19 August 2021: Opinion - Bill Hammond on How to Fix NY COVID Practices

Nursing Cuomo’s broken trust: Kathy Hochul’s responsibility on COVID and long-term care

The nonpartisan, nonprofit Empire Center for Public Policy's Bill Hammond has an opinion piece in the New York Daily News. He lays out actions for Kathy Hochul to take on to clean up the mess the Cuomo administration has created through its deadly 25 March 2020 directive and subsequent cover-ups of COVID deaths in New York.

Before we get to any excerpts, here is a bullet point summary of actions Hammond recommends, which are fleshed out more fully in the article.

• Make the state's public data on COVID available to the public.
• Fully account and report all the probable and confirmed COVID deaths in New York.
• Appoint an independent commission to identify what New York did wrong under the Cuomo administration and to propose actions to correct problems.
• Come clean on nursing homes.
• Fire the people who allowed or participated in the Cuomo administration's falsification of data.

Here is Hammond's extended comment on what it means to "come clean on nursing homes:

One issue the investigative commission should particularly explore is the Health Department’s infamous March 25, 2020, directive compelling nursing homes to accept COVID-positive patients being discharged from hospitals. Although the governor and his health commissioner have defended the policy as “smart” and in keeping with federal guidance, they have also stonewalled requests for the data necessary to assess its impact.

It falls to Hochul to formally disavow the policy — and clear the remaining fog about how it happened and what damage it caused. Since she had no role in its design or implementation, she shouldn’t have any objection to a clear-eyed assessment.

There are a lot of problems that need to be fixed in New York with respect to the Cuomo administration's COVID policies and corrupt practices. Hochul needs to take concrete action to fully clean house in the state government. Will she?