22 January 2022: Editorial - New Health Commissioner Owes It to New Yorkers to Probe Health Department's Role in COVID Nursing Home Deaths

EDITORIAL: Look back into Cuomo nursing home policy

The editors of Schenectady's Daily Gazette are not impressed with New York's new health commissioner's commitment to willful blindness:

“I decided when I took up this post that I wasn’t going to try and unravel what had happened to cause that massive electrical blackout under the previous power supplier. But simply look forward.”

“I decided when I took up this post that I wasn’t going to try and unravel what had happened to cause that bridge to collapse under the previous highway superintendent. But simply look forward.”

“I decided when I took up this post that I wasn’t going to try and unravel what had happened in the nursing homes under the previous commissioner. But simply look forward.”

Three statements, all equally mind-boggling in their cluelessness.

The first two, we made up. The last one was actually uttered by new state Health Commissioner Mary Bassett during her Senate confirmation hearing earlier this week.

And it raises serious questions about her willingness to get to the root of a dangerous policy of the Cuomo administration.

We've argued for some time that the choice to seriously pursue sexual harassment allegations brought forth against Andrew M. Cuomo rather than really dig into Cuomo's COVID nursing homes deaths scandals was made with an eye to limit the damage to members of New York's Democratic party and their interests. As scandals go, the sexual harassment scandal was much smaller, involving far fewer officials, that the much larger COVID nursing home deaths scandals.

Bassett's statement of deliberate cluelessness lends support to that assessment. The editors put their fingers on what the top public health official in New York state is failing to address by not looking back at the actions of many who are still working within the state government department she now runs:

Bassett can say all she wants that she would never support a policy like the nursing home decision and that she would be open with such numbers in the future.

But people at the time of the nursing home order — those with credentials and authority equal to hers now — somehow managed to make that decision under the pressure of an emergency. Certainly there were factors they considered and processes that they followed before handing it down.

Wouldn’t it be in the best interests of all New Yorkers, and particularly nursing home residents and other vulnerable individuals, to know what those where and what specific steps are being taken in response to ensure they’re not repeated in some way? If you don’t look back, how can you look forward?

The commissioner’s dismissal of the question was not only disappointing, it was irresponsible and potentially dangerous.

Let’s hope she reconsiders the value of hindsight and provides New Yorkers a full picture of what really led to that decision.

There are many questions yet to be answered with respect to Andrew M. Cuomo's COVID nursing home deaths scandals.