29 July 2020: Clawback of Liability Protections Doesn't Cover Period of Deadly Directive

Healthcare Lobby Holds Sway In Shielding NY's Nursing Homes And Hospitals From COVID-19 Liability

This report reveals the nursing home liability legislation that passed in New York's legislature will not apply retroactively to the period in which the Cuomo administration's directive forcing nursing homes to admit sick coronavirus patients was in effect, which ran from 25 March 2020 through 10 May 2020.

29 July 2020: Families Blocked from Visiting Nursing Homes by Cuomo Restrictions

Nearly all CNY nursing homes still ban visitors because of tough reopening rules

The abbreviation CNY refers to Central New York. The report also describes how a combination of the state government's rules and the inefficiency of New York's current coronavirus testing regime are preventing oversight of the facilities by volunteer ombudsmen:

... ombudsmen, volunteers who advocate for residents, cannot enter nursing homes yet because of lengthy waits for Covid-19 test results. They must get a negative test result within the seven-day period before entering a nursing home.

But it often takes longer than seven days to get test results, making it impossible for an ombudsman who wants to go to work to comply with the rule.

Just imagine how many lives in New York's nursing homes could have been same if the Cuomo administration had applied the same rules for patients transferred to nursing homes after receiving treatment for coronavirus infections under Governor Cuomo's 25 March 2020 directive instead of forcing the nursing homes to admit the infected patients.

27 July 2020: Who Else Is Responsible for the Deadly Directive?

The Power Public Health Officials of New York

This article provides short profiles of three of the more prominent public health officials in New York, all of whom played roles in establishing the policies the state followed during its coronavirus outbreak.

25 July 2020: Governor Cuomo Blames Media for NY Nursing Home Deaths

Gov. Cuomo Says Criticism Over Nursing Home Deaths Is ‘Politically Motivated’: ‘It’s the New York Post… It’s Fox TV’

Governor Cuomo continues to blame a portion of the media for the backlash over his administration's disastrous policies to force nursing homes to admit coronavirus-infected patients and without testing to verify if they were contagious, and to allow infected staff members to provide care to nursing home residents during the worst of New York's coronavirus epidemic. The following excerpt provides the context of his latest comments:

Cuomo was asked about the response to the state Department of Health’s report and why he doesn’t just appoint an independent investigator.

The governor said the following:

“I don’t believe your characterization is correct. I believe it is a political issue. I think it’s the New York Post, I think it’s Michael Goodwin, I think it’s Bob McManus, I think it’s Fox TV. I think it is all politically motivated. If anybody looked at the facts, they would know that it was wholly absurd on its face. People died in nursing homes. That is very unfortunate. Just on the top line, we are number 35th in the nation in percentage of deaths in nursing homes. Go talk to 34 other states first. Go talk to the Republican states now. Florida, Texas, Arizona. Ask them what is happening in nursing homes. It’s all politics.”

From his comments, it appears Governor Cuomo is also continuing to rely on his administration's policies that deliberately undercount deaths related to nursing home-related coronavirus infections to minimize the apparent negative impact of the governor's disastrous policies. Governor Cuomo is also ignoring substantial reporting from left-leaning news organizations, such as ProPublica and left-center outfits such as the Associated Press, both of whose reporting we have featured multiple times in the months since the New York Post originally broke the news of Governor Cuomo's coronavirus nursing home scandal.

23 July 2020: NY Legislature Set to Revoke Some COVID Legal Immunities for Nursing Homes

Clawback on immunity for nursing homes slated for Thursday vote in Albany

This report covers developing legislation in New York's legislature to narrow the scope of immunity Governor Cuomo provided to nursing home operators for coronavirus-related deaths in their facilities back in April 2020. That immunity was provided through a budget bill shortly before news of the rampant spread of coronavirus infections and deaths in New York's nursing homes related to the Cuomo administration's disastrous 25 March 2020 directive broke in the media.

NY Lawmakers OK Cutting Back Nursing Homes' Legal Protection Amid COVID-19

This report indicates New York's legislature has passed a measure that "would notably narrow the legal immunity provisions, though it doesn't go as far as some backers originally sought." One of those backers is Assembly member Ron Kim (D-Queens), who had this to say:

The proposal also makes changes that Kim said would allow for some lawsuits over care arrangements, such as hospitals releasing patients to nursing homes unprepared to care for them.

The legislation now goes to Governor Cuomo, who has ten days to either sign the bill into law or veto it, before it might go into effect without his signature.

23 July 2020: First Call for Governor Cuomo's Impeachment

Rand Paul calls for Cuomo to be impeached over coronavirus response

This report covers the comments U.S. Senator and physician Rand Paul (R-KY) made in a podcast interview, which include the following excerpts:

"The people we are lauding are actually making catastrophic decisions," he said.

"I think Gov. Cuomo should be impeached ... for the disastrous decision he made to send patients with coronavirus back to nursing homes. ... Virtually half his people who died were in nursing homes," Paul said on Fox News's "Rundown" morning podcast.

22 July 2020: The Nursing Home Deaths of Janice Dean's In-Laws

Janice Dean: COVID-19 killed my in-laws after Cuomo's reckless New York nursing home policy

The Fox News' meteorologist lost both her mother and father-in-law to the coronavirus epidemic in New York's nursing homes that the Cuomo administration's policies contributed to spreading, calling for a nonpartisan, independent investigation.

21 July 2020: Cuomo Admits "A Lot of Mistakes", Doesn't Identify What They Are

Cuomo admits NY made ‘a lot of mistakes’ in coronavirus fight

This is the first time Governor Cuomo has acknowledged any degree of responsibility to the worst-in-the-U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic that we have seen in the media, although he didn't specify what any of those mistakes were.

20 July 2020: Soaring Vacancies in NY Nursing Homes

NY nursing home vacancies soar during COVID-19 crisis, report shows

This report describes some of the fallout from the epidemic of coronavirus infections in New York's nursing homes that was fostered by Governor Cuomo's deadly 25 March 2020 directive forcing them to blindly admit patients transferred from hospitals where they were treated for the infection. In addition to the 6,400+ COVID deaths that occurred while the policy was in effect, families are especially reluctant to expose their elderly, sick and disabled relatives to the facilities where the governor's policy was implemented.

17 July 2020: Opinion - Governor Cuomo Called Out for Coronavirus Pandemic Failures

Andrew Cuomo's Coronavirus Response Has Been a Failure

This report criticizes Governor Cuomo's effort to take a 'victory lap' given New York's handling of its coronavirus epidemic and lists several of the major mistakes he made that contributed to the state's worst-in-the-U.S. performance.

16 July 2020: Analysts Behind Flawed Coronavirus Models Used by Cuomo Administraton Made Bank

How McKinsey Is Making $100 Million (and Counting) Advising on the Government’s Bumbling Coronavirus Response

Here's the subhead for the article: "For the world’s best-known corporate-management consultants, helping tackle the pandemic has been a bonanza. It’s not clear what the government has gotten in return." McKinsey consultants played a big role in developing the projection models for hospital capacity in the state of New York that led Governor Andrew Cuomo to panic and start dumping coronavirus patients into New York's nursing homes to mitigate an predicted surge that ultimately failed to materialize.

16 July 2020: Cuomo Administration Hiding Nursing Home Death Data

The Cuomo Administration Hasn’t Said Which Nursing Homes Were Infected With COVID-19 After Its Order Sent Positive Patients Into Them

The New York Department of Health's 6 July 2020 report indicates the state transferred coronavirus infected patients to no fewer than 58 nursing homes that had never previously reported any confirmed cases before the Cuomo administration's 25 March 2020 directive forced these facilities to admit them. This report reveals that neither Governor Cuomo, members of his staff, nor officials with the state's Department of Health have revealed which nursing homes fall within this category, which begs the question of how the Cuomo administration and the NY DOH could make such a claim.

NY hasn't named nursing homes that accepted COVID-19 patients. But testing data offers new details

The lack of forthcoming information about which nursing homes in the state of New York were forced to admit potentially contagious patients that had been previously treated at hospitals for coronavirus infections is not stopping some news organizations from digging into the data that is available. This report's "analysis of COVID-19 testing data revealed some nursing homes without infected employees prior to the order later faced serious outbreaks among workers," which suggests the workers were infected after exposure to the coronavirus patients they were forced to admit, which in turn, promoted the wildfire-like spread of coronavirus infections and subsequent deaths among residents at these facilities.

15 July 2020: Governor Cuomo Takes "Victory Lap" as Nursing Home Hearings Set in NY Legislature

Jake Tapper Calls Out Cuomo For ‘Crowing’ About COVID Success Given High NY Death Toll and Cuomo Promotes Tone-Deaf, Self-Aggrandizing Coronavirus Poster On Fallon

Two articles telling much the same story - Governor Cuomo's efforts to take a 'victory lap' despite New York recording the highest coronavirus death toll in the U.S. are not gaining fans in the media.

Hearing to Examine State's Handling of Coronavirus Nursing Home Deaths

This report is the more significant story of the day, in that it covers the first steps toward an independent investigation of the Cuomo administration's role in contributing to New York's highest in the U.S. coronavirus death toll through its 25 March 2020 directive forcing nursing homes to admit patients with coronavirus infections.

14 July 2020: Backlash Against NY DOH Report

Blame game? Cuomo takes heat over NY nursing home study

This report covers the continuing backlash against the Cuomo administration's state Department of Health (DOH) report absolving both the DOH and the Cuomo administration from responsibility for their role in establishing the 25 March 2020 directive that forced nursing homes to admit patients known to have COVID-19 infections, and which also barred the facilities from testing them to determine if their infections were still active. Beyond that, this report also gets into scientific criticism of the DOH's report:

... some accused the state of using the veneer of a scientific study to absolve the Democratic governor by reaching the same conclusion he had been floating for weeks — that unknowingly infected nursing home employees were the main drivers of the outbreaks.

“I think they got a lot of political pushback and so their response was, ‘This isn’t a problem. Don’t worry about it,’” said Rupak Shivakoti, an epidemiologist at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health.

“It seems like the Department of Health is trying to justify what was an untenable policy,” added Charlene Harrington, a professor emerita of nursing and sociology at the University of California at San Francisco.

In other words, the NY DOH report appears designed to reach a predetermined conclusion. Other epidemiologists who the AP requested review the DOH report raised additional criticisms of its methods and findings, which are detailed below in the following extended excerpt:

But several experts who reviewed the report at the request of The Associated Press said it has fatal flaws, including never actually addressing the effect of the order.

Among the questions not answered: If 80% of the 310 nursing homes that took coronavirus patients already had cases before the order, what was the effect of the released patients on the other 62 homes? If the median number of patients were released into nursing homes for nine days, that means that by the study’s own count more than 3,000 patients were released within nine days. Could they have been infectious?

Denis Nash, an epidemiologist at the City University of New York School of Public Health, also noted that New York’s nursing home death toll doesn’t include nursing home residents who died at a hospital, a “potentially huge problem” that undercounts the virus’ toll and could “introduce bias into the analysis.”

Among the holes in the study highlighted by University of Texas, Houston, epidemiologist Catherine Troisi was a lack of data on what happened at dozens of nursing homes that had no COVID-19 infections before those sick with the virus were sent to them.

“Would this get published in an academic journal? No,” Troisi said.

Shivakoti said he thinks the report may be correct in concluding that the major drivers of the outbreaks were nursing home workers who were sick without knowing it. But that’s not the same as saying the discharges played no role.

“If they didn’t infect other patients directly,” Shivakoti said, “they still could have infected a worker.”

Dr. Mark Dworkin, a former Illinois state epidemiologist, said the finding that people don’t transmit the virus after nine days of illness applies in the population at large, but it’s not clear whether that’s true of nursing home residents who may have weaker immune systems and shed the virus longer. He said the state’s report used “overreaching” language.

“They really need to own the fact that they made a mistake, that it was never right to send COVID patients into nursing homes and that people died because of it,” said Dr. Michael Wasserman, president of the California Association of Long Term Care Medicine.

The NY DOH report ticks several boxes on our checklist for how to detect junk science, specifically for Goals, Progress, and Inconsistencies.

13 July 2020: NY Legislature to Hold Hearings on Nursing Home Deaths

NY Senate, Assembly to hold hearings on coronavirus impact, including nursing homes

This report confirms New York's senate and assembly will hold joint legislative hearings on Governor Cuomo's coronavirus nursing home policies on 3 August 2020 and 10 August 2020.

12 July 2020: Expanding Calls for Independent Investigation of Nursing Home Deaths

Nurses Association joins growing calls for independent nursing home investigation

This report indicates the backlash against New York's Department of Health's attempted whitewash of its role in contributing to nursing home coronavirus deaths is growing. The New York State Nurses Association is a union that has previously endorsed Governor Cuomo's reelection in 2018, but is now citing deficiencies in the DOH's report and calling for an independent investigation of the governor's administration:

On July 6, the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) released a report entitled Factors Associated with Nursing Home Infections and Fatalities in New York State During the COVID-19 Global Health Crisis.

This report’s primary conclusion is that “…nursing home workers transmitted the virus unknowingly — through no fault of their own — while working, which then led to resident infections.” This statement does not reflect the experiences of frontline nurses of the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA) who throughout were pointing at critical shortages of personal protective equipment and calling for widespread testing in order to guide New York’s response to the virus since the onset of this pandemic....

New Yorkers deserve a full accounting of what happened over the past four months, and the NYSDOH nursing home report, unfortunately, does not move us forward. The need is plain for a comprehensive, independent review of nursing home practices, the role of for-profit operators, and NYSDOH oversight.

The nurses union's statement regarding the state's inadequate response to shortages in the supply of personal protective equipment in New York's nursing homes and other assisted care facilities is backed by contemporary reporting from 22 April 2020, 23 April 2020, 26 April 2020, 5 May 2020, and 14 June 2020.

12 July 2020: Cuomo Administration's Report Exonerating Itself Fails Conflict of Interst Test

Andrew Cuomo’s Report On Nursing Home Deaths Marked By Clear Conflicts Of Interest

This report delves into the role that McKinsey, the consulting firm whose analysis and models played a major role in why the Cuomo administration's 25 March 2020 nursing home directive became the state's official policy, had in crafting the DOH report that largely exonerated the Cuomo administration for its role. As such, it adds more fuel to the fire to have a truly independent investigation in this matter.

10 July 2020: Cuomo Seals Book Deal, Gets Guaranteed $5.2 Million, Potential for $1.25 Million More

This timeline entry was retroactively added on 22 November 2021, based on the findings of the New York State Assembly's impeachment probe report.

Impeachment Investigation Report to Judiciary Committee Chair Charles Lavine and the New York State Assembly Judiciary Committee

The following excerpt describes the basic terms of Andrew M. Cuomo's pandemic "leadership" book deal that were reached on 10 July 2020 with the winning auction bid of Penguin Random House (PRH). The contractual details were finalized over the following week:

The winning publishing house, PRH, prevailed on July 10, 2020. The ensuing contract was negotiated over the next week, and guaranteed compensation of $5.2 million in royalty advances. As noted above, of the total guaranteed, $3.12 million was paid to the then-Governor by the time of publication and the former Governor was scheduled to receive an additional $2.08 million in equal parts in October 2021 and October 2022. The contract also provided for additional refresher bonuses of around $1.25 million, which would be triggered if certain earnings targets were reached.

Two days later, Cuomo would give the first public indication he was "thinking about writing a book about what we went through, lessons learned, the entire experience". At this point, over 90% of the material that would be published under the title "American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic" had been generated.

Other timeline entries will give different estimates of the value of Cuomo's pandemic "leadership" book deal, based on the best estimates that were available at the time the entries were written. Many contemporary reports continue to identify the guaranteed value of the agreement as $5.12 million, where we're uncertain how the the additonal $80,000 in payments indicated in the NY Assembly's impeachment probe report factor into the full compensation.

10 July 2020: Family Members Finally Able to Visit Nursing Homes With Tight Restrictions

NY allowing family nursing home visits for first time since pandemic

After more than four months and thousands of deaths, the Cuomo administration is finally allowing the family members of nursing home residents to visit. While Governor Cuomo claimed the action was to protect nursing home residents from potential exposure to coronavirus infections when the order went into effect on 12 March 2020, it also prevented families from seeing if their relatives were being placed at high risk for exposure to the coronavirus during the pandemic under later policies adopted by the Cuomo administration.

10 July 2020: Cuomo Administration Report Exonerating Itself Fails to Answer Questions

Andrew Cuomo’s Report on Controversial Nursing Home Policy for COVID Patients Prompts More Controversy

This report confirms the Cuomo administration's 6 July 2020 fails to answer major, obvious questions regarding the deadly spread of coronavirus infections in New York's nursing homes following the Cuomo administration's 25 March 2020 directive forcing them to admit patients known to have the infection and barring them from testing patients for the coronavirus after they were transferred from hospitals to determine their potential risk to nursing home residents and staff before admitting them.

9 July 2020: CNN's Pro-Cuomo Bias

CNN ignored damning report on nursing home deaths in New York under Gov. Cuomo

This article quantifies how much coverage the story of how many coronavirus-infected patients were discharged from hospitals and subsequently admitted into nursing homes in the state of New York where the infection spread like wildfire during the period where the Cuomo administration’s deadly directive was in effect received on national news network CNN.

The network employs Chris Cuomo, Governor Andrew Cuomo's brother, who has confirmed on air that where reporting on his brother is concerned, "of course, I'm not objective". Since Chris Cuomo is a featured presenter in CNN's regular prime time evening broadcasts, CNN's lack of coverage of impartial facts related to Governor Cuomo's coronavirus nursing home scandal raises questions of the extent to which its editorial decisions are influenced by the Cuomo family as well as the political biases of its editors and reporters.

8 July 2020: Bidding Begins for Right to Publish Cuomo's Pandemic "Leadership" Book

This timeline entry was retroactively added on 22 November 2021, based on the findings of the New York State Assembly's impeachment probe report.

Impeachment Investigation Report to Judiciary Committee Chair Charles Lavine and the New York State Assembly Judiciary Committee

The following excerpt describes some of the auction process for Andrew M. Cuomo's pandemic "leadership" book deal:

An auction process for the Book began on July 8, 2020 and involved three publishers. PRH’s bid started at $750,000, and, after several rounds, bidding escalatedinto the $5 million range.

PRH refers to Penguin Random House, the publisher that originally reached out to solicit a book from Cuomo on his leadership in the coronavirus pandemic on 19 March 2020.

8 July 2020: Opinion - Nursing Home Carnage is Cuomo's Fault

No, Gov. Cuomo, New York’s nursing home carnage is your fault: Goodwin

Michael Goodwin, one of the New York Post columnists Governor Cuomo has previously blamed for causing coronavirus deaths in New York's nursing homes, dismantles the Cuomo administration's investigation of itself for its role in spreading coronavirus infections and deaths in state-regulated long term care facilities.

8 July 2020: Not Just New York or the U.S.

Canada’s “national shame”: Covid-19 in nursing homes

This article on Canada's nursing home deaths attributed to COVID-19 describes the conditions within them that promoted the rapid spread of coronavirus infections, which are similar to those state officials in New York knew existed in nursing homes throughout the state before they began forcing them to admit patients known to have been infected after discharging them from hospitals to free up beds. Remarkably, the article also indicates Canada's nursing homes were the deadliest for the coronavirus in any country.

7 July 2020: Toxic Culture on Display as Cuomo Loyalist Attacks Critics

Top Cuomo aide in spat with Rep. Stefanik over nursing home deaths

This report highlights a social media interaction between U.S. Representative Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and Governor Cuomo's political aide Richard Azzopardi, but is really about the bipartisan criticism of the New York Department of Health's report absolving itself of all blame in the thousands of coronavirus-related deaths of nursing home residents that complied with its 25 March 2020 directive. Here's an example of that bipartisan criticism from New York Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Queens):

“What the Department of Health released is nothing more than an industry-backed, corporatist sham of a report designed to scapegoat workers — the front-line heroes of this crisis — for fatal policies created by this administration and its lobbyists,” Kim said.

“My office did not wait until thousands of people died to investigate the nursing home crisis. With only basic due diligence, we uncovered malfeasance and misconduct on a such a scale that an independent investigation by a global entity may be required. This faulty and flaw-ridden report cannot be taken seriously. We will soon be releasing a far more comprehensive, transparent, and honest look at what really happened.”

Cuomo aide Richard Azzopardi responded by attacking Assemblyman Kim:

“Once again, Ron Kim doesn’t know what he’s talking about and apparently doesn’t care about embarrassing himself. The DOH report was peer reviewed by experts at Mount Sinai and Northwell Health and it’s disturbing that this politician is refusing to believe facts, science and dates on a calendar.”

The article indicates that both Mount Sinai and Northwell Health have potential conflicts of interest that could affect their impartiality in the investigation, and thus, their findings, which is why a genuinely independent investigation is warranted.

At the same time, anyone who understands the science of deadly viral infections would never have forced coronavirus-infected patients to be placed in facilities, such as nursing homes known to have chronic problems in preventing the spread of infections among their highly vulnerable residents, in the first place. Regardless of how panicked they may have been from flawed coronavirus model forecasts to prevent hospitals from becoming overwhelmed by a projected surge of patients that fortunately never materialized.

As a reminder, the Cuomo administration is having difficulty finding someone willing to accept a job that pays $195,000 per year to oversee nursing homes in the state of New York because of the toxic culture many perceive has been fostered by Governor Cuomo and members of his administration.

6 July 2020: Cuomo and Top Staffer Meet with Publisher to Discuss Book Deal

This timeline entry was retroactively added on 22 November 2021, based on the findings of the New York State Assembly's impeachment probe report.

Impeachment Investigation Report to Judiciary Committee Chair Charles Lavine and the New York State Assembly Judiciary Committee

The following excerpt describes a meeting between Andrew M. Cuomo and a "senior Executive Chamber official" and representatives of Penguin Random House (PRH) regarding Cuomo's draft pandemic "leadership" book, the publishing rights for which would soon be going to auction.

On July 6, 2020, then-Governor Cuomo and a senior Executive Chamber official participated in a meeting with PRH representatives concerning the content of his Book. As discussed below, July 6, 2020 is the same date that the DOH Report regarding the effect of COVID-19 on nursing home residents was released. A PRH representative reported that on the call, it was made clear to the then-Governor that he would be on a strict deadline to publish the Book before the 2020 presidential election, and that the then-Governor and senior Executive Chamber official assured PRH that they would meet the deadline.

Though not identified, other information in the report suggests the "senior Executive Chamber official" is Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa.

DeRosa was also directly involved in editing the New York Department of Health's 6 July 2020 report that concealed the full extend of COVID deaths among New York's nursing home residents during the period the Cuomo administration's deadly 25 March 2020 directive was in effect. Concealing the full extent of those deaths would give the false appearance Andrew M. Cuomo's policies were more successful than they really were. The pending book deal would allow Cuomo to personally profit from the intentional deception.

6 July 2020: Cuomo Administration's State Health Department Exonerates Itself

New York DOH report says state blameless for nursing home deaths

This report presents a classic example of what can happen when you let foxes guard chicken coops and then perform investigations into whether the foxes had any responsibility for any of the deaths that inevitably resulted. Independent investigations are needed. The report also blames nursing home staff members and family members visiting residents for spreading coronavirus infections in the state's nursing homes, claiming they were infected and spreading the SARS-CoV-2 virus in early March.

If you review the entry for 12 March 2020, you can find when Governor Cuomo issued a statewide order to block family members from visiting their relatives living in New York's nursing homes, which is still in effect. If you review the entry for 29 April 2020, you will find the story where New York's Department of Health knowingly allowed coronavirus-infected nursing home staff members to return to work.

If you review the entry for 16 June 2020, you can find the story of a nursing home that defied the Cuomo administration's deadly order forcing nursing homes to admit patients known to be infected with the coronavirus, which then recorded no deaths attributed to COVID-19 during the period where the policy was in effect, unlike all the other nursing homes that did.

Finally, if you review the entry for 23 June 2020, you'll find Governor Cuomo was making the claim that nursing home staffs were behind the COVID deaths of nursing home residents. That's an early indication he had insider knowledge of what the report's findings would be, which means he and his administration had influence over its findings.

6 July 2020: The NY DOH Report "Factors Associated with Nursing Home Infections and Fatalities in New York State During the COVID-19 Global Health Crisis"

Here's a copy of the New York Department of Health's report preserved at the Internet Archive. It also contains an update of the state's "acknowledged" number of nursing home fatalities associated with COVID-19, which New York's DOH now indicates totals 6,432 and compares against the five worst states for COVID-19 nursing home deaths:

New York's COVID-19 nursing home death toll is still being understated in the state's official accounting, omitting the deaths of patients who were transferred out of their nursing home residences and subsequently died either in or en-route to New York's hospitals or other facilities, where their deaths are included in the state's overall totals.

6 July 2020: Independent Count of COVID Patients Dumped in NY Nursing Homes

NY count: 6,300 virus patients were sent to nursing homes

This report confirms 1,900 more patients than had previously been reported were transferred from hospitals to nursing homes under the Cuomo administration's 25 March 2020 directive forcing nursing homes to admit these patients without confirming whether or not they were infected.

5 July 2020: Top Cuomo Staffer Edits His Pandemic "Leadership" Book, NY DOH Nursing Home Report

This timeline entry is based on information presented in a New York Times article published on 31 March 2021. The following excerpt reveals the role that Secretary to the Governor Melissa DeRosa had in both editing drafts of the Govneor's pandemic leadership book:

One aide to the governor, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, said that she and others were also asked to assist in typing or transferring notes for Mr. Cuomo’s book, which he composed in part by dictating into a cellphone.

“Sorry lady can u print this too and put in a binder,” Ms. Benton wrote to another female staffer on July 5, a Sunday. “And drop at mansion.”

Ms. DeRosa, the highest nonelected official in Mr. Cuomo’s office, was particularly involved with the development of the book, and was present during some online pitch meetings with Mr. Cuomo. The July 5 request, in fact, was to print a 224-page draft entitled “MDR edits” — a reference to Ms. DeRosa, who had sent the draft to Ms. Benton on July 4, according to the emails. The staffers communicated via personal Gmail accounts, not official governmental email addresses.

DeRosa was concurrently involved in reviewing and edition the nearly finished report for the New York Department of Health's investigation of COVID nursing home deaths during the period the Cuomo administration's deadly 25 March 2020 directive was in effect. That report would be released the next day.

Here is where other items mentioned in these passages appear as key events in the timeline:

• 15 June 2020: Governor Cuomo Starts Writing Book on His Pandemic "Leadership"
• 27 June 2020: Governor Cuomo Reviews Early Drafts of His Pandemic Leadership Book
• 5 July 2020: Top Cuomo Staffer Edits His Pandemic "Leadership" Book, NY DOH Nursing Home Report
• 6 July 2020: The NY DOH Report "Factors Associated with Nursing Home Infections and Fatalities in New York State During the COVID-19 Global Health Crisis"
• 31 March 2021: How the Timing of Governor Cuomo's Book Deal Fits into NY's COVID Nursing Home Deaths Scandal

2 July 2020: Resignations Force Shakeup of Cuomo Administration's State Health Department

COVID-19 in NY: Department of Health leadership shakeup comes amid pandemic response

The fallout from Governor Cuomo's disastrous coronavirus nursing home policies is starting to claim the jobs of managers in the state of New York's Department of Health. This report looks at several leadership changes that are being announced just ahead of the Fourth of July holiday weekend. With Friday, 3 July being the observed date for the national holiday, these actions are the equivalent of a Friday news dump for politicians facing scandals who want the announcements to be as little noticed as possible. Make a note of the names of the outgoing personnel involved - these are very likely people we'll be hearing from is the scandal progresses toward legal proceedings.

1 July 2020: Draft of Cuomo Pandemic "Leadership" Book Reaches 70,000 Words in Length

This timeline entry was retroactively added on 22 November 2021, based on the findings of the New York State Assembly's impeachment probe report.

Impeachment Investigation Report to Judiciary Committee Chair Charles Lavine and the New York State Assembly Judiciary Committee

The following excerpt confirms the amount of writing generated by Andrew M. Cuomo utilizing state goverment employees and resources since 19 March 2020, when Andrew M. Cuomo's literary agent was first approached about the prospect of a book deal related to Cuomo's leadership during the coronavirus pandemic. "PRH" refers to the publisher Penguin Random House.

On July 1, 2020, the literary agent told a PRH representative that then-Governor Cuomo had been writing a book about his experiences during the first six months of the pandemic and his actions as Governor to respond to the crisis. The literary agent represented that the then-Governor already had 70,000 words written and that the book would contain leadership lessons for times of crisis, as well as details on interactions with members of the federal government, including the White House. The primary topic of the Book was the COVID-19 pandemic and New York State’s response.

Several days later, an auction process would be held to determine who might publish the soon-to-be-finished book and how much Cuomo would be personally compensated.

1 July 2020: Officials Start Bailing From Cuomo Administration

Gov. Cuomo’s top nursing home regulator to retire after initial postponement

The state regulator who stood by and allowed Governor Cuomo's deadly 25 March 2020 directive to force nursing homes to admit coronavirus-infected patients despite knowing the risk that the infection could run rampant with deadly effect, is leaving his job. Not because he was fired, but because he is being allowed to retire with full benefits. Here's an excerpt from the report:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s chief nursing home regulator was all set to retire at the end of 2019 following a 31-year state career, but agreed to put it off until his replacement could be trained. Then the coronavirus crisis hit.

Now, after more than 6,200 mostly elderly people died in the facilities under his oversight, Mark Kissinger has had enough and is leaving — even though, sources told The Post, Cuomo administration officials can’t find anyone “dumb enough” to take his job.

New York’s nursing homes quickly became breeding grounds for the deadly virus after a March 25 Health Department order mandated they take in COVID-19 positive patients. Kissinger was not involved in crafting that fateful directive, a source said.

“They’re looking to fill Mark’s job, but they just haven’t found anyone dumb enough to take it because this administration has a horrible reputation to work for,” one health care-industry source said.

That says a lot for a job that pays at least $195,000 per year, which nobody appears willing to pursue because of the toxic culture Governor Cuomo has allowed to fester.

28 June 2020: Governor Cuomo Complains of Political Heat and Dodges Questions on Sunday Talkshows

28 June 2020 Sunday Morning Interviews

Two more reports, closely related in covering Governor Cuomo's Sunday morning interview rounds:

• Gov. Cuomo complains of ‘political heat’ over coronavirus nursing home deaths
• Cuomo dodges repeated questions on whether New York nursing homes are safe

Perhaps Governor Cuomo doesn't appreciate that dodging questions doesn't reduce political heat but increases it instead.

28 June 2020: Cuomo Claims Nursing Home Seniors Are "Safer" from COVID Than Seniors' Own Homes

Andrew Cuomo: Elderly New Yorkers 'safer' from coronavirus in nursing homes than in own homes

This report covers Governor Cuomo's latest attempt to minimize the negative consequences of his coronavirus nursing home policies. Here, it is important to note that the Governor does not specify if seniors in nursing homes would have safer before he finally terminated New York's directive to force nursing homes to admit both infected and potentially infected patients without testing on 10 May 2020, nor how long after that policy ended before the claim might have become true, nor if he believes the claim might only be true now because his previous policies already killed off the most vulnerable residents in New York's nursing homes and assisted living facilities.

27 June 2020: Governor Cuomo Reviews Early Drafts of His Pandemic Leadership Book

This timeline entry is based on information presented in a New York Times article published on 31 March 2021. The following excerpt provides a documented status of the book project:

Mr. Cuomo also utilized the resources of his office — from his inner circle to far more junior personnel — to help with the manuscript. In late June and early July, for example, a top aide to the governor, Stephanie Benton, twice asked assistants to print portions of the draft of the book, and deliver them to Mr. Cuomo at the Executive Mansion in Albany, where he lives.

One of Ms. Benton’s directives came on June 27, the same day that Ms. DeRosa convened an impromptu teleconference with several other top advisers to discuss the Health Department draft report.

The timing of this event is significant because several of Governor Cuomo's top advisers were also involved in doctoring a study produced by New York's Department of Health investigating whether the Cuomo administration's deadly deadly 25 March 2020 directive contributed to COVID deaths among New York nursing home residents.

Mr. Cuomo leaned on his top aide, Melissa DeRosa, for assistance. She attended video meetings with publishers, and helped him edit early drafts of the book. But there was also another, more pressing edit underway at the same time.

An impending Health Department report threatened to disclose a far higher number of nursing home deaths related to the coronavirus than the Cuomo administration had previously made public. Ms. DeRosa and other top aides expressed concern about the higher death toll, and, after their intervention, the number — which had appeared in the second sentence of the report — was removed from the final version.

Had the study reported the full extent of the COVID deaths among nursing home residents, Governor Cuomo's coronavirus pandemic performance would have been tarnished, which hurt the sales of the book promoting his leadership during 2020's coronavirus pandemic.

Here is where other items mentioned in these passages appear as key events in the timeline:

• 15 June 2020: Governor Cuomo Starts Writing Book on His Pandemic "Leadership"
• 6 July 2020: The NY DOH Report "Factors Associated with Nursing Home Infections and Fatalities in New York State During the COVID-19 Global Health Crisis"
• 11 August 2020: Cuomo Administration Stonewalling on COVID Deaths of Nursing Home Residents
• 16 October 2020: Opinion - Cuomo's Pandemic Leadership Book Undermined by Critical Omissions
• 11 February 2021: Team Cuomo Claims They Hid Data to Avoid Trump DOJ
• 31 March 2021: How the Timing of Governor Cuomo's Book Deal Fits into NY's COVID Nursing Home Deaths Scandal

26 June 2020: Cuomo's Deadly Directive Declared "A Mistake" in Congressional Testimony

New York's Covid nursing home policy was 'a mistake,' expert testifies

This report covers the testimony of Harvard health policy professor David C. Grabowski before the U.S. House of Representatives' Ways and Means Committee's Health Subcommittee. Governor Cuomo has previously rejected requests to testify before Congress about his administration's coronavirus nursing home policies (see the second entry for 22 June 2020).

25 June 2020: White House Calls Out Cuomo's Deadly Directive, Cuomo Called Out for Lying About Nursing Home Deaths, CNN Shreds Credibility by Endorsing Governor Cuomo's Policies

NY governor is ‘alone to blame’ for forcing COVID-positive seniors into nursing homes, feds say

This report describes the response of the White House to Governor Cuomo's attempt to blame them for nursing home deaths that occurred in New York.

Churchill: On nursing homes, Cuomo won't admit the truth

This op-ed from an upper New York state newspaper weighs in on Governor Cuomo's campaign to deny responsibility for the policies that both endangered and killed so many residents of nursing homes and other assisted living facilities in New York.

CNN's Chris Cuomo lauds brother in panned interview: 'You're both awful'

This article describes the negative bipartisan reaction to the open display of partisan support favoring Governor Cuomo on CNN, where Governor Andrew Cuomo has been frequently interviewed by his brother during his prime-time newscast throughout the coronavirus pandemic. The 24 June 2020 broadcast was the first in which the journalist Cuomo asked the Governor to address any question about his administration's coronavirus nursing home policy scandal. Here's the introduction to the report:

CNN's Chris Cuomo was mocked after lauding his brother, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D), during an interview that one media publication called "a close approximation of a campaign endorsement," with the anchor declaring he was "wowed" by the governor's handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

The failure of CNN to present even a minimal level of professional objectivity in its reporting has damaged the news organization's credibility, with the governor's brother apparently having a large influence over shaping the network's coverage to be as favorable as it can to the benefit of Governor Cuomo, which has become a classic example of how a journalist's clear conflict of interest damages the public interest in addition to the reputation of their organization and the profession.

23 June 2020: Governor Cuomo Blames Nursing Home Staffs for Nursing Home Deaths

Gov. Cuomo blames sick nursing home staffers for infecting residents

This article reports on Governor Cuomo's latest attempt to avoid responsibility for his administration's deadly policies of both forcing New York nursing homes to admit patients without testing to verify if they might be active carriers for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus and to allow nursing home staff members known to have been infected to continue working (see the entries for 29 April 2020 above), where they might spread the deadly infection among vulnerable residents. He's also doubled down again on the first policy:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday blamed sick nursing home staffers for infecting residents at the facilities — and doubled down on a controversial state order barring the facilities from turning away coronavirus-positive patients, saying, “It wasn’t a mistake.”

“No, it wasn’t a mistake because … you didn’t want to leave a senior citizen in the hospital for two weeks if you didn’t need to be in a hospital bed for two weeks,” Cuomo said on MSNBC of his Health Department’s widely scrutinized March 25 mandate, which may have fueled more than 6,000 confirmed and presumed COVID-19 deaths in New York.

The governor added, “By the time a person was transferred after nine or 10 days, they were no longer contagious and what all the data says is, the reason you had infections in nursing homes were because the staff brought in the infection.”

“You look at the communities that had the high infection rate overall — those were the communities that had a high infection rate — so it is that the staff got infected. They came to work and they brought in the infection.”

Previous reports have indicated that if a nursing home had a week's supply of personal protective equipment (or PPE) for staff members, meaning masks and gloves, state health officials considered that sufficient to protect both residents and staff members from the potential for infection (see entries for 26 April 2020 and 5 May 2020).

Meanwhile, nursing home staff members are the latest target in Governor Cuomo's political campaign to distract from his administration's leading role in spreading coronavirus infections in New York's nursing homes, where he has previously targeted the CDC, the FDA, the federal government, national and international health experts, nursing home operators, President Trump, Florida, and also the New York Post for blame in the state's nursing home deaths.

22 June 2020: 25% of U.S. COVID Deaths in Nursing Homes, Governors Cuomo (NY) and Murphy (NJ) Refuse to Come Clean

In U.S., 1 in 4 COVID-19 Deaths Are Residents of Nursing Homes

Grim statistics from the Associated Press' analysis of federally regulated nursing homes, which we should point out does not include assisted living facilities that are regulated by state governments (highlighted emphasis ours):

Nursing home residents account for nearly 1 in 10 of all the coronavirus cases in the United States and more than a quarter of the deaths, according to an Associated Press analysis of government data released Thursday.

As federal data collection becomes more robust, a clearer picture is emerging of the ravages of COVID-19 in nursing homes. About 1.4 million older and medically frail people live in such facilities, a tiny share of the American population that has borne a crushing burden from the pandemic. Most residents have been in lockdown since early March, isolated from families and friends, even in death.

Nationwide, nursing homes reported nearly 179,000 suspected or confirmed cases among residents and 29,497 deaths. The latest figures include about 95% of nursing homes.

AP’s analysis of data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services found that nearly half of the more than 15,000 nursing homes have reported suspected or confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of June 7. About 1 in 5 facilities — or 21% — have reported deaths.

The state of New York, which is known to be underreporting COVID-19 nursing home-related deaths in its official count of at least 6,300 deaths, would account for at least 21% of these deaths. New Jersey, which copied New York's deadly coronavirus nursing home policy, adds another 6,180 lab-confirmed deaths to the national total accounts for another 21% of all COVID-19 nursing home deaths in the U.S.

NY’s Cuomo, NJ’s Murphy ignore request to explain controversial nursing home policies

Both New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy are rejecting requests to testify before the U.S. House of Representative's Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis about the policies their states implemented forcing nursing homes to admit COVID-19 infected patients, claiming the request is "pure politics" and that the committee lacks oversight authority.

We will note that rejecting the requests to testify before Congress will also limit their exposure to legal liabilities that might arise from it.

21 June 2020: Elected New York Legislators Want Investigation of Cuomo Nursing Home Policies

NYS lawmakers still want hearings on Covid-19 nursing home deaths

Although New York's assembly is controlled by Governor Cuomo's political party, there are continuing bipartisan calls for public hearings into the Cuomo administration's policies that led to so many deaths in the state's nursing homes and assisted living facilities. This article notes that many of these deaths fell heavily among minorities.

20 June 2020: Editorial - Governor Cuomo's "Big Lie"

Andrew Cuomo’s big lie on nursing homes and The Post

This New York Post editorial calls Governor Cuomo out for his dishonest attempts to deflect blame for his administration's deadly coronavirus nursing home policy, which the governor is trying to make appear to be a partisan effort. As the Post's editors make clear, the news coverage demonstrates that's not the case, which you can confirm for yourself by simply scrolling up and reviewing the stories we've linked throughout our coverage.

19 June 2020: Governor Cuomo Claims Criticism of Deadly Nursing Home Policy is "Pure Politics"

Gov. Cuomo: Criticism of NY nursing home deaths a 'shiny object,' 'pure politics'

This report of a WAMC radio interview Governor Cuomo gave on Friday, 19 June 2020 shows the governor's continuing attempts to avoid accountability in establishing New York's deadly coronavirus nursing home policies. He also blames the federal government and parts of the media for his problems, the latter for focusing on his administration's nursing home scandal.

18 June 2020: Opinion - Governor Cuomo's Expanding Search for COVID Nursing Home Death Scapegoats

Op-Ed: Andrew Cuomo: Searching for Scapegoats To Blame for His Deadly Coronavirus Order

This op-ed lists many the individuals and groups who Governor Cuomo has been attempting to blame for the unchecked spreading of deadly coronavirus infections in New York's nursing homes in order to distract from his and his administration's role in the scandal.

17 June 2020: Cuomo Claims Sick COVID Patients Dumped in Nursing Homes "Probably Not Contagious"

Cuomo: Coronavirus patients put in nursing homes ‘probably not contagious’

This report shows the latest gyrations by the Cuomo administration to avoid accountability for deaths that resulted from its "reverse triage" policy of moving coronavirus-infected patients from hospitals to nursing homes to make more beds available in the hospitals. Here, the administration is seeking to blame hypothetical "asymptomatic workers" for both introducing and spreading coronavirus infections in nursing homes, despite the state moving over 4,300 such patients into nursing homes.

The report also indicates Cuomo administration officials are now apparently willing to throw New York Department of Health Commissioner Howard Zucker under the bus in attempting to shift blame away from the Governor's office for issuing the infamous 25 March 2020 directive forcing nursing homes to admit COVID-19 positive patients.

17 June 2020: No One in Cuomo Administration Willing to Admit Who Wrote, Approved Deadly Directive

Cuomo silent on who approved coronavirus nursing home policy

This report demonstrates both a lack of candor and transparency on the part of Governor Cuomo concerning how he and his administration came to adopt its deadly coronavirus nursing home policy and follows up ProPublica's "Fire Through Dry Grass" article from 16 June 2020, which describes the motive of Governor Cuomo and New York's public health officials had, which we'll emphasize here:

And a Columbia University expert, Dr. Charles Branas, told ProPublica that the March 25 directive may have increased the state’s COVID-19 death toll by an as-yet-unknown order of magnitude and cited an Associated Press estimate on the number of coronavirus patients who were admitted to nursing homes as a result of the order.

“If you introduce 4,500 people sick with a potentially lethal disease into a vulnerable and notoriously imperfectly monitored population, people are apt to die,” said Branas, chairman of the Epidemiology Department at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health.

Branas also said the since-abandoned policy “looks like it was intended as a ‘reverse triage’ strategy to clear acute and critical care hospital beds, regardless of whether those beds had people with COVID-19 or not.”

Branas' assessment of the Cuomo administration's motives aligns with our previous analysis, where we described the policy they adopted for the purpose of transferring coronavirus-infected patients from hospitals to nursing homes to avoid overwhelming the hospitals' capacity as an "emergency triage strategy", but Branas' "reverse triage" terminology better and more precisely describes the strategy.

16 June 2020: Analysis - How Cuomo's Directive Led to Excess COVID Deaths at NY Nursing Homes, National Nursing Home Deaths Top 50,000

“Fire Through Dry Grass”: Andrew Cuomo Saw COVID-19’s Threat to Nursing Homes. Then He Risked Adding to It.

This report starts with the story of a nursing home with 120 residents in upper New York state that went from having no COVID-19 patients, to being forced to admit one patient known to be infected with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus under the Cuomo administration's policy on 3 April 2020, to recording 18 deaths at the facility from COVID-19 six weeks later. It also tells the story of another nursing home in the same New York county that defied Governor Cuomo's directive and refused to admit any COVID-19 infected patients, which would go on to not record any COVID-19 cases or deaths over the same period and points out the county's hospitals were never at risk of being overwhelmed by the epidemic, making forced patient transfers unnecessary. The report goes on to identify multiple points of failure on the part of the Cuomo administration and describes the developing acrimony as state officials seek to escape accountability.

As U.S. Nursing-Home Deaths Reach 50,000, States Ease Lockdowns

The Wall Street Journal estimates deaths in U.S. nursing homes account for over 40% of the 116,000 deaths attributed to COVID-19 in the U.S. They also think that's an undercount because of how some states are reporting these deaths. See the entries for 26 May 2020 for more discussion on that topic as it relates to New York.

15 June 2020: General Recognition of COVID Forecast Model Failures

Forecasting for COVID-19 has failed

This analysis on the International Institute of Forecasters blog examines the multiple failures in public policy that have resulted from following poor forecasting models. The following passage is directly applicable to what happened in New York, but certainly applies in other states that aped its policies:

Experienced modelers drew early on parallels between COVID-19 and the Spanish flu [2] that caused >50 million deaths with mean age at death being 28. We all lament the current loss of life. However, as of June 8, total fatalities are ~410,000 with median age ~80 and typically multiple comorbidities.

Predictions for hospital and ICU bed requirements were also entirely misinforming. Public leaders trusted models (sometimes even black boxes without disclosed methodology) inferring massively overwhelmed health care capacity (Table 1) [3]. However, eventually very few hospitals were stressed, for a couple of weeks. Most hospitals maintained largely empty wards, waiting for tsunamis that never came. The general population was locked and placed in horror-alert to save the health system from collapsing. Tragically, many health systems faced major adverse consequences, not by COVID-19 cases overload, but for very different reasons. Patients with heart attacks avoided visiting hospitals for care [4], important treatments (e.g. for cancer) were unjustifiably delayed [5], mental health suffered [6]. With damaged operations, many hospitals started losing personnel, reducing capacity to face future crises (e.g. a second wave). With massive new unemployment, more people may lose health insurance. The prospects of starvation and of lack of control for other infectious diseases (like tuberculosis, malaria, and childhood communicable diseases for which vaccination is hindered by the COVID-19 measures) are dire [7,8].

We think it will take years to fully learn the lessons the flawed coronavirus models have taught.

15 June 2020: Evidence of Governor Cuomo, Staff Writing Book on His Pandemic "Leadership" as Early as Mid-June 2020

This timeline entry is based on information presented in a New York Times article published on 31 March 2021. That report identifies "mid-June" as the period when Governor Cuomo and members of his staff began writing a book proclaiming his "leadership" during 2020's coronavirus pandemic. Here's the relevant portion of the article:

The book, “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the Covid-19 Pandemic,” was a dramatic retelling of the battle against the virus in a state where nearly 50,000 people have died. It would garner Mr. Cuomo a fleeting spot on the best-seller list.

Emails and an early draft of Mr. Cuomo’s book obtained by The New York Times indicate that the governor was writing it as early as mid-June, relying on a cadre of trusted aides and junior staffers for everything from full-scale edits to minor clerical work, potentially running afoul of state laws prohibiting use of public resources for personal gain.

This is the earliest entry in the timeline related to what would prove to be Governor Cuomo's ill-fated book project. To see where it appears later in the timeline, search "book" in the Search This Blog feature!

14 June 2020: Cuomo Administration Shorted PPE Supplies for Nursing and Group Homes

Watchdog tells feds NY shorted group homes on masks, gowns during height of virus

This report follows the the story of a complaint filed by Disability Rights New York, which it identifies as a "federally funded nonprofit watchdog" on 7 April 2020 regarding how state officials were allocating personal protective equipment among group homes, nursing homes, and assisted living facilities that provide care for disabled residents in New York. Here's an excerpt describing the environment these facilities were put under by the Cuomo administration's policies for allocating scarce resources like personal protective equipment (PPE):

Operators of group homes at the apex of the virus – March through May -- had to scrounge, scouring pharmacies for masks, often paying price-gouging costs, pleading with county disaster offices, and wearing homemade face coverings and disposable protection that sometimes had to be reused, according to interviews with Disability Rights New York, group home operators and their residents’ advocates.

The Cuomo administration appears to have prioritized the interests of public hospitals, which are run by officials appointed by state or local governments, at the expense of all other health care facilities in the state of New York during the state's 2020 coronavirus epidemic, which were apparently viewed as dumping grounds by the state's public health officials. Like the elderly at the state's nursing homes, the disabled are victims of systematic discrimination against them by Cuomo administration.

13 June 2020: Cuomo's Claims Blaming CDC Guidance for NY COVID Nursing Home Deaths "Mostly False"

New York’s nursing home policy was not fully in line with CDC

This fact check from the PolitiFact directly challenges Governor Cuomo's claims that his administration's nursing home policies were fully compliant with the CDC's guidelines. In addition to the guidance we've pointed to earlier in this timeline, they cite the CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Report issued a week before the Cuomo administration adopted its policy forcing nursing homes to admit coronavirus patients, which specifically recommended that "in the context of rapidly escalating COVID-19 outbreaks in much of the United States, it is critical that long-term care facilities implement active measures to prevent introduction of COVID-19."

PolitiFact concludes Governor Cuomo's claims his policies followed CDC guidance are "mostly false".

12 June 2020: National Attention for Cuomo Nursing Home Scandal - What Guidance Did the CDC Provide States for Nursing Homes?

Rep. Steve Scalise questions Dem governors on decision to send coronavirus patients to nursing homes

The move to initiate an independent, federal investigation of what happened in New York's nursing homes and other states' assisted living facilities that copied Governor Cuomo's policies is gaining some steam. This article is also noteworthy in that Representative Scalise updates the death tolls for several states:

"The decision of several governors to essentially mandate COVID positive patients go back to their nursing homes ended up being a death sentence," Scalise said in a briefing for the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis. "New York has suffered 6,318 deaths in nursing homes. New Jersey, 6,327. Compare that to Florida -- a retirement state -- 1,454. On a per capita basis, nursing homes deaths in New York are 500 percent higher than Florida and New Jersey is 1,120 percent higher than Florida."

Our analysis of what happened in New Jersey's nursing homes and assisted living facilities is here.

Another interesting note:

Cuomo has defended his directive as in line with guidance from the Trump administration and notes that other states did the same thing. But Scalise noted that the Trump administration changed its guidance in mid-March to caution against sending coronavirus patients to nursing homes "not prepared" to handle the disease. New York's policy remained in place until May 10.

Here is the CDC's original guidance for nursing homes from 13 March 2020. Here is a copy of the guidance that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which is the federal agency that oversees nursing homes, issued on 17 March 2020, which explicitly states the guidance:

What to Do with Residents with Confirmed or Suspected COVID-19 Diagnoses

CMS’s guidance also instructs nursing homes with residents suspected of having COVID-19 to contact their local health department and transfer the affected resident to a hospital if they do not have an airborne infection isolation room and the symptoms warrant such transfer. Nursing homes that are asked to accept residents diagnosed with COVID-19 from a hospital may accept the residents as long as the facility can follow then-current CDC guidance for Transmission-Based Precautions. This guidance is changing rapidly as the CDC learns more about the COVID-19 virus and adapts protocols accordingly. Facilities are advised to continue normal admissions, and if possible, dedicate a unit/wing to serve as a step-down unit where such residents remain for 14 days with no symptoms for any resident coming or returning from hospitals where a case of COVID-19 is/was present.

The Cuomo administration removed the discretion of nursing homes had for accepting known coronavirus-infected patients in its infamous 25 March 2020 directive, disregarding the guidance issued by the federal agency that directly oversees nursing homes.

11 June 2020: Cuomo Retreats from Failed Staff Testing Policy, Keeps Blocking Families from NY Nursing Homes

Team Cuomo quietly retreats from yet another nursing-home mistake

Two days after nursing homes pushed back, the Cuomo administration has backed off its ineffective staff testing policies for nursing homes.

Reopen NY: Governor Cuomo calls no visitation at nursing homes 'better than death'

Showing once again the open hypocrisy of his coronavirus nursing home policies, Governor Cuomo is continuing to prevent family members from visiting their family members in assisted living facilities to keep residents from the risk of being exposed to deadly coronavirus infections. But remember, he and his administration thought it was A-OK to transfer 100% known-to-be-infected patients to those facilities and to allow 100% know-to-be-infected staff members to work at them, which ensured residents would become infected.

10 June 2020: Opinion - Cuomo Policies Failing NY Nursing Homes

Gov. Cuomo is still failing New York’s nursing homes

Indeed. This is an opinion piece by Elaine Healy, MD, a practicing geriatrician and nursing-home medical director. She picks up on many of themes in the previous entry and emphasizes how arbitrary and often counterproductive the Cuomo administration's policies for nursing homes have been in practice.

9 June 2020: Nursing Homes Testing Staff But Get No Results, Cuomo Administration Not Counting Probable COVID Deaths

Nursing home groups want Cuomo to scrap staff coronavirus testing policy

It's the reason why nursing home groups want to scrap New York's mandated test regime for their employees that makes this report highly relevant to Governor Cuomo's handling of policies for nursing homes during the state's coronavirus epidemic. In one nursing home cited in the report, all staff members have been tested four times during the last three weeks, as required under Governor Cuomo's policy, but they have yet to see a single result from any of that testing, making all that testing useless for making decisions about how to protect both staff members and nursing home residents from infections.

New York State Is Not Counting Probable Covid Deaths

Since this article is posted by Gothamist on a page that features frequent updates, you may need to scroll down for the story. Governor Cuomo has adopted a policy that both deviates from the CDC's guidelines and is hiding the full extent of how deadly the coronavirus epidemic has been throughout the state of New York. Since the Cuomo administration appears to be arbitrarily following CDC guidelines, this latest inconsistency blows yet another hole in the governor's claim that his deadly COVID nursing home policy was compelled by CDC guidelines.

7 June 2020: The Human Cost of a "Crushed" Curve

Cuomo, under fire for coronavirus response, declares New York 'crushed' the curve

This article covers a Twitter message Governor Cuomo issued. Here's the text of the governor's tweet:

“We did the impossible. On Monday NYC will open phase one. We didn’t just flatten the curve — we crushed it. #NYTough"

Recall that the goal of "flattening the curve" was meant to keep hospitals from exceeding their capacity. In his panic to avoid that situation, Governor Cuomo "crushed" the curve by sending thousands of coronavirus-infected patients out of hospitals and into nursing homes and assisted living facilities for the elderly where the infection spread and killed thousands, all while using just a tiny fraction of all the additional capacity that was specifically added to New York's health care system to cope with the epidemic.

4 June 2020: Governor Cuomo Caught in a Self-Made Trap

Cuomo still stands by coronavirus nursing home order despite death toll

This report covers what Governor Cuomo said in a radio interview. Here's an excerpt from the New York Post's coverage:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Thursday yet again doubled down on his decision to send coronavirus patients to nursing homes from hospitals — despite it potentially factoring in to more than 5,000 deaths.

The governor reiterated a March 25 health department mandate that required all nursing homes to accept residents who tested positive for COVID-19.

“So the choice is, leave a person in a hospital bed for two weeks until they test negative, or send them to a nursing home that can handle it and quarantine them and isolate them,” Cuomo said in an interview with Jay Oliver on Long Island News Radio.

“The nursing home is a better choice for that senior person, especially when you’re in a time when you need the hospital beds for people who are going to die without a ventilator.”

In many ways, Governor Cuomo's statements reflect his political and legal plight - he can neither afford to acknowledge the failure of judgment that led to his choice to implement the state's deadly policy without jeopardizing his political future, nor can he acknowledge his responsibility for actions that appear to qualify as criminally negligent homicide in New York or as involuntary manslaughter under federal law.

2 June 2020: A Deeper Look at National COVID Nursing Home Deaths

More than 40,000 coronavirus deaths tied to US nursing homes

This report is more comprehensive than the count released by CMS yesterday, including deaths that have occurred in assisted care facilities in addition to federal regulated nursing homes. The data still undercounts New York's contribution because of the state's deceptive death accounting practices. The figure also combines the deaths of residents and staff at nursing homes and other assisted living facilities, which we know from New Jersey's data is predominantly made up of the deaths of the residents of these facilities.

1 June 2020: Families to Stay Locked Out, Federal Stats on COVID Nursing Home Deaths

Cuomo administration won't say when nursing home visits will resume

Since 7 March 2020, the Cuomo administration has blocked family members from visiting relatives living in New York's nursing homes. Originally presented as a protective measure for nursing home residents from coronavirus infections, this policy also worked to prevent the discovery of the extent to which infected patients were being placed in these facilities to expose residents to the risk of infections in the following weeks.

Nearly 26,000 nursing home coronavirus deaths reported to feds

This Associated Press report provides partial national level data on the number of coronavirus deaths at nursing homes in the U.S. Here's an excerpt:

Federal health authorities have received reports of nearly 26,000 nursing home residents dying from COVID-19, according to materials prepared for the nation’s governors. That number is partial and likely to go higher.

A letter from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports more than 60,000 cases of coronavirus illness among nursing home residents. A copy of the letter and an accompanying chart were provided to The Associated Press.

The numbers, which had been promised by the end of May, are partial. The letter said the data are based on reports received from about 80% of the nation’s 15,400 nursing homes.

The data applies only to federally regulated nursing homes, which excludes assisted living facilities regulated by state governments. The data also only covers the period through 24 May 2020 for the portion of nursing homes reporting deaths of their residents. Back on 9 May 2020, AP reported a similar figure for the nation, with New York's official nursing home death count at 5,300, but that's with the state's public health officials deliberately misclassifying the deaths of nursing home residents that occurred outside of the nursing homes where they resided when they were transferred to hospitals at the ends of their lives.

The numbers being reported by CMS will be much harder for the Cuomo administration to "cook", since they are focusing on reporting coronavirus-related deaths of people who were residing at nursing homes during the last several months.