Else Is Responsible for the Deadly Directive?

The Power Public Health Officials of New York

This article provides short profiles of three of the more prominent public health officials in New York, all of whom played roles in establishing the policies the state followed during its coronavirus outbreak.

25 July 2020: Governor Cuomo Blames Media for NY Nursing Home Deaths

Gov. Cuomo Says Criticism Over Nursing Home Deaths Is ‘Politically Motivated’: ‘It’s the New York Post… It’s Fox TV’

Governor Cuomo continues to blame a portion of the media for the backlash over his administration's disastrous policies to force nursing homes to admit coronavirus-infected patients and without testing to verify if they were contagious, and to allow infected staff members to provide care to nursing home residents during the worst of New York's coronavirus epidemic. The following excerpt provides the context of his latest comments:

Cuomo was asked about the response to the state Department of Health’s report and why he doesn’t just appoint an independent investigator.

The governor said the following:

“I don’t believe your characterization is correct. I believe it is a political issue. I think it’s the New York Post, I think it’s Michael Goodwin, I think it’s Bob McManus, I think it’s Fox TV. I think it is all politically motivated. If anybody looked at the facts, they would know that it was wholly absurd on its face. People died in nursing homes. That is very unfortunate. Just on the top line, we are number 35th in the nation in percentage of deaths in nursing homes. Go talk to 34 other states first. Go talk to the Republican states now. Florida, Texas, Arizona. Ask them what is happening in nursing homes. It’s all politics.”

From his comments, it appears Governor Cuomo is also continuing to rely on his administration's policies that deliberately undercount deaths related to nursing home-related coronavirus infections to minimize the apparent negative impact of the governor's disastrous policies. Governor Cuomo is also ignoring substantial reporting from left-leaning news organizations, such as ProPublica and left-center outfits such as the Associated Press, both of whose reporting we have featured multiple times in the months since the New York Post originally broke the news of Governor Cuomo's coronavirus nursing home scandal.

23 July 2020: NY Legislature Set to Revoke Some COVID Legal Immunities for Nursing Homes

Clawback on immunity for nursing homes slated for Thursday vote in Albany

This report covers developing legislation in New York's legislature to narrow the scope of immunity Governor Cuomo provided to nursing home operators for coronavirus-related deaths in their facilities back in April 2020. That immunity was provided through a budget bill shortly before news of the rampant spread of coronavirus infections and deaths in New York's nursing homes related to the Cuomo administration's disastrous 25 March 2020 directive broke in the media.

NY Lawmakers OK Cutting Back Nursing Homes' Legal Protection Amid COVID-19

This report indicates New York's legislature has passed a measure that "would notably narrow the legal immunity provisions, though it doesn't go as far as some backers originally sought." One of those backers is Assembly member Ron Kim (D-Queens), who had this to say:

The proposal also makes changes that Kim said would allow for some lawsuits over care arrangements, such as hospitals releasing patients to nursing homes unprepared to care for them.

The legislation now goes to Governor Cuomo, who has ten days to either sign the bill into law or veto it, before it might go into effect without his signature.

23 July 2020: First Call for Governor Cuomo's Impeachment

Rand Paul calls for Cuomo to be impeached over coronavirus response

This report covers the comments U.S. Senator and physician Rand Paul (R-KY) made in a podcast interview, which include the following excerpts:

"The people we are lauding are actually making catastrophic decisions," he said.

"I think Gov. Cuomo should be impeached ... for the disastrous decision he made to send patients with coronavirus back to nursing homes. ... Virtually half his people who died were in nursing homes," Paul said on Fox News's "Rundown" morning podcast.

22 July 2020: The Nursing Home Deaths of Janice Dean's In-Laws

Janice Dean: COVID-19 killed my in-laws after Cuomo's reckless New York nursing home policy

The Fox News' meteorologist lost both her mother and father-in-law to the coronavirus epidemic in New York's nursing homes that the Cuomo administration's policies contributed to spreading, calling for a nonpartisan, independent investigation.

21 July 2020: Cuomo Admits "A Lot of Mistakes", Doesn't Identify What They Are

Cuomo admits NY made ‘a lot of mistakes’ in coronavirus fight

This is the first time Governor Cuomo has acknowledged any degree of responsibility to the worst-in-the-U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic that we have seen in the media, although he didn't specify what any of those mistakes were.

20 July 2020: Soaring Vacancies in NY Nursing Homes

NY nursing home vacancies soar during COVID-19 crisis, report shows

This report describes some of the fallout from the epidemic of coronavirus infections in New York's nursing homes that was fostered by Governor Cuomo's deadly 25 March 2020 directive forcing them to blindly admit patients transferred from hospitals where they were treated for the infection. In addition to the 6,400+ COVID deaths that occurred while the policy was in effect, families are especially reluctant to expose their elderly, sick and disabled relatives to the facilities where the governor's policy was implemented.

17 July 2020: Opinion - Governor Cuomo Called Out for Coronavirus Pandemic Failures

Andrew Cuomo's Coronavirus Response Has Been a Failure

This report criticizes Governor Cuomo's effort to take a 'victory lap' given New York's handling of its coronavirus epidemic and lists several of the major mistakes he made that contributed to the state's worst-in-the-U.S. performance.

16 July 2020: Analysts Behind Flawed Coronavirus Models Used by Cuomo Administraton Made Bank

How McKinsey Is Making $100 Million (and Counting) Advising on the Government’s Bumbling Coronavirus Response

Here's the subhead for the article: "For the world’s best-known corporate-management consultants, helping tackle the pandemic has been a bonanza. It’s not clear what the government has gotten in return." McKinsey consultants played a big role in developing the projection models for hospital capacity in the state of New York that led Governor Andrew Cuomo to panic and start dumping coronavirus patients into New York's nursing homes to mitigate an predicted surge that ultimately failed to materialize.

16 July 2020: Cuomo Administration Hiding Nursing Home Death Data

The Cuomo Administration Hasn’t Said Which Nursing Homes Were Infected With COVID-19 After Its Order Sent Positive Patients Into Them

The New York Department of Health's 6 July 2020 report indicates the state transferred coronavirus infected patients to no fewer than 58 nursing homes that had never previously reported any confirmed cases before the Cuomo administration's 25 March 2020 directive forced these facilities to admit them. This report reveals that neither Governor Cuomo, members of his staff, nor officials with the state's Department of Health have revealed which nursing homes fall within this category, which begs the question of how the Cuomo administration and the NY DOH could make such a claim.

NY hasn't named nursing homes that accepted COVID-19 patients. But testing data offers new details

The lack of forthcoming information about which nursing homes in the state of New York were forced to admit potentially contagious patients that had been previously treated at hospitals for coronavirus infections is not stopping some news organizations from digging into the data that is available. This report's "analysis of COVID-19 testing data revealed some nursing homes without infected employees prior to the order later faced serious outbreaks among workers," which suggests the workers were infected after exposure to the coronavirus patients they were forced to admit, which in turn, promoted the wildfire-like spread of coronavirus infections and subsequent deaths among residents at these facilities.

15 July 2020: Governor Cuomo Takes "Victory Lap" as Nursing Home Hearings Set in NY Legislature

Jake Tapper Calls Out Cuomo For ‘Crowing’ About COVID Success Given High NY Death Toll and Cuomo Promotes Tone-Deaf, Self-Aggrandizing Coronavirus Poster On Fallon

Two articles telling much the same story - Governor Cuomo's efforts to take a 'victory lap' despite New York recording the highest coronavirus death toll in the U.S. are not gaining fans in the media.

Hearing to Examine State's Handling of Coronavirus Nursing Home Deaths

This report is the more significant story of the day, in that it covers the first steps toward an independent investigation of the Cuomo administration's role in contributing to New York's highest in the U.S. coronavirus death toll through its 25 March 2020 directive forcing nursing homes to admit patients with coronavirus infections.

14 July 2020: Backlash Against NY DOH Report

Blame game? Cuomo takes heat over NY nursing home study

This report covers the continuing backlash against the Cuomo administration's state Department of Health (DOH) report absolving both the DOH and the Cuomo administration from responsibility for their role in establishing the 25 March 2020 directive that forced nursing homes to admit patients known to have COVID-19 infections, and which also barred the facilities from testing them to determine if their infections were still active. Beyond that, this report also gets into scientific criticism of the DOH's report:

... some accused the state of using the veneer of a scientific study to absolve the Democratic governor by reaching the same conclusion he had been floating for weeks — that unknowingly infected nursing home employees were the main drivers of the outbreaks.

“I think they got a lot of political pushback and so their response was, ‘This isn’t a problem. Don’t worry about it,’” said Rupak Shivakoti, an epidemiologist at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.

“It seems like the Department of Health is trying to justify what was an untenable policy,” added Charlene Harrington, a professor emerita of nursing and sociology at the University of California at San Francisco.

In other words, the NY DOH report appears designed to reach a predetermined conclusion. Other epidemiologists who the AP requested review the DOH report raised additional criticisms of its methods and findings, which are detailed below in the following extended excerpt:

But several experts who reviewed the report at the request of The Associated Press said it has fatal flaws, including never actually addressing the effect of the order.

Among the questions not answered: If 80% of the 310 nursing homes that took coronavirus patients already had cases before the order, what was the effect of the released patients on the other 62 homes? If the median number of patients were released into nursing homes for nine days, that means that by the study’s own count more than 3,000 patients were released within nine days. Could they have been infectious?

Denis Nash, an epidemiologist at the City University of New York School of Public Health, also noted that New York’s nursing home death toll doesn’t include nursing home residents who died at a hospital, a “potentially huge problem” that undercounts the virus’ toll and could “introduce bias into the analysis.”

Among the holes in the study highlighted by University of Texas, Houston, epidemiologist Catherine Troisi was a lack of data on what happened at dozens of nursing homes that had no COVID-19 infections before those sick with the virus were sent to them.

“Would this get published in an academic journal? No,” Troisi said.

Shivakoti said he thinks the report may be correct in concluding that the major drivers of the outbreaks were nursing home workers who were sick without knowing it. But that’s not the same as saying the discharges played no role.

“If they didn’t infect other patients directly,” Shivakoti said, “they still could have infected a worker.”

Dr. Mark Dworkin, a former Illinois state epidemiologist, said the finding that people don’t transmit the virus after nine days of illness applies in the population at large, but it’s not clear whether that’s true of nursing home residents who may have weaker immune systems and shed the virus longer. He said the state’s report used “overreaching” language.

“They really need to own the fact that they made a mistake, that it was never right to send COVID patients into nursing homes and that people died because of it,” said Dr. Michael Wasserman, president of the California Association of Long Term Care Medicine.

The NY DOH report ticks several boxes on our checklist for how to detect junk science, specifically for Goals, Progress, and Inconsistencies.

13 July 2020: NY Legislature to Hold Hearings on Nursing Home Deaths

NY Senate, Assembly to hold hearings on coronavirus impact, including nursing homes

This report confirms New York's senate and assembly will hold joint legislative hearings on Governor Cuomo's coronavirus nursing home policies on 3 August 2020 and 10 August 2020.

12 July 2020: Expanding Calls for Independent Investigation of Nursing Home Deaths

Nurses Association joins growing calls for independent nursing home investigation

This report indicates the backlash against New York's Department of Health's attempted whitewash of its role in contributing to nursing home coronavirus deaths is growing. The New York State Nurses Association is a union that has previously endorsed Governor Cuomo's reelection in 2018, but is now citing deficiencies in the DOH's report and calling for an independent investigation of the governor's administration:

On July 6, the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) released a report entitled Factors Associated with Nursing Home Infections and Fatalities in New York State During the COVID-19 Global Health Crisis.

This report’s primary conclusion is that “…nursing home workers transmitted the virus unknowingly — through no fault of their own — while working, which then led to resident infections.” This statement does not reflect the experiences of frontline nurses of the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) who throughout were pointing at critical shortages of personal protective equipment and calling for widespread testing in order to guide New York’s response to the virus since the onset of this pandemic....

New Yorkers deserve a full accounting of what happened over the past four months, and the NYSDOH nursing home report, unfortunately, does not move us forward. The need is plain for a comprehensive, independent review of nursing home practices, the role of for-profit operators, and NYSDOH oversight.

The nurses union's statement regarding the state's inadequate response to shortages in the supply of personal protective equipment in New York's nursing homes and other assisted care facilities is backed by contemporary reporting from 22 April 2020, 23 April 2020, 26 April 2020, 5 May 2020, and 14 June 2020.

12 July 2020: Cuomo Administration's Report Exonerating Itself Fails Conflict of Interst Test

Andrew Cuomo’s Report On Nursing Home Deaths Marked By Clear Conflicts Of Interest

This report delves into the role that McKinsey, the consulting firm whose analysis and models played a major role in why the Cuomo administration's 25 March 2020 nursing home directive became the state's official policy, had in crafting the DOH report that largely exonerated the Cuomo administration for its role. As such, it adds more fuel to the fire to have a truly independent investigation in this matter.

10 July 2020: Cuomo Seals Book Deal, Gets Guaranteed $5.2 Million, Potential for $1.25 Million More

This timeline entry was retroactively added on 22 November 2021, based on the findings of the New York State Assembly's impeachment probe report.

Impeachment Investigation Report to Judiciary Committee Chair Charles Lavine and the New York State Assembly Judiciary Committee

The following excerpt describes the basic terms of Andrew M. Cuomo's pandemic "leadership" book deal that were reached on 10 July 2020 with the winning auction bid of Penguin Random House (PRH). The contractual details were finalized over the following week:

The winning publishing house, PRH, prevailed on July 10, 2020. The ensuing contract was negotiated over the next week, and guaranteed compensation of $5.2 million in royalty advances. As noted above, of the total guaranteed, $3.12 million was paid to the then-Governor by the time of publication and the former Governor was scheduled to receive an additional $2.08 million in equal parts in October 2021 and October 2022. The contract also provided for additional refresher bonuses of around $1.25 million, which would be triggered if certain earnings targets were reached.

Two days later, Cuomo would give the first public indication he was "thinking about writing a book about what we went through, lessons learned, the entire experience". At this point, over 90% of the material that would be published under the title "American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic" had been generated.

Other timeline entries will give different estimates of the value of Cuomo's pandemic "leadership" book deal, based on the best estimates that were available at the time the entries were written. Many contemporary reports continue to identify the guaranteed value of the agreement as $5.12 million, where we're uncertain how the the additonal $80,000 in payments indicated in the NY Assembly's impeachment probe report factor into the full compensation.

10 July 2020: Family Members Finally Able to Visit Nursing Homes With Tight Restrictions

NY allowing family nursing home visits for first time since pandemic

After more than four months and thousands of deaths, the Cuomo administration is finally allowing the family members of nursing home residents to visit. While Governor Cuomo claimed the action was to protect nursing home residents from potential exposure to coronavirus infections when the order went into effect on 12 March 2020, it also prevented families from seeing if their relatives were being placed at high risk for exposure to the coronavirus during the pandemic under later policies adopted by the Cuomo administration.

10 July 2020: Cuomo Administration Report Exonerating Itself Fails to Answer Questions

Andrew Cuomo’s Report on Controversial Nursing Home Policy for COVID Patients Prompts More Controversy

This report confirms the Cuomo administration's 6 July 2020 fails to answer major, obvious questions regarding the deadly spread of coronavirus infections in New York's nursing homes following the Cuomo administration's 25 March 2020 directive forcing them to admit patients known to have the infection and barring them from testing patients for the coronavirus after they were transferred from hospitals to determine their potential risk to nursing home residents and staff before admitting them.

9 July 2020: CNN's Pro-Cuomo Bias

CNN ignored damning report on nursing home deaths in New York under Gov. Cuomo

This article quantifies how much coverage the story of how many coronavirus-infected patients were discharged from hospitals and subsequently admitted into nursing homes in the state of New York where the infection spread like wildfire during the period where the Cuomo administration’s deadly directive was in effect received on national news network CNN.

The network employs Chris Cuomo, Governor Andrew Cuomo's brother, who has confirmed on air that where reporting on his brother is concerned, "of course, I'm not objective". Since Chris Cuomo is a featured presenter in CNN's regular prime time evening broadcasts, CNN's lack of coverage of impartial facts related to Governor Cuomo's coronavirus nursing home scandal raises questions of the extent to which its editorial decisions are influenced by the Cuomo family as well as the political biases of its editors and reporters.

8 July 2020: Bidding Begins for Right to Publish Cuomo's Pandemic "Leadership" Book

This timeline entry was retroactively added on 22 November 2021, based on the findings of the New York State Assembly's impeachment probe report.

Impeachment Investigation Report to Judiciary Committee Chair Charles Lavine and the New York State Assembly Judiciary Committee

The following excerpt describes some of the auction process for Andrew M. Cuomo's pandemic "leadership" book deal:

An auction process for the Book began on July 8, 2020 and involved three publishers. PRH’s bid started at $750,000, and, after several rounds, bidding escalatedinto the $5 million range.

PRH refers to Penguin Random House, the publisher that originally reached out to solicit a book from Cuomo on his leadership in the coronavirus pandemic on 19 March 2020.

8 July 2020: Opinion - Nursing Home Carnage is Cuomo's Fault

No, Gov. Cuomo, New York’s nursing home carnage is your fault: Goodwin

Michael Goodwin, one of the New York Post columnists Governor Cuomo has previously blamed for causing coronavirus deaths in New York's nursing homes, dismantles the Cuomo administration's investigation of itself for its role in spreading coronavirus infections and deaths in state-regulated long term care facilities.

8 July 2020: Not Just New York or the U.S.

Canada’s “national shame”: Covid-19 in nursing homes

This article on Canada's nursing home deaths attributed to COVID-19 describes the conditions within them that promoted the rapid spread of coronavirus infections, which are similar to those state officials in New York knew existed in nursing homes throughout the state before they began forcing them to admit patients known to have been infected after discharging them from hospitals to free up beds. Remarkably, the article also indicates Canada's nursing homes were the deadliest for the coronavirus in any country.

7 July 2020: Toxic Culture on Display as Cuomo Loyalist Attacks Critics

Top Cuomo aide in spat with Rep. Stefanik over nursing home deaths

This report highlights a social media interaction between U.S. Representative Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and Governor Cuomo's political aide Richard Azzopardi, but is really about the bipartisan criticism of the New York Department of Health's report absolving itself of all blame in the thousands of coronavirus-related deaths of nursing home residents that complied with its 25 March 2020 directive. Here's an example of that bipartisan criticism from New York Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Queens):

“What the Department of Health released is nothing more than an industry-backed, corporatist sham of a report designed to scapegoat workers — the front-line heroes of this crisis — for fatal policies created by this administration and its lobbyists,” Kim said.

“My office did not wait until thousands of people died to investigate the nursing home crisis. With only basic due diligence, we uncovered malfeasance and misconduct on a such a scale that an independent investigation by a global entity may be required. This faulty and flaw-ridden report cannot be taken seriously. We will soon be releasing a far more comprehensive, transparent, and honest look at what really happened.”

Cuomo aide Richard Azzopardi responded by attacking Assemblyman Kim:

“Once again, Ron Kim doesn’t know what he’s talking about and apparently doesn’t care about embarrassing himself. The DOH report was peer reviewed by experts at Mount Sinai and Northwell Health and it’s disturbing that this politician is refusing to believe facts, science and dates on a calendar.”

The article indicates that both Mount Sinai and Northwell Health have potential conflicts of interest that could affect their impartiality in the investigation, and thus, their findings, which is why a genuinely independent investigation is warranted.

At the same time, anyone who understands the science of deadly viral infections would never have forced coronavirus-infected patients to be placed in facilities, such as nursing homes known to have chronic problems in preventing the spread of infections among their highly vulnerable residents, in the first place. Regardless of how panicked they may have been from flawed coronavirus model forecasts to prevent hospitals from becoming overwhelmed by a projected surge of patients that fortunately never materialized.

As a reminder, the Cuomo administration is having difficulty finding someone willing to accept a job that pays $195,000 per year to oversee nursing homes in the state of New York because of the toxic culture many perceive has been fostered by Governor Cuomo and members of his administration.

6 July 2020: Cuomo and Top Staffer Meet with Publisher to Discuss Book Deal

This timeline entry was retroactively added on 22 November 2021, based on the findings of the New York State Assembly's impeachment probe report.

Impeachment Investigation Report to Judiciary Committee Chair Charles Lavine and the New York State Assembly Judiciary Committee

The following excerpt describes a meeting between Andrew M. Cuomo and a "senior Executive Chamber official" and representatives of Penguin Random House (PRH) regarding Cuomo's draft pandemic "leadership" book, the publishing rights for which would soon be going to auction.

On July 6, 2020, then-Governor Cuomo and a senior Executive Chamber official participated in a meeting with PRH representatives concerning the content of his Book. As discussed below, July 6, 2020 is the same date that the DOH Report regarding the effect of COVID-19 on nursing home residents was released. A PRH representative reported that on the call, it was made clear to the then-Governor that he would be on a strict deadline to publish the Book before the 2020 presidential election, and that the then-Governor and senior Executive Chamber official assured PRH that they would meet the deadline.

Though not identified, other information in the report suggests the "senior Executive Chamber official" is Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa.

DeRosa was also directly involved in editing the New York Department of Health's 6 July 2020 report that concealed the full extend of COVID deaths among New York's nursing home residents during the period the Cuomo administration's deadly 25 March 2020 directive was in effect. Concealing the full extent of those deaths would give the false appearance Andrew M. Cuomo's policies were more successful than they really were. The pending book deal would allow Cuomo to personally profit from the intentional deception.

6 July 2020: Cuomo Administration's State Health Department Exonerates Itself

New York DOH report says state blameless for nursing home deaths

This report presents a classic example of what can happen when you let foxes guard chicken coops and then perform investigations into whether the foxes had any responsibility for any of the deaths that inevitably resulted. Independent investigations are needed. The report also blames nursing home staff members and family members visiting residents for spreading coronavirus infections in the state's nursing homes, claiming they were infected and spreading the SARS-CoV-2 virus in early March.

If you review the entry for 12 March 2020, you can find when Governor Cuomo issued a statewide order to block family members from visiting their relatives living in New York's nursing homes, which is still in effect. If you review the entry for 29 April 2020, you will find the story where New York's Department of Health knowingly allowed coronavirus-infected nursing home staff members to return to work.

If you review the entry for 16 June 2020, you can find the story of a nursing home that defied the Cuomo administration's deadly order forcing nursing homes to admit patients known to be infected with the coronavirus, which then recorded no deaths attributed to COVID-19 during the period where the policy was in effect, unlike all the other nursing homes that did.

Finally, if you review the entry for 23 June 2020, you'll find Governor Cuomo was making the claim that nursing home staffs were behind the COVID deaths of nursing home residents. That's an early indication he had insider knowledge of what the report's findings would be, which means he and his administration had influence over its findings.

6 July 2020: The NY DOH Report "Factors Associated with Nursing Home Infections and Fatalities in New York State During the COVID-19 Global Health Crisis"

Here's a copy of the New York Department of Health's report preserved at the Internet Archive. It also contains an update of the state's "acknowledged" number of nursing home fatalities associated with COVID-19, which New York's DOH now indicates totals 6,432 and compares against the five worst states for COVID-19 nursing home deaths:

New York's COVID-19 nursing home death toll is still being understated in the state's official accounting, omitting the deaths of patients who were transferred out of their nursing home residences and subsequently died either in or en-route to New York's hospitals or other facilities, where their deaths are included in the state's overall totals.

6 July 2020: Independent Count of COVID Patients Dumped in NY Nursing Homes

NY count: 6,300 virus patients were sent to nursing homes

This report confirms 1,900 more patients than had previously been reported were transferred from hospitals to nursing homes under the Cuomo administration's 25 March 2020 directive forcing nursing homes to admit these patients without confirming whether or not they were infected.

5 July 2020: Top Cuomo Staffer Edits His Pandemic "Leadership" Book, NY DOH Nursing Home Report

This timeline entry is based on information presented in a New York Times article published on 31 March 2021. The following excerpt reveals the role that Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa had in both editing drafts of the Govneor's pandemic leadership book:

One aide to the governor, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, said that she and others were also asked to assist in typing or transferring notes for Mr. Cuomo’s book, which he composed in part by dictating into a cellphone.

“Sorry lady can u print this too and put in a binder,” Ms. Benton wrote to another female staffer on July 5, a Sunday. “And drop at mansion.”

Ms. DeRosa, the highest nonelected official in Mr. Cuomo’s office, was particularly involved with the development of the book, and was present during some online pitch meetings with Mr. Cuomo. The July 5 request, in fact, was to print a 224-page draft entitled “MDR edits” — a reference to Ms. DeRosa, who had sent the draft to Ms. Benton on July 4, according to the emails. The staffers communicated via personal Gmail accounts, not official governmental email addresses.

DeRosa was concurrently involved in reviewing and edition the nearly finished report for the New York Department of Health's investigation of COVID nursing home deaths during the period the Cuomo administration's deadly 25 March 2020 directive was in effect. That report would be released the next day.

Here is where other items mentioned in these passages appear as key events in the timeline:

• 15 June 2020: Governor Cuomo Starts Writing Book on His Pandemic "Leadership"
• 27 June 2020: Governor Cuomo Reviews Early Drafts of His Pandemic Leadership Book
• 5 July 2020: Top Cuomo Staffer Edits His Pandemic "Leadership" Book, NY DOH Nursing Home Report
• 6 July 2020: The NY DOH Report "Factors Associated with Nursing Home Infections and Fatalities in New York State During the COVID-19 Global Health Crisis"
• 31 March 2021: How the Timing of Governor Cuomo's Book Deal Fits into NY's COVID Nursing Home Deaths Scandal

2 July 2020: Resignations Force Shakeup of Cuomo Administration's State Health Department

COVID-19 in NY: Department of Health leadership shakeup comes amid pandemic response

The fallout from Governor Cuomo's disastrous coronavirus nursing home policies is starting to claim the jobs of managers in the state of New York's Department of Health. This report looks at several leadership changes that are being announced just ahead of the Fourth of July holiday weekend. With Friday, 3 July being the observed date for the national holiday, these actions are the equivalent of a Friday news dump for politicians facing scandals who want the announcements to be as little noticed as possible. Make a note of the names of the outgoing personnel involved - these are very likely people we'll be hearing from is the scandal progresses toward legal proceedings.

1 July 2020: Draft of Cuomo Pandemic "Leadership" Book Reaches 70,000 Words in Length

This timeline entry was retroactively added on 22 November 2021, based on the findings of the New York State Assembly's impeachment probe report.

Impeachment Investigation Report to Judiciary Committee Chair Charles Lavine and the New York State Assembly Judiciary Committee

The following excerpt confirms the amount of writing generated by Andrew M. Cuomo utilizing state goverment employees and resources since 19 March 2020, when Andrew M. Cuomo's literary agent was first approached about the prospect of a book deal related to Cuomo's leadership during the coronavirus pandemic. "PRH" refers to the publisher Penguin Random House.

On July 1, 2020, the literary agent told a PRH representative that then-Governor Cuomo had been writing a book about his experiences during the first six months of the pandemic and his actions as Governor to respond to the crisis. The literary agent represented that the then-Governor already had 70,000 words written and that the book would contain leadership lessons for times of crisis, as well as details on interactions with members of the federal government, including the White House. The primary topic of the Book was the COVID-19 pandemic and New York State’s response.

Several days later, an auction process would be held to determine who might publish the soon-to-be-finished book and how much Cuomo would be personally compensated.

1 July 2020: Officials Start Bailing From Cuomo Administration

Gov. Cuomo’s top nursing home regulator to retire after initial postponement

The state regulator who stood by and allowed Governor Cuomo's deadly 25 March 2020 directive to force nursing homes to admit coronavirus-infected patients despite knowing the risk that the infection could run rampant with deadly effect, is leaving his job. Not because he was fired, but because he is being allowed to retire with full benefits. Here's an excerpt from the report:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s chief nursing home regulator was all set to retire at the end of 2019 following a 31-year state career, but agreed to put it off until his replacement could be trained. Then the coronavirus crisis hit.

Now, after more than 6,200 mostly elderly people died in the facilities under his oversight, Mark Kissinger has had enough and is leaving — even though, sources told The Post, Cuomo administration officials can’t find anyone “dumb enough” to take his job.

New York’s nursing homes quickly became breeding grounds for the deadly virus after a March 25 Health Department order mandated they take in COVID-19 positive patients. Kissinger was not involved in crafting that fateful directive, a source said.

“They’re looking to fill Mark’s job, but they just haven’t found anyone dumb enough to take it because this administration has a horrible reputation to work for,” one health care-industry source said.

That says a lot for a job that pays at least $195,000 per year, which nobody appears willing to pursue because of the toxic culture Governor Cuomo has allowed to fester.