Monday, June 14, 2021

14 June 2021: NY Hospitals and Nursing Homes Fight to Keep Legal Immunity from COVID Deaths

Hospital lobby moves to kill COVID suit seeking to hold nursing home liable

The powerful politcal lobbies for hospitals and nursing home operators, who scored immunity from penalties for COVID deaths from Governor Cuomo during the period when the Cuomo administration's deadly 25 March 2020 directive was in effect, are fighting to preserve their legal privilege.

New York’s powerful hospital groups have taken steps to get a federal COVID-19 lawsuit against a Long Island nursing home tossed — calling it a potentially precedent-setting case that could have damaging, “far-ranging consequences” for the industry.

The Greater New York Hospital Association and NYS Health Care Association filed papers in Brooklyn federal court on Friday challenging the suit brought by Vivian Zayas, whose mom died of coronavirus last year following her stay at Our Lady of Consolation.

Zayas, who sued last August, is seeking to hold the West Islip nursing home liable in her mom’s death, saying it failed to take adequate preventative measures to keep the killer bug from spreading.

“They know my case could open the door for victims seeking accountability. We need to protect the residents, not the bottom line of these facilities,” Zayas said.

Without the immunity deal, it is certain the lobbies for nursing home operators would have been extremely vocal about the COVID patients being dumped out of New York hospitals to free up bed space that resulted from the Cuomo administration's deadly directive. We think the political price for their silence was legal immunity for COVID deaths, which means the 2 April 2020 deal marks the beginning of the Cuomo administration's acknowledged cover-up.

They're not going to give that privilege up without a fight.

Here is previous coverage on this topic from the timeline:

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