19 February 2021: NY DOH Commissioner Zucker Confirms Deadly Directive Originated in Panic

New York health chief defends state's decision to make nursing homes take Covid patients

This report confirms the Cuomo administration's disastrous policies originated in an environment of panic:

New York Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker on Friday defended the state's decision in March to make nursing homes take residents from hospitals that had the coronavirus, blaming most of the virus' spread on staff members.

The directive, issued on March 25, prohibited nursing homes from denying admission or readmission to residents infected with Covid-19. The directive also banned nursing homes from testing patients before entry, NBC News reported. The policy was later reversed in May.

Zucker said on Friday that, at the time, New York's coronavirus hospitalization rate was growing "at a staggering pace" and capacity in the state's intensive care units was running thin. By allowing the residents to return to the nursing homes, it helped protect the health-care system from collapsing, he said.

"You can only review a decision with the facts that you had at the time," Zucker said during a press briefing alongside New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo. "And with the facts that we had at that moment in time, it was the correct decision from a public health point of view."

The confirmation the state would not exceed its hospital capacity came in early April, using the facts they had at the time, and yet the Cuomo administration continued enforcing its 25 March 2020 directive into mid-May 2020.