29 January 2021: Governor Cuomo Claims Administration Did "Best They Could"

Cuomo Says Staff Handled Nursing Homes as 'Best They Could'

This article describes the Cuomo administration's Nixonian 'mistakes were made'-style public relations approach to the revelation of the full extent of how bad COVID-19 was in the state's nursing homes. This particular article demonstrates significant pro-Cuomo bias on the part of the journalists and their publication however, as it completely omits the most significant statement Governor Cuomo made about his confirmed scandal at the news conference. [To be fair, there are worse and more corruptly-biased media outlets.]

Cuomo callously addresses COVID nursing home report: 'Who cares!'

This article focuses straight on the most significant statement Governor Cuomo made about his administration's attempted coverup of the extent of COVID-19 deaths among New York nursing home residents:

"Who cares [if they] died in the hospital, died in a nursing home? They died."

That's how Gov. Cuomo callously responded Friday to the damning state attorney general's report that revealed his administration downplayed the total number of nursing home residents killed by COVID-19.

During his first remarks on the spiraling controversy, Cuomo said, "If you look at New York state, we have a lower percentage of deaths in nursing homes than other states."

"A third of all deaths in this nation are from nursing homes," he said.

"New York state, we're only about 28 percent — only — but we're below the national average in number of deaths in nursing homes."

"But who cares — 33 [percent], 29 [percent] — died in the hospital, died in a nursing home? They died."

Even the very left-leaning Washington Post was taken aback by Governor Cuomo's apparent callousness. At this point, it seems unlikely Governor Cuomo or members of his administration will escape political consequences from their policies.

New York Daily News Calls Out Andrew Cuomo's 'Obstinacy' for Undercounted Nursing Home Deaths

This article is strange in that its about another publication's editorial, which takes Governor Cuomo's attempts to mischaracterize the extent of COVID-19 among New York's nursing home residents during the period his controversial policies that could only contribute to the spread of coronavirus infections among the state's most at-risk population to task.

Curing Cuomo's obstinacy: Under pressure, state officials finally release a nursing-home death tally; big questions remain

This is the Daily News' editorial. In 2018, the editors endorsed Andrew Cuomo in his campaign for a third term as New York's governor.

28 January 2021: NY AG Confirms Team Cuomo Hiding Extent of COVID Deaths in Nursing Homes

Cuomo administration severely undercounted COVID-19 deaths at nursing homes: report

This article covers the first of several blockbuster stories that broke in the state of New York on 28 January 2021, which began as the state's attorney general, a Cuomo ally, was compelled to report the findings of the state Department of Justice's investigation. Here's the short summary:

A 76-page report released Thursday by New York Attorney General Letitia James found a larger number of nursing home residents died from COVID-19 than state data show.

The report indicated that under the Cuomo administration's unusual scheme for counting the COVID-19 deaths of nursing home residents in the state was undercounted by 50%. Which is to say the Cuomo administration had officially acknowledged half the total.

NY nursing home COVID deaths more than 12K, Cuomo Health chief reveals

This article reviews the fallout from the New York Attorney General's report, which forced New York Department of Health Commissioner Howard Zucker to finally release the public data on COVID-19 related nursing home resident deaths several hours later, after months of stonewalling. Here's an excerpt:

A damning attorney general's report that showed Gov. Andrew Cuomo and other officials downplayed the deadly impact of COVID-19 on New York's nursing homes finally led the state's embattled health commissioner on Thursday to reveal the total number of resident fatalities.

In a defensive, nearly 1,700-word statement, Dr. Howard Zucker released figures that put the tally of confirmed and presumed deaths in both nursing homes and hospitals at 12,743 as of Jan. 19.

The staggering number is only slightly less than the 13,000-plus suggested by the report issued earlier in the day by Attorney General Letitia James.

The figure of 12,743 COVID-19 nursing home deaths in New York is generally consistent with the percentage of nursing home deaths reported in other northeastern states. The Cuomo administration had been falsely attributing the additional deaths to the hospitals to which nursing home residents infected with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus were transferred prior to their deaths.

Here are links to other news outlets covering the story:

• New York AG probe prompts Cuomo team to release nursing home COVID death data
• NY data show nursing home deaths undercounted by thousands

Nursing home fallout for Cuomo: Angry, brutal, bipartisan

Despite the Cuomo administration's contrary claims, the push to force Governor Cuomo to acknowledge the full extent of COVID-19 deaths among New York's nursing home residents has been bipartisan. This article covers some of the immediate reaction to the breaking news confirmation of the Cuomo administration's attempted coverup.

New York State Office of the Attorney General Letitia James: Nursing Home Response to COVID-19 Pandemic, January 2021

One last bombshell was contained with New York state Attorney General Letitia James' report. It would appear the Cuomo administration issued guidance for nursing homes to stop testing incoming patients for coronavirus infections on 21 March 2020:

OAG preliminary investigations reflected that in the nine downstate counties that experienced higher community-based transmission of COVID-19, some facilities stopped testing residents for COVID-19 after the March 21 guidance was issued. For example, the administrator of a for-profit facility in New York City with CMS 1-Star Staffing and 1-Star Overall ratings alleged in April that the facility was not currently testing residents for COVID-19. He alleged that DOH told the facility to stop testing at some point in March.

The 21 March 2020 guidance came just four days before the administration issued its disastrous 25 March 2020 directive forcing state nursing homes to admit patients who had been treated for coronavirus infections at hospitals. Consequently, nursing homes were not allowed to determine if these newly admitted patients were still contagious. The combination of Cuomo administration policies would almost appear designed to ensure the deadly spread of COVID-19 in New York's nursing homes.

28 January 2021: Real COVID Nursing Home Death Toll Much Higher than Cuomo Administration Admits

The real Covid death toll at nursing homes, and the staggering heartache in NY (exclusive)

This entry was retroactively inserted into the timeline on 26 December 2021. This report by Advance Media NY's Tim Knauss broke the news that New York's COVID death toll among nursing home residents was substantially greater than Andrew M. Cuomo's administration was officially acknowledging. The report was quickly overtaken in the news cycle later in the day when the New York State Attorney General's office released its report confirming the magnitude of the Cuomo administration's cover-up.

Because the original article is contained behind a subscriber paywall, the excerpt below is taken from the editors' year-end summary of where their organization's reporting made a difference during 2021.

Dogged reporting by Tim Knauss led to the bombshell headline in January that deaths from Covid-19 in Onondaga County nursing homes were 50% higher than New York state had reported. Within hours, state Attorney General Letitia James dropped her bombshell report about the true number of nursing home deaths, confirming our reporting and undercutting Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s heroic Covid narrative. It was the beginning of the end of Cuomo’s 10-year reign; he resigned in August under the weight of sexual harassment allegations and the threat of impeachment over the nursing home cover-up.

The timeline seeks to acknowledge good reporting, especially when it breaks news, wherever we find it. When combined with the attorney general's findings, this report contributed to opening the floodgates of scandals that ultimately led to Andrew M. Cuomo's resignation in disgrace in August 2021.

25 January 2021: NY Lawmakers Getting Tired of Being Jerked Around by Team Cuomo

Albany pol threatens to subpoena Cuomo over nursing home deaths

New York's legislators are getting tired of Governor Cuomo's continued stonewalling in releasing the state's public data on the numbers of COVID-19 deaths of nursing home residents. So much so that top leaders in the state assembly are promising to increase the heat on the Cuomo administration's public health officials:

The top Democrat on the state Senate Investigations Committee threatened to subpoena the state Health Department to release the total number of nursing home residents who died of COVID-19, because he's tired of their months-long stonewalling.

"It is downright insulting to the co-equal State Legislature that, six months later, DOH is continuing to stonewall us on basic questions," seethed a furious state Sen. Jame Skoufis (D-Newburgh) during an unrelated press conference in Albany Monday.

Skoufis, along with a chorus of bipartisan lawmakers, medical experts and family members, have been demanding that Gov. Cuomo's top health official — DOH Commissioner Howard Zucker — release the accurate number of nursing home residents who died of the deadly disease after getting so sick they had to be transferred to a hospital.

"If the Commissioner fails to provide the long-overdue answers by the time he provides testimony at next week's hearing, I am supportive of taking the next step and compelling the information, but the decision is not a unilateral one and requires support from the conference and leadership," Skoufis declared, noting if the missing numbers are not delivered, he will grill Zucker at next week's health-focused joint budget hearing hosted by the state Senate and Assembly, scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 3.

He warned: "The hearing will be an unpleasant and uncomfortable one for Commissioner Zucker if he continues to withhold answers to the Legislature's questions."

20 January 2021: NY Lawmakers Ask President Biden for Help in Getting COVID Nursing Home Death Data

NY lawmakers appeal to Biden for COVID-19 death data in nursing homes

This article describes the latest bipartisan effort to force Governor Cuomo to release New York's public data on current or former nursing home residents who died of COVID-19, regardless of where they died in the state, by appealing to the federal government.

13 January 2021: Team Cuomo Still Hiding Public Data for COVID Nursing Home Deaths

Cuomo still refuses to disclose total number of COVID-19 nursing home deaths: watchdog

This article describes the latest evolution in the Cuomo administration's stonewalling:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration is again refusing to release the total number of nursing home residents who've died from the coronavirus for at least another two months — until March 22 at the earliest, a watchdog group charged.

In a letter to the Empire Center for Public Policy on Wednesday, the state Health Department claimed that it needs another nine weeks and five days to comply with the legal request for a full accounting of nursing home deaths "because the records potentially responsive to your request are currently being reviewed for applicable exemptions, legal privileges and responsiveness."

The Empire Center submitted its FOIL request on Aug. 3 seeking the total number of COVID-19 nursing home fatalities — those who died in nursing homes and those who were ill and died after being transported to hospitals.

The state health department's review for "available exemptions, legal privileges and responsiveness" means that when the data is finally made public, it will not reflect the total number of COVID-19 deaths experienced by New York's nursing home residents during 2020. But is releasing the numbers the state has in its records really that difficult?

The answer to that question is "No. It's not difficult at all."

A nursing home industry insider also said he was baffled by the delay.

"The DOH has minute-by-minute data of nursing home deaths. The state's delayed response defeats the purpose of the Freedom of Information Law," the source said.

In fact, DOH has fined nursing homes for being tardy in submitting daily reports that include data on coronavirus cases, leaving it open to charges of failing to practice what it preaches.

That would appear to be the Cuomo administration's legal modus operandi.

Cuomo Delays Releasing Nursing Home Data for Two More Months

This press release from the Empire Center's normally easy-going Bill Hammond describes exactly what is wrong with the Cuomo administration's continuing failure to release all the data the state of New York has collected on COVID-19 related deaths of nursing home residents:

It could not be more clear that the state is illegally hiding basic information about a public health crisis. The department's excuses are an insult to the intelligence of every New Yorker, and the Cuomo administration's stonewalling makes a mockery of the public's right to know. It's increasingly evident that the state will not release these records until compelled to do so by the courts."

The Empire Center is currently awaiting a ruling from state Supreme Court Judge Kimberly O'Connor, and has been since 30 October 2020.

12 January 2021: Cuomo Administration Hiding NY DOH Report Data

Cuomo administration conceals records behind controversial nursing home study

This article from the Times-Union reports on the status of their Freedom Of Information Law (FOIL) request to obtain the New York state government's public data on the COVID-19 deaths of nursing home residents.

After months of furor from mourning families, the administration of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo issued a report in July absolving itself of blame for thousands of COVID-19-related deaths at nursing homes in New York.

Although Cuomo portrayed the findings as definitive proof, six months later, his administration is refusing to back up the findings by providing copies of the records that were the basis of the report's conclusions. In response to a written request from the Times Union, the administration last week cited exemptions in the state Freedom of Information Law which the Department of Health contends allows the agency to keep the records secret....

On the day the report was issued, the Times Union filed a Freedom of Information Law request for copies of the surveys filled out by nursing homes. But the Cuomo administration refused to provide copies of completed surveys — and also would not turn over blank copies showing the survey questions. A Department of Health spokesman, Gary Holmes, refused to say why the department was refusing to provide blank copies.

The Times-Union explains why the Cuomo administration's failure to back up the findings of its DOH report by releasing the data on which it claims to have based it upon is problematic:

A major assertion in the report is that the peak day of nursing home resident deaths came six days before the peak day for admission of COVID-19 patients from hospitals to nursing homes.

That timing demonstrates that the state's controversial admissions' policy "could not have been the driver of nursing home infections or fatalities," the report concluded. The findings assert that if re-admissions of sick or recovering patients to nursing homes had been the driver, the peak deaths would have occurred after before the memo's issuance, not before.

But there's also no publicly available data providing independent verification that the "peak" of admissions occurred on April 14. Similarly, the report's assertion that deaths peaked in nursing homes on April 8 cannot be verified.

It's a fair bet that the data does not support the Cuomo administration's findings absolving itself of responibility for nursing home deaths related to its 25 March 2020 directive forcing nursing homes to blindly admit patients who had been treated for coronavirus at New York's hospitals. This hypothesis would explain the Cuomo administration's efforts to continue delaying the release of the data and also their ongoing efforts to 'scrub' the data they will ultimately release to minimize contradictory evidence.

6 January 2021: Cuomo DOH Fines Nursing Homes for Missing Data Reporting Deadline

Team Cuomo's latest nursing-home hypocrisy

The lead paragraph to this article describes the Cuomo administration's glaring hypocrisy:

How rich: The state is fining nursing homes for missing deadlines to report data — by as little as a minute — while it has withheld its own figures on nursing-home COVID deaths for months.

The article also indicates the state's acknowledged COVID-19 nursing home death toll has risen with the state's latest surge.

The death tally is officially around 7,400, but the true number could be twice that because New York, unlike other states, doesn't count nursing-home residents who died in hospitals. The state does keep track of the total, but it won't release it. Which is outrageous. And inexcusable.

5 January 2021: Cuomo Book Release Poorly Timed with COVID Surge

Cuomo's book touting 'leadership' during pandemic released just before huge spike in COVID cases, pundit notes

New York has had one of the larger fall/winter surges of coronavirus cases in the U.S. This article features a chart to put the timing of Governor Cuomo's self-authored book publication into perspective:

3 January 2021: FEMA Manager Rips Cuomo COVID Nursing Home Policies

Ex-FEMA honcho blasts vaccine rollout, nursing home deaths

This article covers a lot of ground, but here's the key summary where the topic of New York's COVID-19 nursing home deaths is involved:

In an exit interview with The Post, Tom Von Essen, who served as the New York regional director of the Federal Emergency Management and was city Fire Commissioner during the Sept. 11 attacks, slammed the nation's early response to the coronavirus pandemic, the slow pace of vaccine distribution — and called New York's nursing home death toll its "biggest failure" in the crisis.

The article also reports the Cuomo administration's response to his comments:

Responding to Von Essen's criticism, Cuomo spokesman Peter Ajemian said, "The reason Von Essen no longer has a job is because the federal government's COVID response was so awful that his boss was overwhelmingly voted out.

"He can do as many exit interviews as he wants but none of them will change the fact that over 350,000 Americans died as a result of the Trump administration's incompetence and failure to implement a coherent plan."

The Cuomo administration's efforts to shift the blame for COVID-19 deaths among the New York's nursing home residents following the implementation its disastrous 25 March 2020 directive are apparently continuing into the new year.