28 January 2021: NY AG Confirms Team Cuomo Hiding Extent of COVID Deaths in Nursing Homes

Cuomo administration severely undercounted COVID-19 deaths at nursing homes: report

This article covers the first of several blockbuster stories that broke in the state of New York on 28 January 2021, which began as the state's attorney general, a Cuomo ally, was compelled to report the findings of the state Department of Justice's investigation. Here's the short summary:

A 76-page report released Thursday by New York Attorney General Letitia James found a larger number of nursing home residents died from COVID-19 than state data show.

The report indicated that under the Cuomo administration's unusual scheme for counting the COVID-19 deaths of nursing home residents in the state was undercounted by 50%. Which is to say the Cuomo administration had officially acknowledged half the total.

NY nursing home COVID deaths more than 12K, Cuomo Health chief reveals

This article reviews the fallout from the New York Attorney General's report, which forced New York Department of Health Commissioner Howard Zucker to finally release the public data on COVID-19 related nursing home resident deaths several hours later, after months of stonewalling. Here's an excerpt:

A damning attorney general's report that showed Gov. Andrew Cuomo and other officials downplayed the deadly impact of COVID-19 on New York's nursing homes finally led the state's embattled health commissioner on Thursday to reveal the total number of resident fatalities.

In a defensive, nearly 1,700-word statement, Dr. Howard Zucker released figures that put the tally of confirmed and presumed deaths in both nursing homes and hospitals at 12,743 as of Jan. 19.

The staggering number is only slightly less than the 13,000-plus suggested by the report issued earlier in the day by Attorney General Letitia James.

The figure of 12,743 COVID-19 nursing home deaths in New York is generally consistent with the percentage of nursing home deaths reported in other northeastern states. The Cuomo administration had been falsely attributing the additional deaths to the hospitals to which nursing home residents infected with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus were transferred prior to their deaths.

Here are links to other news outlets covering the story:

• New York AG probe prompts Cuomo team to release nursing home COVID death data
• NY data show nursing home deaths undercounted by thousands

Nursing home fallout for Cuomo: Angry, brutal, bipartisan

Despite the Cuomo administration's contrary claims, the push to force Governor Cuomo to acknowledge the full extent of COVID-19 deaths among New York's nursing home residents has been bipartisan. This article covers some of the immediate reaction to the breaking news confirmation of the Cuomo administration's attempted coverup.

New York State Office of the Attorney General Letitia James: Nursing Home Response to COVID-19 Pandemic, January 2021

One last bombshell was contained with New York state Attorney General Letitia James' report. It would appear the Cuomo administration issued guidance for nursing homes to stop testing incoming patients for coronavirus infections on 21 March 2020:

OAG preliminary investigations reflected that in the nine downstate counties that experienced higher community-based transmission of COVID-19, some facilities stopped testing residents for COVID-19 after the March 21 guidance was issued. For example, the administrator of a for-profit facility in New York City with CMS 1-Star Staffing and 1-Star Overall ratings alleged in April that the facility was not currently testing residents for COVID-19. He alleged that DOH told the facility to stop testing at some point in March.

The 21 March 2020 guidance came just four days before the administration issued its disastrous 25 March 2020 directive forcing state nursing homes to admit patients who had been treated for coronavirus infections at hospitals. Consequently, nursing homes were not allowed to determine if these newly admitted patients were still contagious. The combination of Cuomo administration policies would almost appear designed to ensure the deadly spread of COVID-19 in New York's nursing homes.

28 January 2021: Real COVID Nursing Home Death Toll Much Higher than Cuomo Administration Admits

The real Covid death toll at nursing homes, and the staggering heartache in NY (exclusive)

This entry was retroactively inserted into the timeline on 26 December 2021. This report by Advance Media NY's Tim Knauss broke the news that New York's COVID death toll among nursing home residents was substantially greater than Andrew M. Cuomo's administration was officially acknowledging. The report was quickly overtaken in the news cycle later in the day when the New York State Attorney General's office released its report confirming the magnitude of the Cuomo administration's cover-up.

Because the original article is contained behind a subscriber paywall, the excerpt below is taken from the editors' year-end summary of where their organization's reporting made a difference during 2021.

Dogged reporting by Tim Knauss led to the bombshell headline in January that deaths from Covid-19 in Onondaga County nursing homes were 50% higher than New York state had reported. Within hours, state Attorney General Letitia James dropped her bombshell report about the true number of nursing home deaths, confirming our reporting and undercutting Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s heroic Covid narrative. It was the beginning of the end of Cuomo’s 10-year reign; he resigned in August under the weight of sexual harassment allegations and the threat of impeachment over the nursing home cover-up.

The timeline seeks to acknowledge good reporting, especially when it breaks news, wherever we find it. When combined with the attorney general's findings, this report contributed to opening the floodgates of scandals that ultimately led to Andrew M. Cuomo's resignation in disgrace in August 2021.

25 January 2021: NY Lawmakers Getting Tired of Being Jerked Around by Team Cuomo

Albany pol threatens to subpoena Cuomo over nursing home deaths

New York's legislators are getting tired of Governor Cuomo's continued stonewalling in releasing the state's public data on the numbers of COVID-19 deaths of nursing home residents. So much so that top leaders in the state assembly are promising to increase the heat on the Cuomo administration's public health officials:

The top Democrat on the state Senate Investigations Committee threatened to subpoena the state Health Department to release the total number of nursing home residents who died of COVID-19, because he's tired of their months-long stonewalling.

"It is downright insulting to the co-equal State Legislature that, six months later, DOH is continuing to stonewall us on basic questions," seethed a furious state Sen. Jame Skoufis (D-Newburgh) during an unrelated press conference in Albany Monday.

Skoufis, along with a chorus of bipartisan lawmakers, medical experts and family members, have been demanding that Gov. Cuomo's top health official — DOH Commissioner Howard Zucker — release the accurate number of nursing home residents who died of the deadly disease after getting so sick they had to be transferred to a hospital.

"If the Commissioner fails to provide the long-overdue answers by the time he provides testimony at next week's hearing, I am supportive of taking the next step and compelling the information, but the decision is not a unilateral one and requires support from the conference and leadership," Skoufis declared, noting if the missing numbers are not delivered, he will grill Zucker at next week's health-focused joint budget hearing hosted by the state Senate and Assembly, scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 3.

He warned: "The hearing will be an unpleasant and uncomfortable one for Commissioner Zucker if he continues to withhold answers to the Legislature's questions."

20 January 2021: NY Lawmakers Ask President Biden for Help in Getting COVID Nursing Home Death Data

NY lawmakers appeal to Biden for COVID-19 death data in nursing homes

This article describes the latest bipartisan effort to force Governor Cuomo to release New York's public data on current or former nursing home residents who died of COVID-19, regardless of where they died in the state, by appealing to the federal government.

13 January 2021: Team Cuomo Still Hiding Public Data for COVID Nursing Home Deaths

Cuomo still refuses to disclose total number of COVID-19 nursing home deaths: watchdog

This article describes the latest evolution in the Cuomo administration's stonewalling:

Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration is again refusing to release the total number of nursing home residents who've died from the coronavirus for at least another two months — until March 22 at the earliest, a watchdog group charged.

In a letter to the Empire Center for Public Policy on Wednesday, the state Health Department claimed that it needs another nine weeks and five days to comply with the legal request for a full accounting of nursing home deaths "because the records potentially responsive to your request are currently being reviewed for applicable exemptions, legal privileges and responsiveness."

The Empire Center submitted its FOIL request on Aug. 3 seeking the total number of COVID-19 nursing home fatalities — those who died in nursing homes and those who were ill and died after being transported to hospitals.

The state health department's review for "available exemptions, legal privileges and responsiveness" means that when the data is finally made public, it will not reflect the total number of COVID-19 deaths experienced by New York's nursing home residents during 2020. But is releasing the numbers the state has in its records really that difficult?

The answer to that question is "No. It's not difficult at all."

A nursing home industry insider also said he was baffled by the delay.

"The DOH has minute-by-minute data of nursing home deaths. The state's delayed response defeats the purpose of the Freedom of Information Law," the source said.

In fact, DOH has fined nursing homes for being tardy in submitting daily reports that include data on coronavirus cases, leaving it open to charges of failing to practice what it preaches.

That would appear to be the Cuomo administration's legal modus operandi.

Cuomo Delays Releasing Nursing Home Data for Two More Months

This press release from the Empire Center's normally easy-going Bill Hammond describes exactly what is wrong with the Cuomo administration's continuing failure to release all the data the state of New York has collected on COVID-19 related deaths of nursing home residents:

It could not be more clear that the state is illegally hiding basic information about a public health crisis. The department's excuses are an insult to the intelligence of every New Yorker, and the Cuomo administration's stonewalling makes a mockery of the public's right to know. It's increasingly evident that the state will not release these records until compelled to do so by the courts."

The Empire Center is currently awaiting a ruling from state Supreme Court Judge Kimberly O'Connor, and has been since 30 October 2020.

12 January 2021: Cuomo Administration Hiding NY DOH Report Data

Cuomo administration conceals records behind controversial nursing home study

This article from the Times-Union reports on the status of their Freedom Of Information Law (FOIL) request to obtain the New York state government's public data on the COVID-19 deaths of nursing home residents.

After months of furor from mourning families, the administration of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo issued a report in July absolving itself of blame for thousands of COVID-19-related deaths at nursing homes in New York.

Although Cuomo portrayed the findings as definitive proof, six months later, his administration is refusing to back up the findings by providing copies of the records that were the basis of the report's conclusions. In response to a written request from the Times Union, the administration last week cited exemptions in the state Freedom of Information Law which the Department of Health contends allows the agency to keep the records secret....

On the day the report was issued, the Times Union filed a Freedom of Information Law request for copies of the surveys filled out by nursing homes. But the Cuomo administration refused to provide copies of completed surveys — and also would not turn over blank copies showing the survey questions. A Department of Health spokesman, Gary Holmes, refused to say why the department was refusing to provide blank copies.

The Times-Union explains why the Cuomo administration's failure to back up the findings of its DOH report by releasing the data on which it claims to have based it upon is problematic:

A major assertion in the report is that the peak day of nursing home resident deaths came six days before the peak day for admission of COVID-19 patients from hospitals to nursing homes.

That timing demonstrates that the state's controversial admissions' policy "could not have been the driver of nursing home infections or fatalities," the report concluded. The findings assert that if re-admissions of sick or recovering patients to nursing homes had been the driver, the peak deaths would have occurred after before the memo's issuance, not before.

But there's also no publicly available data providing independent verification that the "peak" of admissions occurred on April 14. Similarly, the report's assertion that deaths peaked in nursing homes on April 8 cannot be verified.

It's a fair bet that the data does not support the Cuomo administration's findings absolving itself of responibility for nursing home deaths related to its 25 March 2020 directive forcing nursing homes to blindly admit patients who had been treated for coronavirus at New York's hospitals. This hypothesis would explain the Cuomo administration's efforts to continue delaying the release of the data and also their ongoing efforts to 'scrub' the data they will ultimately release to minimize contradictory evidence.

6 January 2021: Cuomo DOH Fines Nursing Homes for Missing Data Reporting Deadline

Team Cuomo's latest nursing-home hypocrisy

The lead paragraph to this article describes the Cuomo administration's glaring hypocrisy:

How rich: The state is fining nursing homes for missing deadlines to report data — by as little as a minute — while it has withheld its own figures on nursing-home COVID deaths for months.

The article also indicates the state's acknowledged COVID-19 nursing home death toll has risen with the state's latest surge.

The death tally is officially around 7,400, but the true number could be twice that because New York, unlike other states, doesn't count nursing-home residents who died in hospitals. The state does keep track of the total, but it won't release it. Which is outrageous. And inexcusable.

5 January 2021: Cuomo Book Release Poorly Timed with COVID Surge

Cuomo's book touting 'leadership' during pandemic released just before huge spike in COVID cases, pundit notes

New York has had one of the larger fall/winter surges of coronavirus cases in the U.S. This article features a chart to put the timing of Governor Cuomo's self-authored book publication into perspective:

3 January 2021: FEMA Manager Rips Cuomo COVID Nursing Home Policies

Ex-FEMA honcho blasts vaccine rollout, nursing home deaths

This article covers a lot of ground, but here's the key summary where the topic of New York's COVID-19 nursing home deaths is involved:

In an exit interview with The Post, Tom Von Essen, who served as the New York regional director of the Federal Emergency Management and was city Fire Commissioner during the Sept. 11 attacks, slammed the nation's early response to the coronavirus pandemic, the slow pace of vaccine distribution — and called New York's nursing home death toll its "biggest failure" in the crisis.

The article also reports the Cuomo administration's response to his comments:

Responding to Von Essen's criticism, Cuomo spokesman Peter Ajemian said, "The reason Von Essen no longer has a job is because the federal government's COVID response was so awful that his boss was overwhelmingly voted out.

"He can do as many exit interviews as he wants but none of them will change the fact that over 350,000 Americans died as a result of the Trump administration's incompetence and failure to implement a coherent plan."

The Cuomo administration's efforts to shift the blame for COVID-19 deaths among the New York's nursing home residents following the implementation its disastrous 25 March 2020 directive are apparently continuing into the new year.

30 December 2020: "Official" Count of COVID Nursing Home Deaths Confirmed as Undercount - Local NY Paper

Nursing home death toll remains elusive, but it is certainly higher than official total

This is article from the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle tries to work out the COVID-19 nursing home death toll in Monroe County and finds the state is underreporting the deaths, which they place at 50% of all COVID deaths in the county since March 2020. Using the state's "official" tally of nursing home resident deaths, the percentage of COVID-19 deaths statewide is 20%.

23 December 2020: Where Is The NY DOH's Data?

On 3 August 2020, New York State Health Commissioner Howard Zucker pledged to release the state's data on the number of nursing home residents who became infected with and who died of COVID-19 during 2020. Neither Zucker nor anyone else in Governor Cuomo's administration, including Governor Cuomo, has lifted a finger to make the state's public data on these deaths available to the public in the 142 days since.

16 December 2020: NY Republicans Ask President Trump to Force Release of Data Stonewalled by Cuomo

NY GOP asks Trump to force Cuomo to reveal number of COVID nursing home deaths

Governor Cuomo's and his administration's continued stonewalling on releasing New York's public data on the number of New York nursing home residents who became infected with and died of COVID-19 during 2020 is prompting this action.

10 December 2020: 89-Year Old Woman Imprisoned in Nursing Homes by Cuomo Directives

How Andrew Cuomo's Executive Order Trapped My 89-Year-Old Mother in COVID Limbo for Weeks

This article describes how Governor Cuomo's 10 May 2020 executive order, which reversed his administration's catastrophic 25 March 2020 order, is also having harmful outcomes.

5 December 2020: NY Nursing Homes Getting Set for Trump Operation Warp Speed Vaccinations

How NYC nursing homes are preparing for vaccine distribution

This article revisits statements made by Governor Cuomo prior to his administration's implementation of its 25 March 2020 directive forcing nursing homes to admit coronavirus patients without knowing whether they were still contagious:

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo famously described COVID-19 in nursing homes as “like fire through dry grass.”

That's why there is such relief that nursing homes are at the top of the list for getting the Pfizer vaccine in mid-December.

“I can’t begin to tell you what a relief it is that there is a date on the calendar that this pandemic is going to be over,” Scott LaRue, the president of ArchCare, told PIX11 News.

And for the residents of Mary Manning Walsh and five other nursing homes run by the New York Catholic archdiocese, the date is Wednesday, Dec. 16. That’s when the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine is expected to be distributed to 1,700 Archcare residents and their 3,000 caregivers, pending final FDA approval.

And Scott LaRue is so pleased that the infrastructure is in place for a seamless, on-site distribution.

“Our pharmacy that serves our nursing homes was actually selected in addition to Walgreens and CVS as one of the distribution centers for the vaccine.,” LaRue told PIX11 News.

Nice to have some positive COVID-related nursing home news from New York for a change!

4 December 2020: Governor Cuomo Agrees to Allow Nursing Home Residents to Get COVID Vaccines

Cuomo: NY will opt into fed plan to vaccinate nursing home residents, staff

New York will participate in a Trump administration program aimed at vaccinating the elderly, sick Americans most at risk of death from coronavirus infections. The state is expected to have enough vaccine to treat some 170,000 people within the next two weeks.

27 November 2020: Former Aide Rakes Governor Cuomo's Character Over the Coals

Ex-aide Alexis Grenell rips Gov. Andrew Cuomo in blistering essay

The "ex-aide" in question is currently a media and political consultant, who worked for Andrew Cuomo when he served as New York's Attorney General prior to being elected Governor. This very much represents a "blue-on-blue" attack, following the governor's outburst at a press conference in the previous week. Here's a sample from her commentary that appeared in The Nation:

The Andrew Cuomo New Yorkers know and mostly tolerate, the snarling attack dog who gaslights fellow Democrats and deploys staff to call his female critics ‘f—-g idiots,’ dropped down to Earth last week. It was a hard landing after a long-distance love affair with a fanbase in a galaxy far, far away.

In the middle of one of his now Emmy Award–winning (apparently for using “television to inform and calm people around the world”) Red Room press conferences, the governor blew a gasket. The trouble started when Jimmy Vielkind from The Wall Street Journal asked the obvious question that every New York City public school parent wanted to know: Will schools be open tomorrow? Cuomo’s months (years, really) of pissing all over Mayor Bill de Blasio have naturally caused confusion over who owns this loser of a decision, compounded by the fact that the city (3 percent) and state’s (2.5 percent) data on infection rates don’t align. So rather than give a straight answer, the self-described “cool dude in a loose mood,” threw a Trump-style tantrum....

Cuomo undeniably offered a vision of competent, humane government at the height of the crisis, but this is who he is the rest of the time. It’s why he and his staff reflexively insult anyone who criticizes his handling of the pandemic or insists on returning to the normal system of democratic governance as Jefferson envisioned it. People like the relentlessly honest Bill Hammond from the Empire Center for Public Policy, who’s currently suing the administration to force it to disclose the real number of Covid-related nursing home deaths (“yet another publicity stunt from an arm of the far-right advocacy industrial complex”). Or Assembly member Ron Kim for suggesting that the governor acted against the public interest in letting his state be one of the two that grant hospitals and nursing homes broad corporate immunity (“politically motivated”). Or Democratic and Republican lawmakers who want to curtail the governor’s emergency powers after granting them in March, and return to their role as a co-equal branch of government (“stupid” and “completely political”).

Perhaps unsurprising given what Grennell describes of Andrew Cuomo's character, the Governor faces increasing pressure to own up to the negative elements of his administration's performance during the coronavirus pandemic. Politics abhors the vacuum created by blatant hypocrisy, and Governor Cuomo's pandemic book promotion and Emmy award have flooded New York's political atmosphere with it.

21 November 2020: Backlash For Governor Cuomo's Emmy Award

'Best Actor?': Andrew Cuomo slammed after announcement he will receive Emmy Award for coronavirus leadership

The report describes some of the reaction to Governor Cuomo's Emmy award.

21 November 2020: News/Entertainment Industry Sucks Up to Governor Cuomo With Emmy Award

Andrew Cuomo To Receive International Emmy For 'Masterful' COVID-19 Briefings

The International Academy of Television Arts and Sciences broke with all precedent to provide a sitting politician Governor Andrew Cuomo with a public relations boost by awarding the Governor for his coronavirus broadcasts, despite the Governor's ongoing lack of transparency and candor regarding coronavirus-related deaths of nursing home residents under his administration's policies. Pulitzer prize award winning journalist Walter Duranty, who viewed and concealed Josef Stalin's Ukrainian genocide by starvation in the 1930s, could not be reached for comment.

20 November 2020: Excess Deaths Reveal Hidden Problems at Nursing Homes

Not just COVID: Nursing home neglect deaths surge in shadows

This article explores nursing home deaths beyond COVID-19, with some startling findings pointing to failures of both ethics and oversight. Starting with excess deaths:

A nursing home expert who analyzed data from the country’s 15,000 facilities for The Associated Press estimates that for every two COVID-19 victims in long-term care, there is another who died prematurely of other causes. Those “excess deaths” beyond the normal rate of fatalities in nursing homes could total more than 40,000 since March.

These extra deaths are roughly 15 percent more than you’d expect at nursing homes already facing tens of thousands of deaths each month in a normal year.

The analysis was provided the University of California's Institute of Aging's Stephen Kaye, who also found that many of these excess deaths took place at nursing homes where COVID-19 ran rampant:

Comparing mortality rates at homes struck by COVID-19 with ones that were spared, Kaye also found that the more the virus spread through a home, the greater the number of deaths recorded for other reasons. In homes where at least 3 in 10 residents had the virus, for example, the rate of death for reasons besides the virus was double what would be expected without a pandemic.

That suggests the care of those who didn’t contract the virus may have been impacted as healthcare workers were consumed attending to residents ill from COVID-19 or were left short-handed as the pandemic infected employees themselves.

Official state policies like New York's 25 March 2020 directive that forced nursing homes to blindly admit COVID-19 patients without testing to determine whether or not they were still contagious amplified the situation described above. The death toll associated with the directive is therefore greater than the number of deceased nursing home residents who tested positive for COVID-19.

The article also cites the state-mandated prohibition on visits by family members, which contributed to a deteriorating level of care provided to nursing home residents. Since family members both provide additional care for residents and take action to prevent neglect when observed, their state government-mandated absence ensured that the declining quality of care in these facilities went undetected. Governor Cuomo provided a shield of legal immunity for neglect to New York's nursing homes operators, many of whom are counted among his campaign contributors, during the pandemic.

19 November 2020: Opinion - Governor Cuomo's Hostile and Evasive Conduct Is Wrecking His Positive Image

Cuomo is obliterating his own (undeserved) COVID hero myth

The media has started noticing that Governor Cuomo's evasive and combative behavior in recent press conferences is aimed at obstructing their efforts to get information about state government policies.

18 November 2020: New Outbreak of COVID Infections at NY Nursing Home

COVID-19 Outbreak Recorded at Nursing Home

A new outbreak of at least 10 people associated with a nursing home in Montgomery County, New York (in the Mohawk Valley region of the state) has been reported. The outbreak comes as coronavirus infections are surging once more in the northeastern U.S.

18 November 2020: Governor Cuomo Gifted With Pay Raise

RAISE A STINK ‘Highest-paid governor’ Andrew Cuomo set to get $25,000 raise despite nursing home scandal & NY’s mixed Covid response

Governor Cuomo is set to get a raise, even though New York's state government revenues have plummeted and the Cuomo administration's continuing nursing home death scandal.

12 November 2020: 100 Days of Cuomo Administration NY DOH Stonewalling

100 Days later: Still no answers on nursing home patient deaths in NY

WRGB Albany's Greg Floyd marks the passage of 100 days since the Cuomo administration promised to make its coronavirus-related data on New York's nursing home residents available to the public:

It was back on August 3 that Commissioner Zucker was grilled at a legislative hearing by lawmakers of both parties about the directive and the department’s lack of transparency.

While we know that more than 6,600 residents died inside nursing homes, what we don’t know is how many nursing homes residents were sent to hospitals and died there. Democrats and Republicans are demanding that DOH release those figures, but DOH refuses to do so. Dr. Zucker promised frustrated lawmakers that he would reveal the numbers, but not until he was satisfied they were accurately compiled. Weeks ago Governor Cuomo provided a glimmer of hope when he said “It's not like there's a back room anywhere here, where we go back and we look at numbers and secret data. Whatever I know, I tell New Yorkers. Whatever the factors are, I tell New Yorkers.”

Immediately after that statement we contacted the Governor’s office, asking again for the full nursing home numbers, but our request was not answered.

So that brings us to today – we have started what we call the Zucker Counter, to track the total number of days the Commissioner has refused to release the numbers. The Zucker Counter now stands at 100 days – it will keep spinning until we get the numbers New Yorkers are waiting to hear.

How high will the "Zucker Counter" rise before Governor Cuomo acknowledges the extent of the coronavirus nursing home tragedy that occurred while his administration's 25 March 2020 directive was in effect?

7 November 2020: Where's the Promised Data on NY COVID Nursing Home Deaths?

Back on 1 September 2020, the Cuomo administration indicated it would make the state's coronavirus-related data on nursing home residents available to the public on 5 November 2020. No data was released on that date, nor has any data been released as of this update. Governor Andrew Cuomo's "disappointingly disingenuous" stonewalling continues.

2 November 2020: Editorial - Time for Team Cuomo's 'Data Dodge' to End

Cuomo’s data dodge: The governor needs to share New York’s actual nursing home COVID-19 death total

The editorial board of the New York Daily News opens up about their frustration with the Cuomo administration's stonewalling efforts.

Gov. Cuomo and the state Health Department are still failing to deliver on months' old promises to release the true tally of nursing home residents killed by COVID. The fact that some seeking the data have political motives is no excuse for stonewalling.

The official nursing home toll stands near 6,700 New Yorkers. But that only includes residents who died inside nursing homes, not the potentially thousands more who died after being transferred to hospitals.

The missing figures have not made legitimate questions disappear. Instead, the stalling only damages the credibility Cuomo and state health officials earned by capably handling the virus. Cuomo’s mantra-like repetition that New York ranks low among states in nursing home deaths as a share of total deaths, when he well knows that a fuller death count could change that statistic, is disappointingly disingenuous.

28 October 2020: U.S. DOJ Responds to Cuomo Stonewall by Ramping Up Investigation

Justice Department ramps up inquiry into NY care home deaths

This report describes the DOJ's expanded effort to get the nursing home coronavirus data it requested, which the Cuomo administration has been stonewalling on providing.

The U.S. Justice Department vastly expanded an inquiry Wednesday that could determine whether New York is undercounting coronavirus deaths among nursing home residents, demanding detailed data from hundreds of private facilities.

The demand ratchets up pressure on Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo after months of bipartisan criticism that the state’s official tally of 6,722 dead at long-term care facilities is probably off by thousands. That’s because New York, unlike nearly every other state, counts only residents who died on a nursing home’s property and not those who died after being taken to a hospital.

Cuomo’s administration has repeatedly refused to release such nursing home data to lawmakers and the media, including a public-records request from The Associated Press dating back to May.

This step indicates how seriously this matter is being taken by the DOJ, which will now dedicate more resources to its investigation. In refusing to cooperate with the DOJ's request for information within a reasonable period of time, the Cuomo administration has all but ensured this action, as the DOJ will no longer rely upon administration officials to obtain the information its independent investigators seek.

25 October 2020: Cuomo Benefited from "Quid pro Cuomo" Ads by NY Hospital Industry

Hospitals gave Gov. Andrew Cuomo a campaign booster shot: Devine

Miranda Devine's opinion column reviews OpenTheBooks' audit of campaign contributions to Governor Cuomo, in which the nonpartisan fiscal watchdog describes a pay-to-play relationship between contributors and the Governor. Devine focuses on the 'in-kind' support provided by the Greater New York Hospital Association.

When the pandemic hit in March, the association successfully lobbied the Cuomo administration to transfer COVID-positive patients to nursing homes to relieve pressure on hospitals.

Despite warnings from doctors that the move represented “a clear and present danger” to other nursing home residents, Cuomo issued his directive March 25, while federally provided beds in the Javits Center and USNS Comfort hospital ship mainly lay empty.

As we now know, the directive was a death sentence for an estimated 15,000 nursing home residents.

With the move proving to be a legal and public-relations nightmare, the association again struck gold when it lobbied for a budget provision limiting the ability of COVID-19 victims to file malpractice suits against hospitals and nursing homes.

Well satisfied with its investment in the governor, the association then spent millions on TV advertising that praised Cuomo’s management of the pandemic.

You could call the ads a quid pro Cuomo.

23 October 2020: Cuomo's Pandemic Leadership Book Silent on Number of COVID Nursing Home Deaths

Coronavirus Book: How Many Nursing Home Residents Died in New York

ProPublica's analysis delivers some pretty brutal observations:

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s latest book, “American Crisis: Leadership Lessons From the COVID-19 Pandemic,” went on sale this month. Its publisher has hailed the governor’s courageous honesty.

“Real leadership, he shows, requires clear communication, compassion for others, and a commitment to truth-telling — no matter how frightening the facts may be,” one bit of advertising for the book reads.

Here’s one hard truth Cuomo has still yet to tell: how many New York nursing home residents have died of COVID-19.

Nine months into the pandemic, and three months after his health commissioner testified that he was hard at work counting nursing home deaths, Cuomo has not announced the grim total.

The article indicates the Cuomo administration transferred some 6,400 COVID-19 patients from hospitals to nursing homes in New York without testing to confirm whether or not they might still be contagious. It is quite possible a similar number of nursing home patients who became infected by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus introduced by these patients were moved in the opposite direction to hospitals where they died.

We think that avoiding political accountability and legal liability for those deaths is the most plausible explanation for Governor Cuomo's screaming silence on that subject in his book.

18 October 2020: Why a Nonpartisan Think Tank Sued Team Cuomo for NY Nursing Home Death Data

Churchill: The continuing quest for truth about NY's nursing home deaths

Another Chris Churchill column, which includes a discussion with Bill Hammond, the director of health policy for the Empire Center for Public Policy. The Center filed a lawsuit in the past week seeking public data records New York's health department has collected on COVID-19 illnesses and deaths among patients who resided in New York nursing homes in 2020 and has been refusing to provide to all those filing freedom of information requests for it:

Notably, the lawsuit does not even mention the controversial March 25 state order directing nursing homes to accept COVID-19 patients. And when I talked with Bill Hammond, the Empire Center's director of health policy, he said too much has been made of the mandate by some critics of the governor. He was being very fair.

Hammond also said he initially didn't think the state's flawed nursing home count mattered all that much. That changed when he saw Cuomo and other officials using the partial count to suggest, in response to criticism of the mandate, that New York had done better at protecting nursing home residents from COVID-19 than other states.

"That drove me up a tree," Hammond told me. "They said it over and over again fully knowing it wasn't true."

Then Hammond watched in dismay as the Department of Health used the undercount in a joke of a report (my words, not Hammond's) that claimed the March 25 order was not a factor in nursing home fatalities. The report was not only bad science, but troubling evidence of the health department being used to shine the governor's star.

According to New York's official count, 6,600 nursing home residents died of COVID-19. Hammond, after analyzing death and nursing home occupancy rates, puts the actual toll at 10,000 and up — equal to at least 10 percent of the state's nursing home population.

"That is a public health catastrophe," Hammond said. "It demands our absolute attention, so we understand how we could have prevented it and what we can do to prevent it next time."

Hammond's estimate of total coronavirus nursing home deaths is consistent with the lower end of the range we've seen in the past several months.

18 October 2020: A Casket Full of Cuomo's Pandemic Leadership Books

Casket outside Brooklyn nursing home filled with 6,500 covers of Cuomo’s book

The 6,500 book covers represent the state's official count of COVID nursing home deaths, which most honest observers indicate is several thousand short of the full toll.

The protestors also faulted Governor Cuomo for stonewalling an independent investigation of his administration's coronavirus nursing home policies:

But Brooklyn protest organizer Peter Arbeeny griped at the rally — where about a dozen people added photos of their lost loved ones to the casket — that Cuomo “hasn’t given us an independent investigation [into the alleged nursing-home debacle] so we can get to the truth.

“The families in front of you deserve to know the truth,” said Arbeeny, whose 89-year-old Korean War veteran father, Norman, was among the at least 56 people to die from COVID-19 at the Brooklyn facility.

18 October 2020: Brooklyn Protests for Cuomo Nursing Home Deaths

Protesters Rally in Brooklyn, Blame Cuomo for Thousands of Nursing Home COVID-19 Deaths

This article features the following observation from one of the protestors:

"Any pandemic plan, which we spent a billion dollars on here in New York, would say 'protect the most vulnerable population,' first thing you do. Here's the most vulnerable population—nursing homes, like Cobble Hill Health Center. And we didn't do that. In fact, we did just the opposite,” said one demonstrator.

17 October 2020: Cuomo "We're No. 46" in Nursing Home Deaths Claim Rated "Mostly False"

Cuomo's claim on nursing home deaths not whole story

PolitiFact rates Governor Cuomo's 30 September 2020 claim that "we're No. 46 out of 50 states... we're 46th in terms of percentage of deaths in nursing homes" as "Mostly False". In giving the claim such a positive assessment, PolitiFact is showing its political bias in weirdly giving credit to the Governor for citing statistics that reference the state's official figures, which is really strange because those figures are widely viewed as greatly understating the COVID death toll among those who resided at New York's nursing homes in 2020. PolitiFact also ignores the Governor's role in stonewalling bipartisan calls for both independent investigations and the release of deceased nursing home patient data.

The "Mostly False" rating by PolitiFact really says quite a lot about its political bias. As independent analysts, we would rate the claim somewhere between "Entirely False" and "Pinochio's Nose Just Extended to the Moon and His Pants Are on Fire". Eventually, a fuller accounting of COVID-19 deaths among New York nursing home residents will come out and we'll find out who is better at honestly evaluating these claims.

16 October 2020: Opinion - Cuomo's Pandemic Leadership Book Undermined by Critical Omissions

Churchill: Failings of Cuomo's new book outweigh its charms

Times Union columnist Chris Churchill gives his take on Governor Cuomo's untimely coronavirus book release, finding the governor's book isn't telling anything close to the truth of what happened in the state. Here's a short sample of the review:

In the book, Cuomo cites a discredited state report blaming employees for introducing the virus to nursing homes. He suggests nursing homes didn't actually take in COVID patients, though his own health department says more than 6,300 were transferred to them.

Worse, he uses a bogus number to falsely claim, once again, that New York ranks low in the percentage of overall deaths tied to nursing homes.

As many of you know, the state's official nursing home tally of more than 6,600 fatalities is a significant undercount that excludes residents who ultimately died in hospitals. Other states don't count nursing home deaths that way, and, despite numerous requests and even a lawsuit, Cuomo has refused to release the honest number.

And you won't find it in his book.

14 October 2020: Cuomo Pandemic "Leadership" Book Short on Addressing Mistakes

Cuomo's book on NY pandemic outbreak short on state missteps

This AP report finds Governor Andrew Cuomo's book "American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic" is short on new information, especially regarding mistakes made by his administration.

13 October 2020: Governor Cuomo Denies Panic in Issuing Deadly Directive

Today show interview between Governor Andrew Cuomo and Willie Geist - This interview is significant in that after denying the existence of his administration's 25 March 2020 directive to force nursing homes to blindly accept COVID patients without testing to determine if they were still contagious, which we archived here before New York's Department of Health later scrubbed it from their web server on 26 May 2020, he is now also denying the reason why he signed off on the policy:

"Would my Health Department have followed the federal guidance? Obviously not, knowing the political issue it was going to create. But there was no issue in reality is what I'm saying... because we never did have a scarcity of beds. We always had additional hospital beds and emergency beds, so no nursing home was forced to take someone. We never got there."

Here's a link to that portion of the video of the interview.

Based on his contemporary statements and actions in March 2020, April 2020, and May 2020, we think it is clear he did not believe that was true at the time. If he and other officials in his administration had really believed there was no issue with a scarcity of beds at the time, the https://cuomo-nursing-homes-timeline.blogspot.com/2020/03/25-march-2020.html would never have been issued.

13 October 2020: Cuomo Blames NY Post and GOP for NY Nursing Home Deaths Controversy

Cuomo blames GOP, NY Post for controversy over nursing home COVID-19 deaths

Governor Cuomo has written a book, which is hitting bookstores this month, in which he claims his political opposition and the newspaper that broke the story for the nursing home deaths that occurred while his 25 March 2020 directive forcing nursing homes to admit patients known to carry coronavirus infections without any testing to verify if they were still contagious was in effect are the ones responsible for the ensuing scandal. That would be the ongoing scandal for which his administration is stonewalling both bipartisan calls for independent investigations and for a full accounting of coronavirus-related deaths among the state's nursing home residents.

This report is also significant because it sets an upper estimate of 13,000 on the total number of COVID-19 deaths among nursing home residents in New York, based on the number of unfilled beds those facilities have today. Governor Cuomo and his administration have only officially acknowledged approximately 6,700 deaths at this time.

3 October 2020: Editorial: Cuomo Engaged in Nursing Home "Deception"

Andrew Cuomo's latest nursing home deception

The New York Post's editorial board weighed in here on the Governor's latest public relations tactic of making false claims and attempting to rewrite history to hide the role of Governor Cuomo's policies in contributing to coronavirus deaths among New York's nursing home residents.

2 October 2020: Opinion - Governor Cuomo's "Memory-Hole"

Andrew Cuomo is shamelessly trying to memory-hole his coronavirus nursing home fiasco

This opinion column homes in on a possible motive for Governor Cuomo's latest claim: "It's no surprise that Cuomo continues to dismiss concerns over the nursing home fiasco. He's got a reputation to protect." It also notes that he has a book coming out in less than two weeks, where the continuing scandal of the governor's nursing home scandal will contradict his claims of effectively leadership.

2 October 2020: Cuomo News Media Cheerleader Finds Cuomo Claim False

Facts First: Gov. Cuomo falsely claims New York nursing homes 'never needed' to take in Covid-positive patients

News network CNN, which employs Governor Cuomo's brother in a prominent prime-time editorial role and which has frequently provided Governor Cuomo with a "safe space" to advance his agenda, responded to the Governor's latest claim with a fact check, finding his claims to be false.

2 October 2020: Governor Cuomo Claims "It Never Happened"

'It never happened': Cuomo denies causing 6,500 nursing home deaths

This report describes Governor Andrew Cuomo's latest tactic to try to distance himself from his administration's disastrous coronavirus nursing home policies: bald-faced denial.

25 September 2020: Massachusetts Veterans Home Administrators Criminally Charged for 'Deadly Decision'

Two Officials Charged for 'Deadly Decision' at Holyoke Soldier's Home

The "two official charged" are former Superintendent Bennett Walsh and former Medical Director David Clinton of the Holyoke Soldiers' Home in Massachusetts. Under their direction, the 247-bed Massachusetts government-run facility for poor, sick veterans deliberately mixed coronavirus-infected and non-infected patients in close proximity, ensuring COVID-19 would spread among the vulnerable, non-infected patients and staff like "fire through dry grass", ultimately leading to 76 patient deaths.

Their decision has been described by Massachusetts' prosecutors as reckless. In practice, it is virtually indistinguishable from what occurred in New York's nursing homes under the Cuomo administration's 25 March 2020 directive to force nursing homes in their jurisdiction to blindly admit coronavirus-infected patients without any testing to verify whether they were still infectious, which contributed to New York's worst-in-the-nation COVID-19 death toll.

The criminal charges filed in Massachusetts illustrate the kind of legal liability risk that Governor Andrew Cuomo and members of his administration may face in New York, which contributes to their motives to stonewall the release of public records documenting what happened in New York's nursing homes while their 25 March 2020 directive was in effect and to either prevent or obstruct independent investigations of it.

25 September 2020: Team Cuomo Knew Nursing Homes Were Hotbeds for Spreading Viral Infections

Inspections Found Nursing Home Lapses as COVID-19 Raged in NY

This report blows the lid off any claims the Cuomo administration did not know that nursing homes were failing prevent patients and staff from spreading coronavirus infections during the period Governor Cuomo's deadly 25 March 2020 directive forcing nursing homes to admit coronavirus patients was in effect.

24 September 2020: NY State Senate Wants Cuomo Administration's Data

State Senate seeks full accounting of COVID-19 nursing home deaths under Cuomo

This article reports on "separate pieces of legislation from both sides of the aisle" that seek to get a true accounting of the coronavirus death toll in New York's nursing homes, overturning the "loophole" Governor Cuomo's administration is using to minimize the tally.

23 September 2020: Team Cuomo Stalling Release of Public Data on NY COVID Nursing Home Deaths

50 Days later: Still waiting on number of nursing home patient deaths in NY

On 3 August 2020, New York State Department of Health Commissioner Howard Zucker testified he would release public records related to the number of patients at New York nursing homes who were transferred to hospitals and subsequently died. This editorial notes that the Cuomo administration official has taken no action since to provide any of it to the public.

18 September 2020: Governor Cuomo and the Hospital Lobbyists

The Hospital Lobbyists Behind Cuomo's Nursing Home Scandal

The report explores Governor Cuomo's relationship with a nursing home lobbyist group.

16 September 2020: Growing Bipartisan Calls for Cuomo Administration to Come Clean

Sen. James Tedisco pressures Cuomo to disclose COVID-19 nursing home deaths

This article describes the growing bipartisan calls for the Cuomo administration to stop stonewalling the release public records related to the governor's nursing home scandal as several state politicians have teamed up to launch a petition drive for an independent probe of the Cuomo administration's actions.

15 September 2020: Cuomo Administration Yields to Pressure by Families to Visit Nursing Homes

Cuomo relaxes COVID-19 nursing home restrictions amid protests

This article reports on the lifting of some of Governor Cuomo's more odious restrictions his administration imposed that have prevented family members from visiting their relatives in New York's nursing homes since March.

14 September 2020: Cuomo Administration Using Legal Loopholes to Stonewall Nursing Home Probes

Foiling transparency: The Cuomo administration leans on an old excuse to withhold information on COVID deaths

This editorial describes how the Cuomo administration uses loopholes in the state's Freedom of Information Laws to stonewall requests for public records.

13 September 2020: NY Families Want Accountability, To Visit Relatives in Nursing Homes

Protesters call on Andrew Cuomo to take responsibility for nursing home deaths and demand families be able to visit patients

This report covers a protest by a "couple dozen" protestors outside Governor Cuomo's Manhattan office.

11 September 2020: Governor Cuomo's Coronavirus Pandemic Leadership Under Fire

In Worst-Hit Covid State, New York’s Cuomo Called All the Shots

This report dives into how the decisions for which Governor Cuomo has full responsibility contributed to making New York the worst-hit state for the coronavirus pandemic.

10 September 2020: Opinion - Governor Cuomo's COVID Nursing Home Death Scandal Is Very Real

Nursing Home Scandal Undercuts Cuomo's Covid Boasts

This op-ed recounts how COVID-19 became a runaway killer in New York's nursing homes under the policies of Governor Cuomo's administration and notes the bipartisan criticism of his actions to cover their results.

9 September 2020: Editorial - Cuomo "Going Off the Rails" in Evasion Campaign

Andrew Cuomo going off the rails under the stress of NY’s pandemic woes

Governor Cuomo has recently ramped up his campaign of evasion of responsibility to now blame President Trump for the coronavirus arriving in the U.S. This editorial takes Governor Cuomo to task for that claim and other poorly considered actions.

9 September 2020: Cuomo Administration Responds to U.S. DOJ Request for Nursing Home Death Data

Nursing home mortality remains focus of FBI's Cuomo probe

This timeline entry is based on information that was reported on 6 June 2021, indicating the time, but not the content of the Cuomo administration's response to the U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division's request for New York's public COVID nursing home death data:

The Cuomo administration has declined to release its correspondence with the Justice Department. It is, however, known that those exchanges included a Sept. 9 letter that was signed by a state Department of Health attorney in response to the federal agency's Aug. 26 demand letter.

That secrecy has also prompted tumultuous exchanges between Cuomo's office and the Legislature, which had requested similar records since last August.

Related entries from the timeline:

• 26 August 2020: DOJ Seeks Nursing Home Death Data from COVID Patient Dumping States

6 September 2020: Frustrated New Yorker Flies 'The Gov Killed Nana' Banner

‘The gov killed Nana’ banner flies over NYC, LI beaches to troll Gov. Andrew Cuomo

We didn't expect there would be much new information on this story over Labor Day weekend, but this one surprised us. Someone hired a small plane to tow a banner over New York City and the beaches of Long Island with the statement "THE GOV KILLED NANA" written on it. Follow the link to the story to see the mobile phone video of the plane in flight.

Here's an excerpt from the report describing how the trolling flight was received:

One Rockaway beachgoer told The Post the plane flew by around 4 p.m. as observers stopped to take pictures and applauded the message.

“The people were going crazy," the beachgoer said. “[Cuomo] is nothing but a liar, condescending and miserable person. His carelessness caused the death of a lot of people unnecessarily."

2 September 2020: Editorial - Team Cuomo’s "Ridiculous Nursing-Home-Death Dodge"

Team Cuomo’s latest ridiculous nursing-home-death dodge

This editorial takes on the Cuomo administration's claim that it cannot locate the records related to nursing home COVID-19 infections and deaths until two days after the state's upcoming elections. It also confirms that New York's Health Insurance Commissioner testified before state legislators that he had all the information back on 3 August 2020.

1 September 2020: Cuomo Administration Accused of Stonewalling True Count of Nursing Home Deaths

Cuomo admin accused of stonewalling over COVID-19 nursing home death tally

This report covers the Empire Center for Public Policy's effort to obtain data from the Cuomo administration that quantifies the full death tally of nursing home residents from the coronavirus. The government watchdog group reveals the state is sitting on far more data related to COVID-19 nursing-home related infections and deaths and rejects its claims that it cannot make the records available until November 5, 2020, two days after upcoming statewide elections:

“The state Health Department is offering a new explanation for why it won’t provide the full death toll of coronavirus in nursing homes: it can’t find the records," said Bill Hammond, a health analyst for the Empire Center who submitted the legal request for the data in early August.

In a response letter sent to Hammond on Monday, the department said it could not yet fulfill the request “because a diligent search for relevant documents is still being conducted."

“We estimate that this Office will complete its process by November 5, 2020. The Department will notify you in writing when/if the responsive materials are available for release or if the time needed to complete your request extends beyond the above date," said the department’s record access officer, Rosemary Hewig.

The independent, nonpartisan, and non-profit organization indicates the state's Health Department's claim is disingenuous and describes how out-of-the-ordinary it is:

The delayed compliance in releasing information in response to legal requests has been a common practice of government agencies, with officials often saying they are still conducting a “diligent search" for records.

“In this case, however, a search of any kind should not be necessary," Hammond said in a blog post.

He said the department’s Health Emergency Response Data System (or HERDS) has required nursing homes to file daily reports throughout the pandemic — including counts of all residents who die from coronavirus, both within the facilities or hospitals or elsewhere.

“Those numbers are the basis for the partial count that the department does make public – which stood at 6,639 as of Aug. 29, but omits potentially thousands of residents who died in hospitals," Hammond said.

Hammond said the “unusual methodology" is used by few if any other states and gives the public a “distorted picture of the pandemic."

We think that given these circumstances, the failure of Governor Cuomo's administration to respond in a timely manner to the group's request for the public information under the state's Freedom Of Information Law, can legitimately be claimed to be stonewalling.

31 August 2020: Cuomo Claims DOJ's Nursing Home Probe Is Politically Motivated

Cuomo Calls Nursing Home Probe Politically Motivated

This article covers Governor Cuomo's continuing campaign to avoid independent scrutiny of how his administration's policies affected the spread of COVID-19 in New York's nursing homes and subsequent coronavirus-related deaths in those facilities by claiming calls for third party investigation are partisan politics.

30 August 2020: Opinion - Cuomo Can't Hide from Nursing Home Calamity

Cuomo can’t hide from his nursing home coronavirus calamity (opinion)

This opinion piece by Staten Island columnist Tom Wrobleski succinctly describes New York Governor Andrew Cuomo's political strategy to avoid responsibility related to his administration's coronavirus nursing home policies during the last several months:

Ask Gov. Andrew Cuomo about the tragic number of deaths we saw among New York nursing home patients during the coronavirus pandemic, and he’ll shout that you’re playing politics.

The governor obviously believes that if he pushes back loud and often enough on the issue, critics will either start to believe him or will be cowed into silence.

But Cuomo can’t bully his way out of this one. There are too many families who have lost loved ones and who want answers.

There are too many New York lawmakers, Democrats included, who know that launching a real investigation is the right thing to do.

Wrobleski also tears apart elements of the various defenses Cuomo has offered during the past several months using examples of the Governor's contradictions that may not be well known outside New York.

26 August 2020: DOJ Seeks Nursing Home Death Data from COVID Patient Dumping States

Department of Justice Requesting Data From Governors of States that Issued COVID-19 Orders that May Have Resulted in Deaths of Elderly Nursing Home Residents

This press release from the U.S. Department of Justice indicates that Governor Cuomo (New York), along with Governor Phil Murphy (New Jersey), Tom Wolf (Pennsylvania), and Gretchen Whitmer (Michigan) and their administrations will be investigated for their coronavirus nursing home admission policies. Here is an extended excerpt:

Today the Justice Department requested COVID-19 data from the governors of states that issued orders which may have resulted in the deaths of thousands of elderly nursing home residents. New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Michigan required nursing homes to admit COVID-19 patients to their vulnerable populations, often without adequate testing.

For example, on March 25, 2020, New York ordered: “No resident shall be denied re-admission or admission to [a nursing home] solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19. [Nursing homes] are prohibited from requiring a hospitalized resident who is determined medically stable to be tested for COVID-19 prior to admission or readmission."

“Protecting the rights of some of society’s most vulnerable members, including elderly nursing home residents, is one of our country’s most important obligations," said Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Division Eric Dreiband. “We must ensure they are adequately cared for with dignity and respect and not unnecessarily put at risk."

According to the Centers for Disease Control, New York has the highest number of COVID-19 deaths in the United States, with 32,592 victims, many of them elderly. New York’s death rate by population is the second highest in the country with 1,680 deaths per million people. New Jersey’s death rate by population is 1,733 deaths per million people – the highest in the nation. In contrast, Texas’s death rate by population is 380 deaths per million people; and Texas has just over 11,000 deaths, though its population is 50 percent larger than New York and has many more recorded cases of COVID-19 – 577,537 cases in Texas versus 430,885 cases in New York. Florida’s COVID-19 death rate is 480 deaths per million; with total deaths of 10,325 and a population slightly larger than New York.

The Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division is evaluating whether to initiate investigations under the federal “Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act" (CRIPA), which protects the civil rights of persons in state-run nursing homes, among others. The Civil Rights Division seeks to determine if the state orders requiring admission of COVID-19 patients to nursing homes is responsible for the deaths of nursing home residents.

On March 3, 2020, the Attorney General announced the Justice Department’s National Nursing Home Initiative. This is a comprehensive effort by the department, led by the Elder Justice Initiative and in strong partnership with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that uses every available tool to pursue nursing homes that provide substandard care to their residents.

Here is the press release announcing the DOJ's National Nursing Home Initiative, which in being issued on 3 March 2020, clearly predates any of the coronavirus-motivated policies implemented in these states. The DOJ's announcement follows our 19 August 2020 analysis of the correlation of total deaths in each of these states with the timing of when their coronavirus nursing home forced admission policies were in effect. These are the only four states that adopted and sustained such admission policies for an extended period, which is why the DOJ is specifically demanding information from them.

For New York, we view this announcement as a major step toward a badly needed independent investigation of this situation, since Governor Cuomo and his administration have been stonewalling lawmakers and media demands for information about nursing home residents who died during the state's coronavirus epidemic.

21 August 2020: Editorial - Cuomo "Admits Guilt" by Hiding Public Data on NY COVID Nursing Home Deaths

If Cuomo won’t allow outside review of NY nursing home COVID-19 horror, he admits guilt

The New York Post's lays down the stakes for what Governor Cuomo's potential veto of a bipartisan bill in the state legislature to establish an independent investigation into the governor's 25 March 2020 coronavirus directive that exposed thousands of nursing home residents to fatal infections.

20 August 2020: Editorial - NY Lawmakers Need Truth Behind COVID Nursing Home Deaths

Lawmakers Need An Accurate Accounting Of What Happened In Nursing Homes

This editorial notes the growing bipartisan support for an independent investigation of the Cuomo administration's policies and their role in contributing to coronavirus nursing home deaths.

19 August 2020: Cuomo Rejects AP's Independent Analysis of NY COVID Nursing Home Deaths

Cuomo brushes back AP report of care home death undercount

Governor Cuomo is fighting back against the Associated Press' 11 August 2020 analysis that adds thousands more to the state's official total number of nursing home deaths attributed to COVID-19. The governor hasn't explained why the state is stonewalling media and state legislature requests for data on deceased nursing home residents during the state's coronavirus epidemic.

18 August 2020: Governor Cuomo's Pandemic Leadership Book Gets Publication Date

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo book on Covid-19 response out in October

Governor Andrew Cuomo will receive another boost from the media to try to sell his story of how he handled the coronavirus epidemic in New York state. Unfortunately for him, other, more honest parts of the media recognize he is actively engaged in peddling fiction, as can be seen in the following excerpt that concludes this article:

Cuomo has received some of his strongest criticism for the thousands of virus-related deaths at New York nursing homes. A recent AP investigation found that the state's death toll of nursing home patients, already among the highest in the nation, could be significantly more than reported. Unlike every other state with major outbreaks, only New York explicitly says that it counts just residents who died on nursing home property and not those who were transported to hospitals and died there.

So far, Cuomo's administration has declined to release the number. The governor has called criticism of nursing home deaths politically motivated.

The claims of a man now trying to sell a book.

17 August 2020: President Trump Criticizes Cuomo's Handling of COVID in New York Nursing Homes for First Time

Now AP estimates that the real Cuomo number of people killed because of his total incompetence is 11,000, not the 6000 that was originally thought!

This entry covering President Donald Trump's first documented criticism of Governor Andrew Cuomo's handling of COVID in New York nursing homes was inserted into the timeline on 7 May 2021. The text of President Trump's tweet above is taken from the Trump Twitter Archive, where the original tweet was posted at 11:26:41 PM Eastern Standard Time on 17 August 2020. This is the earliest criticism by President Trump of Governor Cuomo's handling of COVID in New York's nursing homes. The AP report that Trump cites was published nearly a week earlier, on 11 August 2020.

HT: Bill Hammond, who presents much more information in a 5 May 2021 Twitter thread.

14 August 2020: Opinion - Don't Let Cuomo Hide

Don't let Cuomo hide from his coronavirus nursing-home disaster

This opinion piece by Business Insider's Daniel L. Fisher directly contradicts Governor Cuomo's claim that criticism of his coronavirus nursing home policy is partisan and notes other contradictions in the governor's hostility toward an independent investigation of his administration's actions. Here's a key observation:

If he's certain his administration made no mistakes in ordering nursing homes to accept coronavirus patients, Cuomo should stop hiding and let the truth speak for itself in the form of an independent investigation.

Governor Cuomo's arguments against independent investigations of his administration's policies and actions during the coronavirus pandemic are not those of someone who truly believes their actions will stand up to serious scrutiny.

12 August 2020: Governor Cuomo Rejects Calls for Independent Investigation of Nursing Home Deaths

Cuomo: Independent probe of nursing home deaths unneeded

Governor Cuomo continues trying to choke off calls for an independent investigation of his policies' role in contributing to New York's worst-in-the-U.S. coronavirus-related death count.

12 August 2020: Opinion - Cuomo Administration Called Out for Stonewalling

Churchill: The number Andrew Cuomo doesn't want you to know

This op-ed describes how differently New York is counting the number of coronavirus-related deaths from other states to keep its official count low.

12 August 2020: NY Health Commissioner Stonewalls Legislators, Denies PPE Shortages at Nursing Homes

New York State health leader gives no answer on nursing home deaths

Howard Zucker, New York's top public health official, continued stonewalling on reporting the true number of nursing home deaths in New York during testimony before a joint coronavirus review committee of New York's legislature.

NY Health Commissioner Dismisses Media Reports of PPE Shortages

Cuomo administration member Zucker also sought to deny the state failed to ensure nursing homes had adequate supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE) to protect staff and residents against coronavirus infections, contradicting multiple media reports (just scroll up) during the state's coronavirus epidemic.

Relatives Of Nursing Home Residents Speak Out At Hearing

Families of nursing home residents who died during the state's coronavirus epidemic point to the Cuomo administration's 25 March 2020 directive as a primary reason for their elderly, sick relatives becoming infected by the deadly virus.

11 August 2020: COVID Patient Dumping Into Nursing Homes Confirmed

Local Officials Say a Nursing Home Dumped Residents to Die at Hospitals

This report describes how at least one New York City nursing home dumped its coronavirus-infected patients at hospitals where they subsequently died during the period when Governor Cuomo's disastrous 25 March 2020 directive was in effect. New York's official statistics do not include these deaths in its count of coronavirus-related deaths at the state's nursing homes.

11 August 2020: Cuomo Administration Stonewalling on COVID Deaths of Nursing Home Residents

New York’s true nursing home death toll cloaked in secrecy

This report describes the stonewalling the Cuomo administration is using to prevent the full extent of coronavirus-related nursing home deaths in New York during the period its deadly 25 March 2020 directive was in effect from becoming known to the public. The report indicates the state's official total, which Governor Cuomo has frequently used to try to favorably compare New York's performance to other states, really represents a significant undercount of the actual total of cases.

Separately, the Associated Press' analysts project New York's real nursing home COVID death total could be in the ballpark of 11,000, quite a lot higher than the 6,400 that Governor Cuomo's administration has officially reported. AP's higher estimate assumes the average percentage of coronavirus-related nursing home fatalities recorded in all other states is the 44% reported in an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

11 August 2020: Why Janice Dean's Testimony Was Blocked

The Outrageous Reason NY Dems Stopped Janice Dean from Testifying at Monday's Nursing Home Hearing

This article follows up the story of how members of Governor Cuomo's political party blocked Fox News' meteorologist Janice Dean from testifying to the state assembly's joint committee meeting investigating the state's nursing home policies.

11 August 2020: Governor Cuomo Refuses Calls for Independent Investigation of Nursing Home Policies

Cuomo rejects calls for independent nursing home investigation, report says

This report describes Governor Cuomo continuing efforts to obstruct an independent investigation from being conducted into his administration's coronavirus epidemic nursing home policies.

10 August 2020: Pro-Cuomo Officials in State Legislature Block Victim's Testimony

Janice Dean: NY Democrats Stopped Me from Testifying at Nursing Home Hearing

Meteorologist Janice Dean's in-laws were exposed to the coronavirus in New York's nursing homes during the period the Cuomo administration's 25 March 2020 directive was in effect and subsequently died from the viral infection. She was scheduled to testify at state legislature hearings scheduled today but has been blocked from testifying by members of Governor Cuomo's political party.

10 August 2020: Editorial - Unanswered Questions After First Public Hearings

Why did they die? Questions that need to be answered as the state continues probing coronavirus nursing home fatalities

This editorial focuses on questions the Cuomo administration is seeking to dodge answering at hearings underway in the state legislature.

8 August 2020: Editorial - Cuomo Administration Lacks Transparency

Rising heat on nursing homes

This editorial slams the Cuomo administration's lack of transparency in fully quantifying the number of deaths that resulted from coronavirus infections at New York's nursing homes during the period where administration's 25 March 2020 directive forcing nursing homes to admit infected patients was in effect.

4 August 2020: Major NYC Health Official Resigns

N.Y.C. Health Commissioner Resigns After Clashes With Mayor Over Virus

This report covers the sudden resignation of one of the three "power public health officials of New York". The chips may be beginning to fall, though this particular chip may be specific to New York City.

4 August 2020: Vice President Criticizes Governor Cuomo's "Poor Decisions"

Pence rips Andrew Cuomo's 'poor decisions' on pandemic that led to nursing home deaths

This report describes U.S. Vice President Mike Pence's critical comments on Governor Cuomo's performance during the coronavirus pandemic, in which he notes that "1 in 5 of all the American lives that have been lost in the coronavirus pandemic were lost in the state of New York, and some of that was because of poor decisions by the state and by Gov. Cuomo".

3 August 2020: Nursing Home Legal Liability COVID Protections Partially Rolled Back

NY Rolls Back Legal Immunity for Hospitals, Nursing Homes

Governor Cuomo signed legislation restricting liability for non-COVID care at hospitals and nursing homes, undoing some of the immunity protection the governor sought and obtained in an April 2020 budget bill.

3 August 2020: Hearings Into Cuomo Nursing Home Policies Begin in NY Legislature

Cuomo official grilled on coronavirus nursing home deaths, secrecy

This report describes the first day of scheduled hearings on how Governor Cuomo and his administration's policies affected the spread coronavirus infections at nursing homes throughout the state of New York. The testimony of state health commissioner Howard Zucker confirms the role that coronavirus models had in shaping the administration's policies and directives affecting the state's nursing homes, but continued evading quantifying the full scope of deaths that resulted from coronavirus infections under those policies:

State Health Commissioner Howard Zucker defended the administration’s response Monday and said officials were worried about projections from global and federal public health experts that New York could have faced a surge of over 100,000 COVID-19 patients at once. He defended his agency’s recent report, which has been panned by academics, claiming that the original March 25 directive was not a “significant factor” in virus outbreaks.

But as the number of infections have plunged and plateaued in recent weeks in New York, lawmakers grew frustrated Monday as Zucker declined to provide key data points sought by Democrats and Republicans, including a rough estimate of how many nursing home residents have died in hospitals of COVID-19.

“I will not provide information that I have not ensured is absolutely accurate,” Zucker said. “This is too big an issue and it’s too serious an issue.”...

But lawmakers said the lack of transparency makes it hard to protect nursing homes during the crisis. They questioned why states like California are providing the kind of data sought by lawmakers and the public.

“It seems that what y’all are doing is just trying to minimize,” said Sen. Gustavo Rivera, Democrat and chair of the Committee on Health.

The lack of transparency from the Cuomo administration official, including identifying which state officials authored the state's controversial 25 March 2020 directive forcing nursing homes to admit infected coronavirus patients, will likely remain an issue.