21 March 2022: Editorial — Investigate New York's Department of Health

Editorial — Investigate the DOH: State legislators must look into public health officials’ actions

The editors of NNY360 call for elected officials to investigate New York's Department of Health for their role in contributing to excess COVID deaths that resulted from their implementation abnd enforcement of Andrew M. Cuomo's deadly 25 March 2020 directive.

Many Americans held Cuomo up an example of an experienced public servant calmly steering the ship through perilous waters. He published a book titled “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic” in October of that year. He also received the International Emmy Founders Award from the International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for his daily briefings.

But in key aspects, Cuomo’s demeanor throughout the health care crisis was a charade. While projecting a level-headed approach, he was misleading New Yorkers about what was occurring in nursing homes.

State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli last week released the findings of an audit conducted on how the state Department of Health presented information on the coronavirus, mostly under the direction of then-state Health Commissioner Howard A. Zucker. The report confirmed that deaths of nursing home residents was undercounted by thousands of individuals.

“The state Department of Health was unprepared to respond to infectious disease outbreaks at nursing homes, even before the COVID-19 pandemic hit New York, an audit released today by New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli found. DiNapoli said that a persistent lack of funding for public health over the last decade forced DOH to operate without critical information systems and staff that could have identified and helped limit the spread of COVID-19 at nursing homes,” according to a news release issued Tuesday by DiNapoli’s office. “State auditors also found that DOH did not provide the public with accurate COVID-19 death counts and became entangled in the undercounting of those deaths as the [Executive Chamber] took control of information provided to the public. DOH would not provide auditors with a breakdown by name of the nursing home residents who died from COVID-19, and the actual number of nursing home residents who died is still uncertain. The audit revealed that, on many key indicators, New York significantly trailed other states in surveying nursing homes and developing strategies to stop infections from spreading in facilities.”

The incidence of undercounting nursing home deaths was first documented a year ago by the office of state Attorney General Letitia A. James. Cuomo resigned in August as a result of another report indicating that he sexually harassed and assault several women, but the revelations over the nursing home scandal further eroded people’s faith in his actions.

It’s unacceptable that state Health Commissioner Dr. Mary T. Bassett refuses to conduct an internal investigation into this matter. Gov. Kathleen C. Hochul and state legislators must launch one themselves.

Zucker and other public health officials sat by silently as Cuomo distorted the narrative of what was going on. We need to know how this was allowed to happen and what will be done to prevent it from occurring again.

The absence of any probe of Andrew M. Cuomo's COVID nursing home deaths scandals remains the biggest political failing of legislators and Cuomo's successors in the Executive Mansion. There's no legitimate excuse for not conducting and independent and comprehensive investigation of how the deadly directive came to be enacted and was enforced.