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.

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.