12 November 2020: 100 Days of Cuomo Administration NY DOH Stonewalling

100 Days later: Still no answers on nursing home patient deaths in NY

WRGB Albany's Greg Floyd marks the passage of 100 days since the Cuomo administration promised to make its coronavirus-related data on New York's nursing home residents available to the public:

It was back on August 3 that Commissioner Zucker was grilled at a legislative hearing by lawmakers of both parties about the directive and the department’s lack of transparency.

While we know that more than 6,600 residents died inside nursing homes, what we don’t know is how many nursing homes residents were sent to hospitals and died there. Democrats and Republicans are demanding that DOH release those figures, but DOH refuses to do so. Dr. Zucker promised frustrated lawmakers that he would reveal the numbers, but not until he was satisfied they were accurately compiled. Weeks ago Governor Cuomo provided a glimmer of hope when he said “It's not like there's a back room anywhere here, where we go back and we look at numbers and secret data. Whatever I know, I tell New Yorkers. Whatever the factors are, I tell New Yorkers.”

Immediately after that statement we contacted the Governor’s office, asking again for the full nursing home numbers, but our request was not answered.

So that brings us to today – we have started what we call the Zucker Counter, to track the total number of days the Commissioner has refused to release the numbers. The Zucker Counter now stands at 100 days – it will keep spinning until we get the numbers New Yorkers are waiting to hear.

How high will the "Zucker Counter" rise before Governor Cuomo acknowledges the extent of the coronavirus nursing home tragedy that occurred while his administration's 25 March 2020 directive was in effect?